Benchmark Almanac

Arena-Hard v2.0

Qwen3-Max 90.2% leads since Jan 2026 Fading

Models answer 500 hard real user prompts from Chatbot Arena and 250 creative writing prompts. GPT-4.1 or Gemini 2.5 judges each answer against a baseline answer from o3-mini, and the score is the win rate.

Released on 2025-04-23 with new prompts, new judges and a new baseline (o3-mini at 50.0). Scores are not comparable with Arena-Hard-Auto v0.1. Labs often report the hard prompt split only.

In the authors’ words

The rapid evolution of Large Language Models (LLMs) has outpaced the development of model evaluation, highlighting the need for continuous curation of new, challenging benchmarks. However, manual curation of high-quality, human-aligned benchmarks is expensive and time-consuming. To address this, we introduce BenchBuilder, an automated pipeline that leverages LLMs to curate high-quality, open-ended prompts from large, crowd-sourced datasets, enabling continuous benchmark updates without human in the loop. We apply BenchBuilder to datasets such as Chatbot Arena and WildChat-1M, extracting challenging prompts and utilizing LLM-as-a-Judge for automatic model evaluation. To validate benchmark quality, we propose new metrics to measure a benchmark's alignment with human preferences and ability to separate models. We release Arena-Hard-Auto, a benchmark consisting 500 challenging prompts curated by BenchBuilder. Arena-Hard-Auto provides 3x higher separation of model performances compared to MT-Bench and achieves 98.6% correlation with human preference rankings, all at a cost of $20. Our work sets a new framework for the scalable curation of automated benchmarks from extensive data.

Abstract of From Crowdsourced Data to High-Quality Benchmarks: Arena-Hard and BenchBuilder Pipeline (arXiv:2406.11939, CC0)
Made by Arena (formerly LMArena) Released Apr 2025 Overall chat quality All tasks public Last in a launch post Aug 2026 , dropped after it saturated Last model added Aug 2026 Scores refreshed 2 Nov 2026
Level
University Undergraduates and entry-level professionals
Scored
Graded by a model A language model scores each response, usually against a rubric.
Answers
Open-ended Free-form text, documents, designs or media judged as a whole.
24
Models scored in lab cards
20
Launch posts list it, from 10 labs
14
System cards report it, from 9 labs

Qwen3-Max leads with 90.2% among models released by Aug 2026

Best score per model as labs report them in their own cards. Labs pick their own settings, so these compare less cleanly than independent runs.

The newest model with a score here came out in Aug 2026, and nobody has reported a newer one. Among the 20 highest-ranked models on the capability index, these have no score yet:

  1. 1 Qwen3-Max 90.2%
  2. 2 LongCat-Flash-Chat 86.5%
  3. 3 Nemotron-Cascade 2 30B-A3B 83.5%
  4. 4 Ring-1T 81.6%
  5. 5 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking Jul 2025 79.7%
  6. 6 Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B 74.8%
  7. 7 Solar Open 100B 74.8%
  8. 8 Solar Pro 3 (March 2026 update) 74.7%
  9. 9 Step 3.5 Flash 74%
  10. 10 Nemotron 3 Super 73.9%
  11. 11 Sarvam 105B 71%
  12. 12 LongCat-Flash-Thinking 69.9%
  13. 13 Granite 4.2 30B 67.9%
  14. 14 Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B 67.7%
  15. 15 Solar Pro 3 62.5%
  16. 16 Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B 62.3%
  17. 17 STEP3-VL-10B 58.6%
  18. 18 Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B 55.1%
  19. 19 Kimi K2 Jul 2025 54.5%
  20. 20 MiMo-V2-Flash 54.1%
  21. 21 Sarvam 30B 49%
  22. 22 Solar Pro 2 46.2%
  23. 23 Baichuan-M2-32B 45.8%
  24. 24 Mistral Small 3.2 43.1%
#ModelScoreSettingDateSource
1 Qwen3-Max 90.2% Jan 2026 Model card
2 LongCat-Flash-Chat 86.5% Aug 2025 Model card
3 Nemotron-Cascade 2 30B-A3B 83.5% Mar 2026 Model card
4 Ring-1T 81.6% Oct 2025 Model card
5 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking Jul 2025 79.7% Jul 2025 Model card
6 Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B 74.8% Nov 2025 Model card
7 Solar Open 100B 74.8% Dec 2025 Model card
8 Solar Pro 3 (March 2026 update) 74.7% Mar 2026 Model card
9 Step 3.5 Flash 74% Feb 2026 Model card
10 Nemotron 3 Super 73.9% Mar 2026 Model card
11 Sarvam 105B 71% Mar 2026 Model card
12 LongCat-Flash-Thinking 69.9% Sep 2025 Model card
13 Granite 4.2 30B 67.9% Aug 2026 Model card
14 Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B 67.7% Dec 2025 Model card
15 Solar Pro 3 62.5% Jan 2026 Model card
16 Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B 62.3% Sep 2025 Model card
17 STEP3-VL-10B 58.6% Jan 2026 Model card
18 Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B 55.1% Sep 2025 Model card
19 Kimi K2 Jul 2025 54.5% Jul 2025 Model card
20 MiMo-V2-Flash 54.1% Dec 2025 Model card
21 Sarvam 30B 49% Mar 2026 Model card
22 Solar Pro 2 46.2% Jul 2025 Model card
23 Baichuan-M2-32B 45.8% Aug 2025 Model card
24 Mistral Small 3.2 43.1% Jun 2025 Model card

The benchmark's own leaderboard has 25 entries, 23 of them models we track. We plot every source in the charts below.

Scores at each effort level

Models the leaderboard ran at two or more effort levels. We don’t have enough cost data here to say what the extra effort costs.

Lowest effort to highest, light to dark
o4-mini
high
79.1%
o3-mini
high
66.1%
o1
high
61%

2 models have held number one since its release in Apr 2025

Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release. We draw one row each for the benchmark’s own leaderboard and what labs claim in their cards.

Google DeepMind OpenAI Mistral AI Upstage Moonshot AI Qwen Meituan
Own leaderboard Passed 85% in Apr 2025, by o3
o3 85.9%
Lab claims Passed 85% in Aug 2025, by LongCat-Flash-Chat
Qwen3-Max 90.2%

The best score passed 85% in Apr 2025

All the scores we have, one dot each, so a model tested at several settings appears more than once.

On the benchmark’s own leaderboard Reported by the lab in its model card Best so far
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2025 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) Qwen3-Max LongCat-Flash-Chat o3 Gemini 2.5 Pro o3-mini o1 Claude 3.5 Sonnet (October 2024) 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2025 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) Qwen3-Max Gemini 2.5 Pro

Labs headline it less often now, last in Aug 2026

Launch posts from every lab that has listed it, one tick per post. Tall colored ticks include it, and short gray ones leave it out.

Mistral AI
Upstage
Qwen
Baichuan
Meituan
Ant Group
NVIDIA
Xiaomi Corp
Sarvam AI
IBM
DateLaunch postScoreAs the post writes it
25 Aug 2026 Granite 4.2 30B 67.9 Arena-Hard-V2
24 Mar 2026 Solar Pro 3 (March 2026 update) 74.7 Arena-hard-v2
19 Mar 2026 Nemotron-Cascade 2 30B-A3B 83.5 ArenaHard v2 (Avg.); Hard Prompt 88.2, Creative Writing 78.7
11 Mar 2026 Nemotron 3 Super 73.9 Arena-Hard-V2
6 Mar 2026 Sarvam 30B 49 Arena Hard v2
6 Mar 2026 Sarvam 105B 71 Arena Hard v2
26 Jan 2026 Solar Pro 3 62.5 Arena Hard v2
23 Jan 2026 Qwen3-Max 90.2 Arena-Hard v2
31 Dec 2025 Solar Open 100B 74.8 Arena Hard v2
16 Dec 2025 MiMo-V2-Flash 54.1 Arena-Hard (Hard Prompt) 54.1, Creative Writing 86.2
15 Dec 2025 Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B 67.7 Arena-Hard-V2 (Average); Hard Prompt 72.1, Creative Writing 63.2
10 Oct 2025 Ring-1T 81.6 Arena-Hard-v2.0 (win-rate)
22 Sep 2025 Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B 55.1 Arena-Hard v2 (Thinking variant)
21 Sep 2025 LongCat-Flash-Thinking 69.9 Arena-Hard(hard prompt gemini)
11 Sep 2025 Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B 62.3 Arena-Hard v2* (win rate judged by GPT-4.1)
29 Aug 2025 LongCat-Flash-Chat 86.5 ArenaHard-V2(acc)
10 Aug 2025 Baichuan-M2-32B 45.8 Arena-Hard-v2.0
25 Jul 2025 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking 79.7 Arena-Hard v2$
10 Jul 2025 Solar Pro 2 46.2 Arena-Hard-v2.0
20 Jun 2025 Mistral Small 3.2 43.1 Arena Hard v2

14 system cards report it, from 9 labs

Besides launch posts, we read the system cards, model cards and technical reports labs publish with a release. They report far more, including safety and frontier-risk tests.

DateDocumentScoreAs the document writes itSection
19 Mar 2026 Nemotron-Cascade 2 30B-A3B technical report 83.5 ArenaHard v2 (Avg.) (Table 1). Hard Prompt 88.2, Creative Writing 78.7 Capabilities
11 Mar 2026 Nemotron 3 Super technical report 73.9 Arena-Hard-V2 (Hard Prompt) (Tables 5 and 8) Capabilities
11 Feb 2026 Step 3.5 Flash technical report 74 Arena-Hard-v2.0, GPT-4.1 judge (Table 5). PaCoRe 93.1 Capabilities
14 Jan 2026 STEP3-VL-10B technical report 58.6 Arena-Hard-V2, SeRe (Table 2) Capabilities
11 Jan 2026 Solar Open 100B technical report 74.8 Arena Hard v2 (Table 6) Capabilities
6 Jan 2026 MiMo-V2-Flash technical report 54.1 Arena-Hard (Hard Prompt) 54.1, Arena-Hard (Creative Writing) 86.2 (Table 9) Capabilities
23 Dec 2025 Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B technical report 67.7 Arena-Hard-V2 (Average), GPT-4.1 judge (Table 3). Hard Prompt 72.10, Creative Writing 63.20 Capabilities
26 Nov 2025 Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B technical report 74.8 Arena-Hard V2 (winrate) (Table 6) Capabilities
21 Oct 2025 Ring-1T technical report 81.6 ArenaHard v2 (win-rate) (Table 1). ArenaHard v2 (Elo) 84.52 Capabilities
23 Sep 2025 LongCat-Flash-Thinking technical report 69.9 Arena-Hard(hard prompt gemini) (Table 2) Capabilities
22 Sep 2025 Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B technical report 55.1 Arena-Hard v2, Thinking only (Table 5) Capabilities
2 Sep 2025 Baichuan-M2-32B technical report 45.8 Arena-Hard-V2.0 (Table 1) Capabilities
1 Sep 2025 LongCat-Flash-Chat technical report 86.5 ArenaHard-V2 (acc) (Table 3) Capabilities
21 Jul 2025 Kimi K2 technical report 54.5 Arena Hard v2.0 Hard Prompt (Win rate). Creative Writing (Win rate) 85.0 (Table 3) Capabilities

Versions

We switch the top row to each new version when it comes out. Open it for one row per version. An old version stays in play while people still test it, so whoever first takes it past 85% gets credit for closing it out.

Qwen Mistral AI DeepSeek MiniMax Google DeepMind OpenAI Meituan
Arena-Hard v2.0 Passed 85% in Apr 2025, by o3
Qwen3-Max 90.2%
Arena-Hard-Auto Passed 85% in Dec 2024, by DeepSeek-V3
Arena-Hard v2.0 Passed 85% in Apr 2025, by o3
Qwen3-Max 90.2%

More in Instructions and chat

All 76 in Instructions and chat
  • IFEval In use Models answer about 500 prompts containing verifiable instructions such as word limits or required keywords. Code checks each instruction for strict and loose accuracy. Gemma 4 31B IT 98.9%
  • IFBench In use 58 new out-of-domain verifiable output constraints. Scored by programmatic constraint checks (strict or loose). Nemotron-Cascade 2 30B-A3B 82.9%
  • MultiChallenge In use Multi-turn conversations testing instruction retention, inference memory, versioned editing and self-coherence. Graded by LLM judge with rubrics. GPT-6.1 Sol 82%
  • Multi-IF In use Models follow verifiable instructions over three-turn conversations in eight languages, extending IFEval. Scored by instruction accuracy at each turn. LFM3-1.7B 89.1%
  • AdvancedIF In use Models respond to over 1,600 prompts with complex, multi-turn, and system-level instructions. A judge model checks each response against expert-written rubrics. MAI-Thinking-1 85%
  • IFStruct In use Models generate JSON or YAML that must follow a requested schema and phrasing constraints, without constrained decoding. A response passes only if every structural constraint holds. LFM3-1.7B 93.7%