Benchmark Almanac

MultiChallenge

GPT-6.1 Sol 82% leads since Sep 2026 In use

Multi-turn conversations testing instruction retention, inference memory, versioned editing and self-coherence. Graded by LLM judge with rubrics.

On 2026-02-03 Scale switched the judge to Gemini 2.5 Pro and rewrote the rubric questions of 54 tasks. Scores published before that date may not match the current board.

In the authors’ words

We present MultiChallenge, a pioneering benchmark evaluating large language models (LLMs) on conducting multi-turn conversations with human users, a crucial yet underexamined capability for their applications. MultiChallenge identifies four categories of challenges in multi-turn conversations that are not only common and realistic among current human-LLM interactions, but are also challenging to all current frontier LLMs. All 4 challenges require accurate instruction-following, context allocation, and in-context reasoning at the same time. We also develop LLM as judge with instance-level rubrics to facilitate an automatic evaluation method with fair agreement with experienced human raters. Despite achieving near-perfect scores on existing multi-turn evaluation benchmarks, all frontier models have less than 50% accuracy on MultiChallenge, with the top-performing Claude 3.5 Sonnet (June 2024) achieving just a 41.4% average accuracy.

Abstract of MultiChallenge: A Realistic Multi-Turn Conversation Evaluation Benchmark Challenging to Frontier LLMs (arXiv:2501.17399, CC0)
Made by Scale AI Released Jan 2025 Multi-turn conversation Public tasks plus a private test set Last in a launch post Oct 2026 Last model added Oct 2026 Scores refreshed 2 Nov 2026
Level
Everyday Most adults, without training
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.
35
Models scored on its own leaderboard
30
Launch posts list it, from 13 labs
21
System cards report it, from 11 labs

GPT-6.1 Sol leads with 82%

Best score per model from the benchmark's own leaderboard, read on 2 Nov 2026. Where a model ran with several settings or harnesses, we keep its best.

  1. 1 GPT-6.1 Sol 82%
  2. 2 Gemini 4 Argon 78.7%
  3. 3 Muse Spark 75.5%
  4. 4 Muse Spark 1.1 75.3%
  5. 5 DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 74.9%
  6. 6 Muse Spark Open 74.2%
  7. 7 GPT-6.1 Terra 74.2%
  8. 8 Gemini 3.1 Pro 71.4%
  9. 9 GPT-5.4 Pro 69.2%
  10. 10 Claude Haiku 5.5 67.7%
  11. 11 Gemini 3 Pro 65.7%
  12. 12 GPT-5.1 thinking 63.4%
  13. 13 GPT-5 thinking 63.2%
  14. 14 o3-pro high 62.4%
  15. 15 Kimi K2.5 61.4%
  16. 16 Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite 60.6%
  17. 17 GPT-5 mini thinking 59%
  18. 18 Claude Opus 4.5 thinking 59%
  19. 19 Claude Opus 4 thinking 58.6%
  20. 20 Claude Opus 4.1 thinking 57.2%
  21. 21 Claude Sonnet 4 thinking 57.1%
  22. 22 o3 high 56.6%
  23. 23 Claude Opus 4.6 non-thinking 56%
  24. 24 Kimi K2 Thinking 55.4%
  25. 25 Claude Sonnet 4.5 thinking 55.3%
  26. 26 Gemini 2.5 Pro Jun 2025 53.6%
  27. 27 Claude 3.7 Sonnet thinking 51.6%
  28. 28 GPT-5.1 Instant 51.2%
  29. 29 Claude Haiku 4.5 thinking 50.5%
  30. 30 DeepSeek-V3.1 46.1%
  31. 31 gpt-oss-120b 45.3%
  32. 32 o4-mini high 44.9%
  33. 33 Qwen3-235B-A22B 41.2%
  34. 34 GPT-4.1 39.4%
  35. 35 Gemini 2.0 Flash Feb 2025 36.4%
#ModelScoreSettingDateSource
1 GPT-6.1 Sol 82% Sep 2026 Official leaderboard
2 Gemini 4 Argon 78.7% Sep 2026 Official leaderboard
3 Muse Spark 75.5% Apr 2026 Official leaderboard
4 Muse Spark 1.1 75.3% Jul 2026 Official leaderboard
5 DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 74.9% Oct 2026 Official leaderboard
6 Muse Spark Open 74.2% Oct 2026 Official leaderboard
7 GPT-6.1 Terra 74.2% Oct 2026 Official leaderboard
8 Gemini 3.1 Pro 71.4% Feb 2026 Official leaderboard
9 GPT-5.4 Pro 69.2% Mar 2026 Official leaderboard
10 Claude Haiku 5.5 67.7% Oct 2026 Official leaderboard
11 Gemini 3 Pro 65.7% Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
12 GPT-5.1 63.4% thinking Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
13 GPT-5 63.2% thinking Aug 2025 Official leaderboard
14 o3-pro 62.4% high Jun 2025 Official leaderboard
15 Kimi K2.5 61.4% Jan 2026 Official leaderboard
16 Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite 60.6% Mar 2026 Official leaderboard
17 GPT-5 mini 59% thinking Aug 2025 Official leaderboard
18 Claude Opus 4.5 59% thinking Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
19 Claude Opus 4 58.6% thinking May 2025 Official leaderboard
20 Claude Opus 4.1 57.2% thinking Aug 2025 Official leaderboard
21 Claude Sonnet 4 57.1% thinking May 2025 Official leaderboard
22 o3 56.6% high Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
23 Claude Opus 4.6 56% non-thinking Feb 2026 Official leaderboard
24 Kimi K2 Thinking 55.4% Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
25 Claude Sonnet 4.5 55.3% thinking Sep 2025 Official leaderboard
26 Gemini 2.5 Pro Jun 2025 53.6% Jun 2025 Official leaderboard
27 Claude 3.7 Sonnet 51.6% thinking Feb 2025 Official leaderboard
28 GPT-5.1 Instant 51.2% Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
29 Claude Haiku 4.5 50.5% thinking Oct 2025 Official leaderboard
30 DeepSeek-V3.1 46.1% Aug 2025 Official leaderboard
31 gpt-oss-120b 45.3% Aug 2025 Official leaderboard
32 o4-mini 44.9% high Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
33 Qwen3-235B-A22B 41.2% Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
34 GPT-4.1 39.4% Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
35 Gemini 2.0 Flash Feb 2025 36.4% Feb 2025 Official leaderboard

Labs report scores for 36 models in their cards. We plot every source in the charts below.

11 models have held number one since its release in Jan 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 Anthropic OpenAI Meta Amazon
Own leaderboard 11 leaders
Lab claims 4 leaders

Scores over time

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 2027 Near the ceiling (85%) GPT-6.1 Sol Nova 2.0 Pro Preview GPT-5 o3-pro o3 Claude 3.7 Sonnet Gemini 2.0 Flash 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2025 2026 2027 Near the ceiling (85%) GPT-6.1 Sol GPT-5

5 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.

OpenAI
MiniMax
Moonshot AI
Amazon
Tencent
NVIDIA
ByteDance Seed
Qwen
Baidu
Microsoft
Upstage
Ant Group
Inception Labs
DateLaunch postScoreAs the post writes it
23 Oct 2026 Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B 55.6 MultiChallenge
19 Oct 2026 Mercury 3 60.4 MultiChallenge
13 Oct 2026 Ling-3.1-flash 69.8 MultiChallenge
22 Jul 2026 Solar Open 2 61 Multi-Challenge
4 Jun 2026 Nemotron 3 Ultra 63.8 Multi-Challenge
2 Jun 2026 MAI-Thinking-1 53 Multi-Challenge
28 Apr 2026 Seed2.0 Lite (0428) 69.9 MultiChallenge
19 Mar 2026 Nemotron-Cascade 2 30B-A3B 45.3 Scale AI Multi-Challenge
11 Mar 2026 Nemotron 3 Super 55.2 Scale AI Multi-Challenge
24 Feb 2026 Qwen3.5-122B-A10B 61.5 MultiChallenge
16 Feb 2026 Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 67.6 MultiChallenge
14 Feb 2026 Seed2.0 Pro 68.3 MultiChallenge
6 Feb 2026 ERNIE 5.0 66 MultiChallenge
23 Jan 2026 Qwen3-Max 63.3 MultiChallenge
18 Dec 2025 Seed1.8 66.7 MultiChallenge
15 Dec 2025 Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B 38.5 Scale AI Multi Challenge
5 Dec 2025 Tencent HY 2.0 Think 62.6 Multi Challenge
2 Dec 2025 Nova 2 Omni Preview 75.5 MultiChallenge acc
2 Dec 2025 Nova 2 Lite 76.6 MultiChallenge acc
2 Dec 2025 Nova 2.0 Pro Preview 77.7 MultiChallenge acc
7 Aug 2025 GPT-5 nano 54.9 Scale MultiChallenge (o3-mini grader)
7 Aug 2025 GPT-5 mini 62.3 Scale MultiChallenge (o3-mini grader)
7 Aug 2025 GPT-5 69.6 Scale MultiChallenge** Multi-turn instruction following
11 Jul 2025 Kimi K2 54.1 Multi-Challenge, Acc
16 Jun 2025 MiniMax-M1-80k 44.7 MultiChallenge
16 Apr 2025 o4-mini 43 Scale MultiChallenge
16 Apr 2025 o3 56.5 Scale MultiChallenge Multi-turn instruction following
14 Apr 2025 GPT-4.1 nano 15 MultiChallenge (GPT-4o grader) 15.0 (o3-mini grader 31.1)
14 Apr 2025 GPT-4.1 mini 35.8 MultiChallenge (GPT-4o grader) 35.8 (o3-mini grader 42.2)
14 Apr 2025 GPT-4.1 38.3 MultiChallenge

21 system cards report it, from 11 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
23 Oct 2026 Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4B technical report 55.6 MultiChallenge, released Q4_K_M imatrix checkpoint (Table 5). BF16 53.1 (Table 3) Capabilities
22 Jul 2026 Solar Open 2 technical report 61 Multi-Challenge (Table 3) Capabilities
9 Jun 2026 Nemotron 3 Ultra technical report 63.8 Multi-Challenge (Table 10) Capabilities
2 Jun 2026 MAI-Thinking-1 technical report 53 Multi-Challenge, Gemini 2.5 Pro judge (Table 12, rounded) Capabilities
21 Mar 2026 Seed1.8 model card 66.7 MultiChallenge (Table 1) Capabilities
19 Mar 2026 Nemotron-Cascade 2 30B-A3B technical report 45.3 Scale AI Multi-Challenge (Table 1) Capabilities
11 Mar 2026 Nemotron 3 Super technical report 55.2 Scale AI Multi-Challenge (Table 5) Capabilities
17 Feb 2026 GLM-5 technical report 64.8 Multi Challenge, Instruction Following panel (Figure 11) Capabilities
14 Feb 2026 Seed2.0 Pro model card 68.3 MultiChallenge (Table 3) Capabilities
11 Feb 2026 Step 3.5 Flash technical report 55.7 MultiChallenge, o3-mini judge (Table 5). PaCoRe 60.8 Capabilities
4 Feb 2026 ERNIE 5.0 technical report 66 MultiChallenge (Table 2) Capabilities
14 Jan 2026 STEP3-VL-10B technical report 62.6 MultiChallenge, SeRe (Table 2) Capabilities
23 Dec 2025 Nemotron 3 Nano 30B-A3B technical report 38.5 Scale AI Multi Challenge (Table 3) Capabilities
2 Dec 2025 Nova 2 Omni Preview technical report 75.5 MultiChallenge acc (Table 5) Capabilities
2 Dec 2025 Nova 2 Lite technical report 76.6 MultiChallenge acc (Table 1) Capabilities
2 Dec 2025 Nova 2.0 Pro Preview technical report 77.7 MultiChallenge acc (Table 1) Capabilities
21 Oct 2025 Ring-1T technical report 50.9 MultiChallenge (Table 1) Capabilities
8 Aug 2025 GLM-4.5 technical report 52.8 MultiChallenge (Table 6) Capabilities
8 Aug 2025 GLM-4.5-Air technical report 42.5 MultiChallenge (Table 6) Capabilities
21 Jul 2025 Kimi K2 technical report 54.1 Multi-Challenge (Acc.) (Table 3) Capabilities
16 Jun 2025 MiniMax-M1-80k technical report 44.7 MultiChallenge, GPT-4o judge (Table 2) Capabilities

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%
  • 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%
  • NV Chat Benchmark In use Models answer chat prompts from an internal NVIDIA set. The Nemotron 3.5 Super VL card labels the score an LMArena v3 proxy. Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 52.7