HealthBench Hard
Models answer the 1,000 hardest HealthBench conversations, graded against physician-written rubrics.
Subset of HealthBench. The healthbench record lists this name as an alias.
In the authors’ words
We present HealthBench, an open-source benchmark measuring the performance and safety of large language models in healthcare. HealthBench consists of 5,000 multi-turn conversations between a model and an individual user or healthcare professional. Responses are evaluated using conversation-specific rubrics created by 262 physicians. Unlike previous multiple-choice or short-answer benchmarks, HealthBench enables realistic, open-ended evaluation through 48,562 unique rubric criteria spanning several health contexts (e.g., emergencies, transforming clinical data, global health) and behavioral dimensions (e.g., accuracy, instruction following, communication). HealthBench performance over the last two years reflects steady initial progress (compare GPT-3.5 Turbo's 16% to GPT-4o's 32%) and more rapid recent improvements (o3 scores 60%). Smaller models have especially improved: GPT-4.1 nano outperforms GPT-4o and is 25 times cheaper. We additionally release two HealthBench variations: HealthBench Consensus, which includes 34 particularly important dimensions of model behavior validated via physician consensus, and HealthBench Hard, where the current top score is 32%. We hope that HealthBench grounds progress towards model development and applications that benefit human health.
- 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.
GPT-5 leads with 46.2%
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.
- 46.2 GPT-5
- 45.4
Gemini 4 Argon
- 44.4
Baichuan-M3-235B
- 42.8
Muse Spark
- 42.0 GPT-5.2
- 40.3 GPT-5 mini
- 40.1 GPT-5.4
- 36.6 GPT-6 Astra
- 36.2 GPT-6.1 Sol
- 34.7
Baichuan-M2-32B
- 33.1 GPT-5.6 Sol
- 32.7 GPT-5.6 Terra
- 32.0 GPT-5.6 Luna
- 31.5 GPT-5.5
- 31.4 GPT-6 Luna
- 31.4 GPT-6.1 Terra
- 30.1 GPT-6 Sol
- 30.0 gpt-oss-120b
- 29.1
Seed2.0 Pro
- 22.9 GPT-5.5 Instant
- 10.8 gpt-oss-20b
- 1 GPT-5 46.2%
- 2
Gemini 4 Argon 45.4%
- 3
Baichuan-M3-235B 44.4%
- 4
Muse Spark 42.8%
- 5 GPT-5.2 42%
- 6 GPT-5 mini 40.3%
- 7 GPT-5.4 40.1%
- 8 GPT-6 Astra 36.6%
- 9 GPT-6.1 Sol 36.2%
- 10
Baichuan-M2-32B 34.7%
- 11 GPT-5.6 Sol 33.1%
- 12 GPT-5.6 Terra 32.7%
- 13 GPT-5.6 Luna 32%
- 14 GPT-5.5 31.5%
- 15 GPT-6 Luna 31.4%
- 16 GPT-6.1 Terra 31.4%
- 17 GPT-6 Sol 30.1%
- 18 gpt-oss-120b 30%
- 19
Seed2.0 Pro 29.1%
- 20 GPT-5.5 Instant 22.9%
- 21 gpt-oss-20b 10.8%
| # | Model | Score | Setting | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GPT-5 | 46.2% | Aug 2025 | Model card | |
| 2 | | 45.4% | Oct 2026 | Model card | |
| 3 | | 44.4% | Jan 2026 | Model card | |
| 4 | | 42.8% | Apr 2026 | Model card | |
| 5 | GPT-5.2 | 42% | Dec 2025 | Model card | |
| 6 | GPT-5 mini | 40.3% | Aug 2025 | Model card | |
| 7 | GPT-5.4 | 40.1% | Mar 2026 | Model card | |
| 8 | GPT-6 Astra | 36.6% | Sep 2026 | Model card | |
| 9 | GPT-6.1 Sol | 36.2% | Sep 2026 | Model card | |
| 10 | | 34.7% | Aug 2025 | Model card | |
| 11 | GPT-5.6 Sol | 33.1% | Jun 2026 | Model card | |
| 12 | GPT-5.6 Terra | 32.7% | Jun 2026 | Model card | |
| 13 | GPT-5.6 Luna | 32% | Jun 2026 | Model card | |
| 14 | GPT-5.5 | 31.5% | Apr 2026 | Model card | |
| 15 | GPT-6 Luna | 31.4% | Sep 2026 | Model card | |
| 16 | GPT-6.1 Terra | 31.4% | Oct 2026 | Model card | |
| 17 | GPT-6 Sol | 30.1% | Sep 2026 | Model card | |
| 18 | gpt-oss-120b | 30% | Aug 2025 | Model card | |
| 19 | | 29.1% | Feb 2026 | Model card | |
| 20 | GPT-5.5 Instant | 22.9% | May 2026 | Model card | |
| 21 | gpt-oss-20b | 10.8% | Aug 2025 | Model card |
2 models have held number one since its release in May 2025
Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release.
Scores over time
All the scores we have, one dot each, so a model tested at several settings appears more than once.
Labs headline it less often now, last in Apr 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.
| Date | Launch post | Score | As the post writes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Apr 2026 | 42.8 | HealthBench Hard (Open-Ended Health Queries) | |
| 14 Feb 2026 | 29.1 | HealthBench - Hard | |
| 13 Jan 2026 | 44.4 | HealthBench Hard | |
| 10 Aug 2025 | 34.7 | HealthBench-Hard | |
| 7 Aug 2025 | GPT-5 | 46.2 | HealthBench Hard Challenging health conversations |
| 5 Aug 2025 | gpt-oss-20b | 10.8 | HealthBench Hard |
| 5 Aug 2025 | gpt-oss-120b | 30 | HealthBench Hard Challenging health conversations |
28 system cards report it, from 4 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.
| Date | Document | Score | As the document writes it | Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Oct 2026 | GPT-6 Luna system card addendum | 22.8 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 5) | Health |
| 26 Oct 2026 | GPT-6.1 Terra system card addendum | 31.4 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (unadjusted 26.0) (HealthBench table, 5.1) | Health |
| 13 Oct 2026 | | 45.4 | HealthBench Hard 45.4 (Table 5.1) | Health |
| 7 Oct 2026 | GPT-6 Sol system card addendum | 27.8 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 5) | Health |
| 7 Oct 2026 | GPT-6 Luna system card addendum | 27.2 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 5) | Health |
| 29 Sep 2026 | GPT-6.1 Sol system card addendum | 36.2 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 7) | Health |
| 22 Sep 2026 | GPT-6 Sol system card | 30.1 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 29, A.4.1) | Health |
| 22 Sep 2026 | GPT-6 Luna system card | 31.4 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 29, A.4.1) | Health |
| 3 Sep 2026 | GPT-6 Astra system card | 36.6 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 6) | Health |
| 6 Aug 2026 | GPT-5.6 Sol system card addendum | 31.4 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 6 Aug 2026 | GPT-5.6 Luna system card addendum | 28.7 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 9 Jul 2026 | GPT-5.6 Terra system card | 32.7 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 9 Jul 2026 | GPT-5.6 Sol system card | 33.1 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 9 Jul 2026 | GPT-5.6 Luna system card | 32 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 25 Jun 2026 | GPT-5.6 Terra system card | 32.7 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 25 Jun 2026 | GPT-5.6 Sol system card | 33.1 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 25 Jun 2026 | GPT-5.6 Luna system card | 32 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (5.1 table) | Health |
| 4 May 2026 | GPT-5.5 Instant system card | 22.9 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted, unadjusted 21.3 (Table 5) | Health |
| 23 Apr 2026 | GPT-5.5 system card | 31.5 | HealthBench Hard, length-adjusted (Table 7) | Health |
| 5 Mar 2026 | GPT-5.4 system card | 40.1 | HealthBench Hard, unadjusted (Table 6) | Health |
| 14 Feb 2026 | | 29.1 | HealthBench - Hard (Table 3). Table 13 prints 28.3 | Health |
| 6 Feb 2026 | | 44.4 | HealthBench Hard (4.2.1 text) | Health |
| 11 Dec 2025 | GPT-5.2 system card addendum | 42 | HealthBench Hard, gpt-5.2-thinking, 0.420389 (Table 5) | Health |
| 2 Sep 2025 | | 34.7 | HealthBench Hard (Figures 6 and 7) | Health |
| 7 Aug 2025 | GPT-5 system card | 46.2 | HealthBench Hard (Figure 6) | Health |
| 7 Aug 2025 | GPT-5 mini system card | 40.3 | HealthBench Hard, gpt-5-thinking-mini (Figure 6) | Health |
| 5 Aug 2025 | gpt-oss-20b model card | 10.8 | HealthBench Hard, high reasoning (Table 3) | Health |
| 5 Aug 2025 | gpt-oss-120b model card | 30 | HealthBench Hard, high reasoning (Table 3) | Health |
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