Benchmark Almanac

FrontierScience

Intern-S2-397B 87% leads since Sep 2026 In use

Models solve physics, chemistry, and biology problems in an Olympiad track graded by short answer and a Research track graded by 10-point rubrics.

OpenAI released 160 questions (100 Olympiad, 60 Research) and holds the rest out to track contamination. Labs usually report the two tracks apart, which the frontierscience-olympiad and frontierscience-research records cover.

In the authors’ words

We introduce FrontierScience, a benchmark evaluating expert-level scientific reasoning in frontier language models. Recent model progress has nearly saturated existing science benchmarks, which often rely on multiple-choice knowledge questions or already published information. FrontierScience addresses this gap through two complementary tracks: (1) Olympiad, consisting of international olympiad problems at the level of IPhO, IChO, and IBO, and (2) Research, consisting of PhD-level, open-ended problems representative of sub-tasks in scientific research. FrontierScience contains several hundred questions (including 160 in the open-sourced gold set) covering subfields across physics, chemistry, and biology, from quantum electrodynamics to synthetic organic chemistry. All Olympiad problems are originally produced by international Olympiad medalists and national team coaches to ensure standards of difficulty, originality, and factuality. All Research problems are research sub-tasks written and verified by PhD scientists (doctoral candidates, postdoctoral researchers, or professors). For Research, we introduce a granular rubric-based evaluation framework to assess model capabilities throughout the process of solving a research task, rather than judging only a standalone final answer.

Abstract of FrontierScience: Evaluating AI's Ability to Perform Expert-Level Scientific Tasks (arXiv:2601.21165, CC0)
Made by OpenAI Released Dec 2025 Research science Public tasks plus a private test set Last in a launch post Sep 2026 Last model added Sep 2026
Level
Expert Specialists with years of training, often over hours of work
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.
7
Models scored in lab cards
7
Launch posts list it, from 4 labs
1
System card reports it, from 1 lab

Intern-S2-397B leads with 87% among models released by Sep 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 Sep 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 Intern-S2-397B 87%
  2. 2 Seed2.1 Pro 75%
  3. 3 Seed2.0 Pro 74%
  4. 4 Seed2.0 Lite (0428) 72%
  5. 5 Tencent Hy3 preview 70%
  6. 6 MAI-Code-1-Flash 58.2%
  7. 7 Tencent Hy3 48.1%
#ModelScoreSettingDateSource
1 Intern-S2-397B 87% Sep 2026 Model card
2 Seed2.1 Pro 75% Jun 2026 Model card
3 Seed2.0 Pro 74% Feb 2026 Model card
4 Seed2.0 Lite (0428) 72% Apr 2026 Model card
5 Tencent Hy3 preview 70% Apr 2026 Model card
6 MAI-Code-1-Flash 58.2% Jun 2026 Model card
7 Tencent Hy3 48.1% Jul 2026 Model card

3 models have held number one since its release in Dec 2025

Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release.

ByteDance Seed Shanghai AI Lab
Lab claims Passed 85% in Sep 2026, by Intern-S2-397B

The best score passed 85% in Sep 2026

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

Reported by the lab in its model card Best so far
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) Intern-S2-397B Seed2.1 Pro Seed2.0 Pro 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) Intern-S2-397B Seed2.1 Pro

4 labs put it in a launch post in the last six months

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.

ByteDance Seed
Tencent
Microsoft
Shanghai AI Lab
DateLaunch postScoreAs the post writes it
13 Sep 2026 Intern-S2-397B 87 FrontierScience-Olympiad 87.00 (FrontierScience-Research 55.00)
2 Jul 2026 Tencent Hy3 48.1 Mean of FrontierScience-Research 21.3 / FrontierScience-Olympiad 74.8
23 Jun 2026 Seed2.1 Pro 75 FrontierScience-Olympiad
2 Jun 2026 MAI-Code-1-Flash 58.2 Frontier Science
28 Apr 2026 Seed2.0 Lite (0428) 72 FrontierSci-olympiad
23 Apr 2026 Tencent Hy3 preview 70 FrontierScience Olympiad
14 Feb 2026 Seed2.0 Pro 74 FrontierSci-olympiad 74.0 (FrontierSci-research 25.0)

One system card reports it

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
2 Jun 2026 MAI-Code-1-Flash model card 58.2 Frontier Science, Acc (Core reasoning table) Capabilities

More in Science and reasoning

All 88 in Science and reasoning
  • GPQA Diamond In use 198 graduate-level 'Google-proof' multiple-choice questions in biology, chemistry and physics. Gemini 4 Argon 96.4%
  • Terminal-Bench-Science In use 70 scientific research-workflow tasks across five science areas, run in Harbor containers. Hidden tests give the resolution rate. GPT-6 Astra 68.1%
  • BioMysteryBench In use Bioinformatics problems on anonymized real datasets that require real analysis with tools. Rubric-graded, with human-solvable and human-difficult splits. Claude Opus 5 90.1%
  • HiPhO In use Models solve theory problems from 2024 and 2025 physics olympiad exams, some with diagrams. Official marking schemes grade answers and steps, mapped to medal levels. Gemini 3 Pro 78.3%
  • LABBench2 In use 11 biology research sub-tasks (literature, figures, tables, patents, trials and more) with tool access. Macro-averaged accuracy. GPT-5.2 60.9%
  • SGI-Bench In use Models work through more than 1,000 expert samples in four scientist tasks: deep research, idea generation, dry and wet experiments, and experimental reasoning. Intern-S2-397B 51.9%