State of AI · 2026-10-15
The AI race at a glance
Editorial picks by AIRaceBoard based on capability tier and price; not a benchmark score.
🏆 #1 overallClaude Fable 5.1🇺🇸 Anthropic$10 / $50 per 1M
🇺🇸 #1 AmericanGPT-6 Astra🇺🇸 OpenAI$10 / $50 per 1M
🇨🇳 #1 ChineseKimi K3🇨🇳 Moonshot AI$3 / $15 per 1M
🔓 #1 open modelKimi K3🇨🇳 Moonshot AI$3 / $15 per 1M
💻 #1 for codingClaude Opus 5.5🇺🇸 Anthropic$4 / $20 per 1M
💸 Cheapest goodDeepSeek V4.1 Flash🇨🇳 DeepSeek$0.3 / $1.2 per 1M
US vs China vs Europe
🇺🇸 United States14 modelsTop pick: GPT-6 Astra
🇨🇳 China8 modelsTop pick: Kimi K3
🇪🇺 Europe1 modelsTop pick: Mistral Small 4
What changed this week
- Gemini 4 Argon GA (Oct 13): intro $2/$10 per 1M through Nov 30, then $4/$20 (Google API pricing, checked Oct 15).
- China labs still quiet on new frontier drops since late August; US labs (Google Argon, Meta Muse Wonder) drove the week's news.
- Anthropic list prices updated Oct 7: Opus 5.5 $4/$20, Sonnet 5.5 $2/$10, Haiku 5.5 $0.10/$0.50.
- OpenAI GPT-6 family is current: Astra $10/$50, 6.1 Sol $2/$10, Luna $0.10/$0.50.
- Alibaba Qwen3.8-Max at $2/$6 (docs updated Oct 13).
- Kimi K3 output price reported moving to $15 per 1M (aiarch.dev changelog, Oct 14).