Models / Best of /writing
Updated October 2026 · ranked from live data
Best models for writing
Ranked by our writing rating where we have one — how close each model sits to the board leader — then by recency. Right now the top pick is Claude Opus 5.5 (5/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 1 of 168 via High)). Every row links to full specs, hardware verdicts and provider pricing.
These placings come from people choosing which of two replies they would rather read — a preference vote, not a marked exam. A high placing means readers keep picking its prose over the alternatives; it does not grade accuracy or ideas, which is why every rating here names its board and field.
1Claude Opus 5.5Anthropic5/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 1 of 168 via High)—$4.00 / $20.00per 1M · via Anthropic2Claude Fable 5Anthropic4.5/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 2 of 168)—$10.00 / $50.00per 1M · via Anthropic3Gemini 3.8 FlashGoogle4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 6 of 168 via High)—$0.75 / $3.75per 1M · via Google AI4Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 4 of 168 via Max)—$10.00 / $50.00per 1M · via Anthropic5Gemini 3.7 FlashGoogle4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 3 of 168 via High)—$0.75 / $3.75per 1M · via Google AI6Qwen3.8 MaxQwen4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 12 of 168)—$2.00 / $6.00per 1M · via Novita AI7Claude Opus 5Anthropic4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 10 of 168 via High)—$5.00 / $25.00per 1M · via Anthropic8Gemini 3.6 FlashGoogle4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 9 of 168)—$0.75 / $3.75per 1M · via Google AI9Muse Spark 1.1Meta4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 14 of 168)—$1.25 / $4.25per 1M · via Meta10GPT-5.6 SolOpenAI4/5 writing (Arena Creative Writing, 11 of 168 via xHigh)—$2.00 / $10.00per 1M · via OpenAI
