【February 2026】Latest AI Model Benchmarks & Rankings

Created date: 2026/02/14, Update date: 2026/02/21

Summarized benchmark results and rankings of the latest AI models (LLMs). Based on Chatbot Arena and Hugging Face leaderboards, we compare the performance of Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini 3.1 Pro, GPT-5.1, etc.

Table of Contents

Overview
Comprehensive Ranking (Late February 2026)
Detailed Explanation of Notable Models
Recommended Models by Purpose
Summary
Source / Reference Benchmarks

Overview

As of late February 2026, the evolution of AI models (LLMs) is rapidly advancing in both “multimodal understanding” and “inference speed”.
In this article, in addition to the comprehensive evaluation by LMSYS Chatbot Arena, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation using multiple key benchmark indicators such as GPQA Diamond (advanced reasoning), SWE-bench (coding ability), and Tokens/sec (response speed), which is important for actual operation.

Comprehensive Ranking (Late February 2026)

Rank	Model	Arena Elo	Features	GPQA Diamond	Tokens/sec (Est.)
1	Gemini 3.1 Pro	1510	Ultra-long context (10M) and highest peak reasoning	93.2%	50
2	Claude Opus 4.6 (Thinking)	1506	Overwhelming logical thinking and coding performance	92.4%	30
3	Claude Opus 4.6	1502	Highest peak of Japanese expression and safety	88.5%	45
4	GPT-5.1 (Preview)	1498	Stable versatility and multimodal reasoning	89.1%	55
5	Grok-4.1-Thinking	1482	Real-time information retrieval and keen insight	86.3%	120
6	Gemini 3 Flash	1460	Balance of high-speed response and cost performance	79.5%	185
7	Llama 4-405B	1465	Highest peak of open models / On-premise support	82.1%	N/A (Self-Hosted)
8	DeepSeek-R2	1455	Math/Coding specialization with excellent cost efficiency	80.8%	60

Detailed Explanation of Notable Models

1. Gemini 3.1 Pro - “King of Multimodal and Long Context, Evolved Further”

Google’s latest model, just released recently. While maintaining the ultra-long context of 10 million tokens, which was the strength of the previous version, its reasoning ability has been significantly enhanced.

Context: It is possible to read a movie or dozens of technical books at once and provide accurate answers based on the content.
Reasoning and Speed: Recorded 93.2% in GPQA Diamond, demonstrating top-class performance even in complex logical tasks. Despite being a huge model, it provides stable speed thanks to Google’s TPU v6 infrastructure.

2. Claude Opus 4.6 (Thinking) - “Engineer’s Partner”

Anthropic’s model equipped with “Thinking Mode” does not just give an answer, but autonomously develops and verifies the thought process (Chain of Thought), demonstrating unparalleled strength in complex implementation tasks.

SWE-bench Verified: 80.9% (+12pt compared to previous version)
Response Speed: Although the initial movement is slow because the thought process is included, the generation phase maintains a practical speed.

3. Grok-4.1-Thinking - “Fastest Reasoner”

xAI’s Grok is ideal for tasks requiring real-time performance due to its overwhelming inference speed.

Web Search Integration: With access rights to real-time data on X (formerly Twitter), it provides unique value in constantly changing news and trend analysis.
Response Speed (TPS): Even as a Thinking model, it records over 120 tokens/sec, providing a crisp conversational experience.

Recommended Models by Purpose

We selected recommended models from the perspectives of “Accuracy/Quality” and “Speed/Cost” for each use case.

Use Case	Recommended Model (Accuracy/Quality Focus)	Recommended Model (Speed/Cost Focus)
Coding / Design	Claude Opus 4.6 (Thinking) Ideal for complex design and bug fixing	DeepSeek-R2 For snippet generation and unit test creation
Data Analysis / Summary	Gemini 3.1 Pro Batch processing of huge materials	Gemini 3 Flash For large-scale log analysis and routine report creation
Chatbot / API	GPT-5.1 High instruction following and good user experience	Gemini 3 Flash / Haiku 4 Prevent churn with explosive speed response
Real-time Information	Grok-4.1 Grasping the latest news and trends	Perplexity (Llama 4 based) Search-specialized high-speed answers

Summary

The selection of AI in 2026 has entered an era of “using models properly according to the weight and urgency of the task” rather than “choosing the strongest one”.

If you need high-quality output with careful thinking, Claude Opus 4.6
If you process a large amount of information, Gemini 3.1 Pro
If real-time dialogue and speed are vital, Grok-4.1 or Gemini 3 Flash

Combining these in the right place (Model Orchestration) will be the key to utilizing AI this year.

Source / Reference Benchmarks

LMSYS Chatbot Arena Leaderboard
Hugging Face Open LLM Leaderboard (GPQA, MATH)
SWE-bench Leaderboard (Coding Agents)