November 2025 was extremely packed with new AI model releases, as GPT-5.1, Grok 4.1, Gemini 3 Pro, Claude Opus 4.5 all released within just 6 days of each other — if you’re looking for the best AI model for coding or writing, now’s the time.
We'll explain what each of these models is, what they're best at, and compare all four based on benchmarks, features, and pricing.
By the end, you'll know which AI model is best for your specific use case.
PT-5.1 is OpenAI's latest flagship model, released on November 12, 2025. It's mid-lifecycle refresh of GPT-5 that adds a warmer personality to the chatbot.
There are two variants of GPT-5.1:
Instant, for everyday tasks with a balance of speed and intelligence.
Thinking, for complex reasoning tasks
GPT-5.1 can switch between different versions based on the context and type of question, so you don't have to choose which one to use.
GPT 5.1 is the model behind ChatGPT — the most popular AI chatbot by far, and the fastest growing company in history. OpenAI is facing strong competition. The latest releases from competitors have been especially interesting. Is this still the best AI model, or has GPT reached its limits?
To answer this question, we need to understand other AI models from this comparison.
Grok 4.1 is xAI's most powerful model, released on November 17, 2025. The model comes in two configurations:
Grok 4.1 (Thinking mode) delivers frontier-level reasoning with improved emotional intelligence and creative writing. Early testing showed users preferred Grok 4.1 over the previous version 65% of the time in blind comparisons.
Grok 4.1 (Fast mode) provides quick responses without the reasoning overhead, making it ideal for simple queries.
xAI also offers Grok 4 Heavy ($300/month tier) that uses multi-agent collaboration for complex problems, and Grok 4 Fast for cost-efficient reasoning with a 2M token context window.
Launched on November 18, 2025, Gemini 3 Pro is Google's most intelligent model. It features native multimodal understanding and a massive 1 million-token context window. This is the first Google model to claim the #1 spot on Artificial Analysis.
At the time of writing, two Gemini 3 models were announced:
The base Gemini 3 Pro
Gemini 3 Deep Think, a deep reasoning model built on top of the base one
If past releases are anything to go by, Google will likely also release Gemini 3 Flash, a faster model optimized for everyday tasks.
Gemini integrates directly into Google's ecosystem, including Search, Workspace, and developer platforms like Vertex AI.
What is Claude Opus 4.5?
Claude Opus 4.5 is Anthropic's most intelligent AI model, as of November/December 2025. It's mainly designed for coding and agentic tasks, though like most advanced models it also excels at math.
This is the most capable model Anthropic has ever released, excelling at everything from deep research to working with slides and spreadsheets.
According to Anthropic, Opus 4.5 is a better coding model than most humans. When the company's team tested Opus 4.5 on an internal performance engineering exam, it scored higher than any human candidate ever has.
Benchmark Comparison
Benchmarks give us concrete data to compare raw performance across models. Here's how GPT-5.1, Grok 4.1, Gemini 3 Pro, and Claude Opus 4.5 stack up in different benchmarks.
What is the Best AI Model? Benchmark Comparison
Coding Benchmarks
Benchmark
GPT-5.1
Grok 4.1
Gemini 3 Pro
Opus 4.5
What It Measures
SWE-bench Verified
76.3%
74.9%
76.2%
80.9%
Real-world GitHub issue resolution
Terminal-bench 2.0
47.6%
-
54.2%
59.3%
Command-line task execution
Pay close attention to the SWE-bench Verified — it measures how well models can resolve real GitHub issues — this is the best benchmark for real-world performance, and Claude Opus 4.5 is the only model here that goes above 80%.
Math Benchmarks
Benchmark
GPT-5.1
Grok 4.1
Gemini 3 Pro
Opus 4.5
What It Measures
AIME 2025 (no tools)
94.6%
88%
95.0%
-
High school math competition problems
We don’t have data for Claude Opus 4.5, but comparing the models, they are all fairly close, with Gemini 3 Pro performing just a little better than GPT-5.1 — it’s 0.4 percentage points difference.
Best AI Model For Coding
Claude Opus 4.5
It topped the industry on SWE-bench Verified with 80.9%, beating Gemini 3 Pro (76.2%), GPT-5.1 (76.3%), and Grok 4.1 (74.9%) — this is the most important benchmark to track, as it measures performance in real-world tasks.
According to Antropich, Opus 4.5 is very good at writing and debugging code, is proficient in multiple languages, and can understand large codebases. Much of this comes down to smart context window optimization — instead of loading the entire code base at once Claude can reason about where to look and load specific sections of the codebase into memory, so to speak.
In terms of real-world performance, it’s on par with a developer. When the company's internal team tested it on an internal performance engineering exam, it scored higher than any human candidate ever has.
Meanwhile, Terminal-bench 2.0 measures command-line task execution, and Claude Opus 4.5 scored 59.3%, which is high — this makes it useful for developers who need an AI that can work directly with development tools and workflows.
Which AI is in second place? Gemini 3 Pro — it also performs well on WebDev Arena (1487 Elo) and Terminal-bench 2.0 (54.2%). This is the model for you if you enjoy vibe-coding.
Google took vibe coding to the next level with Antigravity — an IDE created around vibe coding at core. You can create complete AI-powered applications from simple prompts.
Gemini 3 Pro scored 95.0% on AIME 2025, edging out GPT-5.1 (94.6%) and Grok 4.1 (88%) on high school math competition problems.
AIME 2025 measures performance on challenging mathematical reasoning tasks that typically only top high school students can solve. Both Gemini 3 Pro and GPT-5.1 demonstrate near-human expert performance on these problems.
When Deep Think mode is enabled, Gemini's math performance improves even further. The model spends more time reasoning through complex problems, leading to more accurate solutions on difficult mathematical tasks.
GPT-5.1 is a close second with 94.6% on AIME 2025. The difference between the two models is minimal for most practical math applications. Pick whichever one you prefer.
Nano Banana 2 is the best AI image generation model in 2025. Many say it's the best AI image generator in the world — and it’s probably true. Nano Banana 2 is Google's image-generation component that works alongside Gemini 3.
You can blend up to 14 images at a time
You can edit images through prompts
You can create infographics with accurate real-world data
You can generate highly realistic images up to 4K resolution
What are the disadvantages? It costs more and is slower than other models. That's why Nano Banana 2 is also called Nano Banana Pro. It wasn't a replacement for the original model. Instead, it was released as a more advanced, premium version.
Other notable image generators include:
Flux 2
Reve
Seedream 4
What about ChatGPT? GPT Image 1 is OpenAI's image generation model that creates images through ChatGPT. At one point this was the best choice for image generation, but now it’s not as good as competitors.
Grok also offers image generation, but it’s not as good as that of Nano Banana 2. That said, Grok permits explicit content, so you can potentially create images that other models won’t let you make because of safety filtering.
Best AI Model For Video
Sora 2 and Kling o1
Sora 2 and Kling o1 are the best AI video models in 2025. Sora is OpenAI's video generation model that offers exceptional quality and realistic physics compared to competitors. It can also generate videos with sound.
Kling o1 is the world’s first unified multi-modal AI model, meaning you can throw any content and attachments at it and create ultra-complex prompts, giving you more control over the end-result than anything else on the market.
What else is worth considering? Veo 3.1 — this is Google's video generation model that works alongside Gemini. It is almost as good as Sora 2, but the videos aren’t quite as realistic.
Best AI Model For Data Analysis
Gemini 3 Pro
Gemini 3 Pro has a 1 million-token context window, which allows it to digest and reason about very long documents, large spreadsheets, CSV files, or databases.
It has another advantage —strong multimodal processing. This measn that the model can read images, scans, and visual content very accurately, making it ideal for analyzing and chatting with PDF documents.
Google workspace users will also find it convenient that Gemini 3 Pro integrates directly with Google Sheets, Google Analytics, and other Google Workspace tools
Why is Gemini 3 Pro so good at data analysis? It’s built different (no pun intended).
Unlike other models that process different media types sequentially, Gemini understands text, images, tables, and charts simultaneously within its architecture. This makes it particularly strong at analyzing documents that combine multiple data formats — like quarterly reports with embedded charts or research papers with tables and graphs.
Pricing Comparison
Both flagship AI models offer free tiers and multiple paid options. Here's how the pricing structures compare across all four models:
Consumer Pricing
Tier
ChatGPT
Grok
Gemini
Claude
Free
GPT-5 with limits, web search, voice mode, file uploads
Grok 4.1 with limits (~10 requests/2 hours), DeepSearch, reasoning
$30/month - SuperGrok: Full Grok 4.1 access, DeepSearch, enhanced reasoning
$20/month - Gemini Advanced (via Google One)
$20/month - Claude Pro
Premium
$200/month - ChatGPT Pro: Unlimited GPT-5, GPT-5 Pro mode, 125 Deep Research uses, Sora Pro
$300/month - SuperGrok Heavy: Grok 4 Heavy access, multi-agent reasoning, early features
$249.99/month - Google AI Ultra
-
ChatGPT offers the best value at the basic tier. Plus costs $20/month compared to SuperGrok's $30/month, but it has more features, like Canvas, Custom GPTs, and Projects.
Gemini Advanced is similar to ChatGPT Plus, costing $20 per month. It works with Google Workspace apps like Gmail, Docs, and Sheets. For people who already use Google a lot, this added feature is really useful.
API Pricing
For developers building applications, here's how the API costs compare per million tokens:
Gemini under 200k tokens: $2.00 input / $12.00 output
Gemini over 200k tokens: $4.00 input / $18.00 output
Opus 4.5: $5.00 input / $25.00 output
ChatGPT offers the best API rates for most use cases. Gemini's API pricing is slightly cheaper for smaller contexts but becomes more expensive for large contexts above 200,000 tokens.
One thing to note is that Gemini 3 Pro costs 12% more to run than Gemini 2.5 Pro. This is different from most new flagship models, which are usually cheaper to run than older versions.
Bottom Line
In November 2025, four popular models were released in quick succession, with each one being named the best in the world for a short period. It seems like every week, a new AI model comes out that's better than the one before it.
The only problem with this is that it's expensive. Even the basic subscription to these four models costs at least $100 USD. This price is for all the features. Thankfully, there's a better option.
With a single subscription starting at $4.99 per week, you can access all four models on Overchat AI.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is an AI model?
An AI model is a large language model trained on massive amounts of text data using transformer-based neural networks. These models learn patterns in language and can generate human-like text, analyze data, write code, and perform various other tasks.
What is the best AI model right now?
This depends on what you want to do. For coding, Claude Opus 4.5 is currently the best, according to the benchmark. But Gemini 3 Pro is better for data analysis, while GPT-5.1 is better for writing.
Which AI model is best for coding?
Claude Opus 4.5 is the best AI model for coding. It scored 80.9% on SWE-bench Verified, beating Gemini 3 Pro (76.2%), GPT-5.1 (76.3%), and Grok 4.1 (74.9%) at real-world software engineering tasks.
Which AI model is best for writing?
GPT-5.1 is the best AI model for writing. It ranked #1 on the Creative Writing v3 benchmark and emphasizes a warmer, more natural tone compared to previous versions.
Which AI model is best for math?
Gemini 3 Pro is the best AI model for math. It scored 95.0% on AIME 2025, edging out GPT-5.1 (94.6%) and Grok 4.1 (88%) on high school math competition problems.
Which AI model is best for image generation?
Nano Banana 2 is the best AI image generation model. Many people say that its release was as big a breakthrough for image generation as the release of GPT-3 for text generation. This is because it makes it possible to do things that were simply not possible before, like merging 14 images into one, or creating detailed infographics with perfect text and accurate facts.
What is the best OpenAI model?
GPT-5.1 is the best OpenAI model. There are two versions: GPT-5.1 Instant is good for everyday tasks, and GPT-5.1 Thinking is good for complex problems that need more advanced thinking.