AI Tool Tier List · Updated Daily
AI tools, ranked S to F.
Every tool tested, scored, and placed in its tier. We report the bugs, show the pricing traps, and tell you what actually works. No sponsored placements.
01 The Tier List
Top picks across 5 categories.
Last updated: Sep 21, 2026
02 Browse by Category
Find tools for exactly what you need.
03 Latest Reviews
Recently reviewed and updated.
Gemini (Google)
**Googlebook opened pre-orders 2026-09-21 at $899** -- a new laptop line built for on-device Gemini (Magic Pointer, Rambler dictation, Gemini Spark running with the lid closed) that bundles twelve months of Google AI Pro, shipping 10/04 in the US. **Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking launched 2026-09-15** -- native speech-to-speech models in the Gemini API at $0.005/min audio in and $0.018/min audio out (audio-in a tenth of GPT-Live-1's $0.05/min voice layer, and on the same price row as the older 3.1 Flash Live), with Extended Thinking taking the #1 spot on Artificial Analysis' Speech to Speech Quality Index (82.6) and rolling into Gemini Live, Search Live and Workspace Docs/Gmail/Keep. **Gemini app for Windows shipped 2026-09-10** (Alt+Space overlay, Google-app connectors, Gemini Spark on desktop) and the Sept 9 AI-plan refresh added Google Pics and Sheets canvas for AI Pro/Ultra plus Gemini Spark hooks into Chrome and Google Photos. Google's LLM with deep Google Workspace integration, 2M token context window, and native code execution -- **Gemini 3.8 Flash launched 2026-09-02** -- the third Flash release in six weeks -- at the SAME $0.75/$3.75 per 1M intro rate as 3.7 Flash and, critically, **on the same 2026-12-31 expiry** (then $1.50/$7.50), so the discount window did not reset. HLE-Verified 54.9%; Google warns it uses more tokens per task because it 'works harder', so cost per task can rise at an unchanged rate. **Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber** is trusted-defenders-only via the new **Fairwind Program**. Gemini 3.7 Flash (2026-08-13) remains fully supported for efficiency-first work. Gemini 3.5 Pro STILL delayed and partner-testing-only (Bloomberg, 7/16 -- coding shortfalls, no ship date), so Flash keeps shipping while the Pro line stalls. Gemini 4 pre-training underway. **Two new models in Aug 2026: Gemini 3.5 Transcribe (2026-08-26) speech-to-text and Gemini Omni 1.1 Flash (2026-08-27) production video with 40s scene extension, start/end frames and 4K** -- Transcribe's rate card has since appeared (about $0.005/min blended, verified 9/17); Omni 1.1 Flash's still has not
Grok
**Grok 4.7 launched 2026-09-21** -- SpaceXAI's new flagship for coding and knowledge work, built on a new larger base model than Grok 4.6 with a longer RL run on multi-hour tasks, served at the same $2/$6 per 1M (cached $0.50; long-context above 200k doubles to $4/$12) with a 500k window and a May 2026 cutoff. Day-one in Cursor, Grok Build, the xAI API **and GitHub Copilot (all five paid SKUs, auto-enabled unless admins opted out)**. Vendor charts put it at the price-performance frontier on CursorBench 4.0, but every score is chart-only, so no numbers here until xAI publishes a table. Also new: **memory in Grok Build (9/16)** -- background notes on conventions and decisions, read back in later sessions. **Grok 4.6 (8/12)** stays available at the same price; Grok 4.3 remains the value tier at $1.25/$2.50
Qwen (Alibaba)
**Qwen-Image-2.1 went open-weight (weights 2026-09-14, blog 2026-09-20)** -- a unified text-to-image and editing model with a 7B visual-generation component, native transparent (RGBA) output, up to 10 reference images and mask-guided local edits -- but under a **research-only licence, not Apache**: commercial use needs a separate licence from Alibaba. Alibaba's open-weights + API family, and August 2026 was its biggest open-release month yet: **Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95B -- the Max-class flagship -- went open-weight on 2026-08-08** (custom Qwen3.8-Max licence), **Qwen3.8-27B** dense landed Apache 2.0 (8/05), and **Qwen3.8-Flash-Next** (8/24 weights, 8/26 blog) previews the Qwen4 architecture: 125B main + 51B n-gram embeddings with only 6B active, served as Qwen3.8-Flash at $0.15/$0.47 per 1M. Qwen 3.7 Max remains the GA API flagship ($2.50/$7.50)
GitHub Copilot
**Grok 4.7 landed in Copilot on 2026-09-21, the day xAI launched it**, on all five paid SKUs and auto-enabled under the global model policy. **A second retirement slate in sixteen days: on 2026-10-19 GitHub removes Gemini 3.7 Flash, GPT-5.5, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 mini, GPT-5 mini and Grok 4.5** (successors Gemini 3.8 Flash, GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Grok 4.6), on top of the 10/02 slate. Copilot code review got a grouped Open / Resolved / Previously-missed overview, titled comments and resolution reasons (9/18); the impact dashboard now shows per-feature engagement and the metrics API reports CLI skills, custom agents, MCP servers and plugins (9/17); VS Code 1.138 adds local Dev Containers for agents. **Copilot budget increase requests went GA on 2026-09-16** (Business/Enterprise usage-based billing: hitting the credit cap now triggers a request an admin can approve in place instead of a hard block), and Copilot suggests allowed values for repository custom properties (9/15, public preview). **MAI-Code-1-Flash was retired on schedule 2026-09-10** (migrate to MAI-Code-1.1-Flash). Auto model selection now has **efficiency / balance / intelligence tiers** (9/14), enterprise admins can centrally block or gate agent shell/file/network operations (9/09), Copilot code review resolves its own addressed comments and runs shell tools plus an ensemble of agents (9/11), and the Copilot app got Jira, the CLI got HydraFusion routing and VS Code 1.137 got scheduled agent automations and a voice mode (9/10). AI code assistant that lives in your editor -- autocomplete on steroids, now with the broadest model picker of any coding tool. **Three frontier models landed in four days: Claude Fable 5.1 (2026-09-01), Gemini 3.8 Flash (2026-09-03) and GPT-6 Astra (2026-09-04)** -- Astra and Gemini auto-enable under default model enablement, but **Fable 5.1 is OFF by default because it requires data retention** to run Anthropic's safety classifiers. **A four-model deprecation slate hits 2026-10-02** (Gemini 3.5/3.6 Flash, Kimi K2.7 Code, Claude Opus 4.7), and **Business/Enterprise card/PayPal customers move to upfront per-seat charging on 2026-10-01**. **Gemini 3.7 Flash landed 2026-08-13 and Grok 4.6 on 2026-08-14**, both across Pro, Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise and both still off by default for orgs. **Claude Opus 5 landed 2026-07-24** (Pro+, Max, Business, Enterprise) and **Grok 4.5 on 2026-07-28** (all five paid SKUs, up to 500K context, text and image input, low/medium/high reasoning effort). Both bill usage-based at provider list price, and both are off by default for Business/Enterprise until an admin enables the policy -- though that posture flips on **2026-08-26**, when new GA models covered by GitHub's data-retention agreement start auto-enabling for orgs. **MAI-Code-1.1-Flash landed 2026-08-11** (native vision, 0.25x premium-request multiplier, 73% below the model it replaces; automatic for Free/Student, manual elsewhere, off by default for orgs) and **MAI-Code-1-Flash retires 2026-09-10**. **GitHub Models (the separate free playground) was fully retired 2026-07-30.** Usage-based billing went live 2026-06-01 with AI Credits and token metering; code completions are still free; new signups for Student/Pro/Pro+/Max remain PAUSED
Claude Code
Anthropic's terminal-based coding agent that reads your whole repo and makes real changes -- not just suggestions. **Claude Fable 5.1 (2026-09-01) is the top model and defaults to High effort in Claude Code specifically** -- Medium on every other Anthropic surface -- at an unchanged $10/$50 per 1M with cache reads cut 4x to $0.25/MTok. **Changelog pass (2026-09-21): 121 releases between 2.1.132 and 2.1.278 since the May 6 conference batch**, the ones that change how you buy or use it being agent view (5/11), Fable 5 (6/09), Sonnet 5 as default (6/30), Opus 5 (7/24), **AGENTS.md read when no CLAUDE.md exists (9/18)** and **auto mode moving to a server-side classifier with no classifier overhead charge (9/19)**. v2.1.131 (2026-05-06) shipped Code Review GA + Remote Agents + CI Auto-Fix + Routines
ChatGPT
**ChatGPT for Word arrived 2026-09-17 on every plan including Free** (Word joins Excel and PowerPoint in the same Microsoft add-in, drawing on the shared Codex usage allowance), plugins can now hold multiple accounts, and on 2026-09-21 Finances gained **Experian credit-score tracking** (Plus/Pro, US) plus a Privacy Center for Free/Go/Plus/Pro. **Astra for Law launched 2026-09-17** -- GPT-6 Astra configured for legal work with a 230M-URL legal search index and 26 partner-built legal plugins, offered first to selected law firms through Trusted Access in ChatGPT and Codex as 'GPT-6 Astra Law' (API id gpt-6-astra-law 'coming soon', no price published). **ChatGPT Images 2.5 shipped 2026-09-08** to every tier (Sketch, templates, up to 50% lower latency; API twins GPT-Image-2.5 Flare and Sunburst at the same $8/$30 per 1M as gpt-image-2), and on 2026-09-16 OpenAI began testing **Sponsored Agents** inside ChatGPT Ads with HubSpot and Shopify integrations, published a **misalignment-reporting framework** with six incident reports, and shipped usage and outcome analytics for ChatGPT Work and Codex admins. The chatbot that started the AI revolution. **GPT-6 Astra launched 2026-09-03** -- OpenAI's new flagship at $10/$50 per 1M (long-context $20/$75, Fast mode 2x, no Fast mode under EU data residency), rolling out to Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise within existing allowances, and the **first model OpenAI has ever designated Critical for cyber capability**. Enterprise access is off by default at launch. On 2026-08-06 the free tier changed materially: GPT-5.6 Luna becomes the default for Free and Go users with UNLIMITED text chats and a new Think button, while Plus/Pro get a retuned GPT-5.6 Sol in Chat plus an effort slider. GPT-5.6 went GA 2026-07-09 (Sol $5/$30 per 1M) and OpenAI CUT Luna 80% to $0.20/$1.20 and Terra 20% to $2/$12 on 2026-07-30. On 2026-08-13 OpenAI previewed **Ultrafast**, a Cerebras-powered API tier running GPT-5.6 Sol up to 14x faster (750 output tok/s) -- waitlisted, capacity-limited, and with no pricing published. Also now: Health in ChatGPT (7/23, US) and the ChatGPT Work agent (7/9)
04 Reviews you can actually trust
Every review is based on hands-on testing, cross-referenced user sentiment from G2, Reddit, and Capterra, and real pricing data. We report known bugs. We don't do paid placements.