Extended NYT Connections
Models solve New York Times Connections puzzles with up to four extra trick words added. Each puzzle scores by the square of the share of groups found.
The puzzle set grows over time, now 940 puzzles. Trend charts use a shared 601-puzzle set so older runs stay comparable.
- Level
- School Students, from grade school to high school
- Scored
- Checked automatically A program checks the result against an answer key, unit tests or the expected final state.
- Answers
- Short answer A number, word or short string matched to a key.
Gemini 4 Argon leads with 98.6%
Best score per entry from the benchmark's own leaderboard, read on 2 Nov 2026. Where a model ran with several settings or harnesses, we keep its best. Every run is in the next chart. Names in gray aren't in our model list: fine-tunes, agent systems, products and older models. They don't count toward leaders.
- 98.6
Gemini 4 Argon
- 98.4 GPT-6 Astra
- 97.8 GPT-6.1 Sol
- 97.4
Gemini 3.1 Pro
- 97.4
Gemini 3.8 Flash
- 96.2 GPT-5.5
- 94.4
Gemini 3 Pro
- 94.3 Claude Opus 5
- 94.0
Gemini 3.7 Flash
- 93.8 GPT-5.6 Sol
- 93.6 Kimi K3
- 93.4
Muse Wonder
- 93.4 Kimi K3.1 Pro
- 92.8
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017
- 92.7 Claude Fable 5
- 92.6
Gemini 3.5 Flash
- 92.1 Claude Opus 4.6
- 91.3 GPT-5.4
- 91.3
DeepSeek-V4-Pro
- 91.1 Claude Opus 4.8
- 90.1 GPT-6 Sol
- 90.0 Claude Fable 5.1
- 89.6 Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent Exp Beta 0304
- 89.6
DeepSeek-V4-Flash
- 89.6
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- 89.0
Gemini 3.6 Flash
- 88.5 Claude Opus 5.5
- 88.3
Qwen 3.8 Max
- 87.4 Grok 4.1 Fast
- 87.2 Kimi K2.6
- 85.4 Grok 4.20
- 85.1
Qwen3.7-Max
- 85.1
Muse Spark 1.3
- 84.9
Muse Spark 1.1
- 83.7 Grok 4.20 Reasoning Exp Beta 0304
- 83.6 GPT-5.2
- 83.1
Gemini 3 Flash
- 80.9 Claude Sonnet 4.6
- 80.5 Claude Sonnet 5.5
- 80.0 Grok 4.6
- 79.9 Grok 4.5
- 79.3 GPT-5.2 Pro
- 79.2
Muse Spark 1.2
- 78.4 GPT-5.6 Terra
- 77.7 GLM-5.1
- 76.8 Grok 4.7
- 75.1 Claude Sonnet 5
- 74.8 GLM-5
- 74.8
Qwen3.7-Plus
- 74.3 GLM-5.2
- 74.2 GLM-5.3
- 74.1
Qwen 3.6 Max (Preview)
- 70.6
Gemma 4 31B IT
- 69.9 Kimi K2.5
- 69.4 GPT-5.6 Luna
- 68.7 GPT-6 Luna
- 68.2
Tencent Hy4 preview
- 65.7 Claude Haiku 5.5
- 65.1
MiniMax-M3
- 61.8 GPT-5.4 Mini
- 60.4
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- 60.3
Qwen 3.6 Plus
- 58.9
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B
- 55.2 Grok 4.3
- 54.5
Qwen 3.8 27B
- 52.5 Claude Opus 4.5
- 51.7
Qwen3.5-122B-A10B
- 47.9
Qwen3.5-27B
- 43.8
Qwen3.7 Flash
- 41.6
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B
- 41.2
Tencent Hy3
- 39.7
Step 3.7 Flash
- 39.0 Claude Opus 4.7
- 37.3 Claude Sonnet 4.5
- 36.7
DeepSeek-V3.2
- 34.4 MiMo-V2.5-Pro
- 30.1 Qwen3 Max (2026-01-23)
- 28.4
Step 3.5 Flash
- 28.4
Seed2.0 Pro
- 28.3
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash
- 27.4
Mistral Large 4
- 25.8 MiMo-V2-Pro
- 24.7
MiniMax-M2.7
- 23.4
ERNIE 5.1
- 17.7
LongCat-Flash-Thinking
- 17.2
Tencent Hy3 preview
- 16.8
MiniMax-M2.5
- 16.5
Trinity Large Thinking
- 15.4
Nemotron 3 Super
- 14.8
MiniMax-M2
- 14.3 Claude Haiku 4.5
- 12.9
Mistral Medium 3.5
- 11.8
Qwen3-Max
- 11.2
MiniMax-M2.1
- 10.3
ERNIE 5.0
- 8.20
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite
- 8.00
Llama 4 Maverick
- 7.60 Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning Exp Beta 0304
- 7.50
Mistral Large 3
- 6.50
Mistral Medium 3.1
- 4.10
Ling-2.6-1T
- 1
Gemini 4 Argon high 98.6%
- 2 GPT-6 Astra max 98.4%
- 3 GPT-6.1 Sol max 97.8%
- 4
Gemini 3.1 Pro 97.4%
- 5
Gemini 3.8 Flash high 97.4%
- 6 GPT-5.5 xhigh 96.2%
- 7
Gemini 3 Pro 94.4%
- 8 Claude Opus 5 xhigh 94.3%
- 9
Gemini 3.7 Flash 94%
- 10 GPT-5.6 Sol xhigh 93.8%
- 11 Kimi K3 93.6%
- 12
Muse Wonder high 93.4%
- 13 Kimi K3.1 Pro high 93.4%
- 14
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017 high 92.8%
- 15 Claude Fable 5 high 92.7%
- 16
Gemini 3.5 Flash 92.6%
- 17 Claude Opus 4.6 high 92.1%
- 18 GPT-5.4 xhigh 91.3%
- 19
DeepSeek-V4-Pro high 91.3%
- 20 Claude Opus 4.8 xhigh 91.1%
- 21 GPT-6 Sol high 90.1%
- 22 Claude Fable 5.1 high 90%
- 23 Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent Exp Beta 0304 89.6%
- 24
DeepSeek-V4-Flash 89.6%
- 25
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash high 89.6%
- 26
Gemini 3.6 Flash 89%
- 27 Claude Opus 5.5 high 88.5%
- 28
Qwen 3.8 Max 88.3%
- 29 Grok 4.1 Fast reasoning 87.4%
- 30 Kimi K2.6 87.2%
- 31 Grok 4.20 reasoning 85.4%
- 32
Qwen3.7-Max 85.1%
- 33
Muse Spark 1.3 high 85.1%
- 34
Muse Spark 1.1 high 84.9%
- 35 Grok 4.20 Reasoning Exp Beta 0304 83.7%
- 36 GPT-5.2 xhigh 83.6%
- 37
Gemini 3 Flash 83.1%
- 38 Claude Sonnet 4.6 high 80.9%
- 39 Claude Sonnet 5.5 high 80.5%
- 40 Grok 4.6 xhigh 80%
- 41 Grok 4.5 high 79.9%
- 42 GPT-5.2 Pro 79.3%
- 43
Muse Spark 1.2 high 79.2%
- 44 GPT-5.6 Terra high 78.4%
- 45 GLM-5.1 77.7%
- 46 Grok 4.7 high 76.8%
- 47 Claude Sonnet 5 high 75.1%
- 48 GLM-5 74.8%
- 49
Qwen3.7-Plus 74.8%
- 50 GLM-5.2 high 74.3%
- 51 GLM-5.3 high 74.2%
- 52
Qwen 3.6 Max (Preview) 74.1%
- 53
Gemma 4 31B IT reasoning 70.6%
- 54 Kimi K2.5 thinking 69.9%
- 55 GPT-5.6 Luna high 69.4%
- 56 GPT-6 Luna high 68.7%
- 57
Tencent Hy4 preview 68.2%
- 58 Claude Haiku 5.5 high 65.7%
- 59
MiniMax-M3 65.1%
- 60 GPT-5.4 Mini xhigh 61.8%
- 61
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite high 60.4%
- 62
Qwen 3.6 Plus 60.3%
- 63
Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 58.9%
- 64 Grok 4.3 55.2%
- 65
Qwen 3.8 27B 54.5%
- 66 Claude Opus 4.5 thinking 16K 52.5%
- 67
Qwen3.5-122B-A10B 51.7%
- 68
Qwen3.5-27B 47.9%
- 69
Qwen3.7 Flash 43.8%
- 70
Qwen 3.6 35B-A3B 41.6%
- 71
Tencent Hy3 high 41.2%
- 72
Step 3.7 Flash high 39.7%
- 73 Claude Opus 4.7 high 39%
- 74 Claude Sonnet 4.5 thinking 16K 37.3%
- 75
DeepSeek-V3.2 36.7%
- 76 MiMo-V2.5-Pro 34.4%
- 77 Qwen3 Max (2026-01-23) 30.1%
- 78
Step 3.5 Flash 28.4%
- 79
Seed2.0 Pro 28.4%
- 80
MiniMax-M3.1-Flash high 28.3%
- 81
Mistral Large 4 high 27.4%
- 82 MiMo-V2-Pro 25.8%
- 83
MiniMax-M2.7 24.7%
- 84
ERNIE 5.1 23.4%
- 85
LongCat-Flash-Thinking 17.7%
- 86
Tencent Hy3 preview 17.2%
- 87
MiniMax-M2.5 16.8%
- 88
Trinity Large Thinking 16.5%
- 89
Nemotron 3 Super 15.4%
- 90
MiniMax-M2 14.8%
- 91 Claude Haiku 4.5 14.3%
- 92
Mistral Medium 3.5 high 12.9%
- 93
Qwen3-Max 11.8%
- 94
MiniMax-M2.1 11.2%
- 95
ERNIE 5.0 10.3%
- 96
Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite 8.20%
- 97
Llama 4 Maverick 8.00%
- 98 Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning Exp Beta 0304 7.60%
- 99
Mistral Large 3 7.50%
- 100
Mistral Medium 3.1 6.50%
- 101
Ling-2.6-1T 4.10%
| # | Entry | Score | Setting | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | 98.6% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 2 | GPT-6 Astra | 98.4% | max | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 3 | GPT-6.1 Sol | 97.8% | max | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 4 | | 97.4% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 5 | | 97.4% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 6 | GPT-5.5 | 96.2% | xhigh | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 7 | | 94.4% | Nov 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 8 | Claude Opus 5 | 94.3% | xhigh | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 9 | | 94% | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 10 | GPT-5.6 Sol | 93.8% | xhigh | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 11 | Kimi K3 | 93.6% | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 12 | | 93.4% | high | Oct 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 13 | Kimi K3.1 Pro | 93.4% | high | Oct 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 14 | | 92.8% | high | Oct 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 15 | Claude Fable 5 | 92.7% | high | Jun 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 16 | | 92.6% | May 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 17 | Claude Opus 4.6 | 92.1% | high | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 18 | GPT-5.4 | 91.3% | xhigh | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 19 | | 91.3% | high | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 20 | Claude Opus 4.8 | 91.1% | xhigh | May 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 21 | GPT-6 Sol | 90.1% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 22 | Claude Fable 5.1 | 90% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 23 | Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent Exp Beta 0304 | 89.6% | Official leaderboard | ||
| 24 | | 89.6% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 25 | | 89.6% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 26 | | 89% | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 27 | Claude Opus 5.5 | 88.5% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 28 | | 88.3% | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 29 | Grok 4.1 Fast | 87.4% | reasoning | Nov 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 30 | Kimi K2.6 | 87.2% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 31 | Grok 4.20 | 85.4% | reasoning | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 32 | | 85.1% | May 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 33 | | 85.1% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 34 | | 84.9% | high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 35 | Grok 4.20 Reasoning Exp Beta 0304 | 83.7% | Official leaderboard | ||
| 36 | GPT-5.2 | 83.6% | xhigh | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 37 | | 83.1% | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 38 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | 80.9% | high | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 39 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 | 80.5% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 40 | Grok 4.6 | 80% | xhigh | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 41 | Grok 4.5 | 79.9% | high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 42 | GPT-5.2 Pro | 79.3% | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 43 | | 79.2% | high | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 44 | GPT-5.6 Terra | 78.4% | high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 45 | GLM-5.1 | 77.7% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 46 | Grok 4.7 | 76.8% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 47 | Claude Sonnet 5 | 75.1% | high | Jun 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 48 | GLM-5 | 74.8% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 49 | | 74.8% | Jun 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 50 | GLM-5.2 | 74.3% | high | Jun 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 51 | GLM-5.3 | 74.2% | high | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 52 | | 74.1% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 53 | | 70.6% | reasoning | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 54 | Kimi K2.5 | 69.9% | thinking | Jan 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 55 | GPT-5.6 Luna | 69.4% | high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 56 | GPT-6 Luna | 68.7% | high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 57 | | 68.2% | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 58 | Claude Haiku 5.5 | 65.7% | high | Oct 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 59 | | 65.1% | Jun 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 60 | GPT-5.4 Mini | 61.8% | xhigh | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 61 | | 60.4% | high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 62 | | 60.3% | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 63 | | 58.9% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 64 | Grok 4.3 | 55.2% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 65 | | 54.5% | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 66 | Claude Opus 4.5 | 52.5% | thinking 16K | Nov 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 67 | | 51.7% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 68 | | 47.9% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 69 | | 43.8% | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 70 | | 41.6% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 71 | | 41.2% | high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 72 | | 39.7% | high | May 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 73 | Claude Opus 4.7 | 39% | high | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 74 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | 37.3% | thinking 16K | Sep 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 75 | | 36.7% | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 76 | MiMo-V2.5-Pro | 34.4% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 77 | Qwen3 Max (2026-01-23) | 30.1% | Official leaderboard | ||
| 78 | | 28.4% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 79 | | 28.4% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 80 | | 28.3% | high | Oct 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 81 | | 27.4% | high | Oct 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 82 | MiMo-V2-Pro | 25.8% | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 83 | | 24.7% | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 84 | | 23.4% | May 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 85 | | 17.7% | Sep 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 86 | | 17.2% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 87 | | 16.8% | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 88 | | 16.5% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 89 | | 15.4% | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 90 | | 14.8% | Oct 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 91 | Claude Haiku 4.5 | 14.3% | Oct 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 92 | | 12.9% | high | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 93 | | 11.8% | Sep 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 94 | | 11.2% | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 95 | | 10.3% | Jan 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 96 | | 8.20% | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 97 | | 8.00% | Apr 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 98 | Grok 4.20 Non-Reasoning Exp Beta 0304 | 7.60% | Official leaderboard | ||
| 99 | | 7.50% | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 100 | | 6.50% | Aug 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 101 | | 4.10% | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
More effort adds a median 2 points
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.
7 models have held number one since its release in Oct 2024
Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release.
The best score passed 85% in Nov 2025
All the scores we have, one dot each, so a model tested at several settings appears more than once.
No lab model card reports it yet
We read the headline results of 479 launch posts from 51 labs, and none of them list this benchmark.
More in Knowledge
- MMLU-Pro In use Harder 10-option version of MMLU with reasoning-focused questions across 14 subjects.
Intern-S2-397B 89.8%
- SuperGPQA In use 26,529 graduate-level multiple-choice questions across 285 disciplines. Accuracy.
Qwen 3.6 Max (Preview) 73.9%
- WideSearch In use 200 bilingual broad info-seeking tasks: agent collects many atomic facts into a table. Scored by success rate and row/item F1.
Tencent Hy4 preview 83.9%
- KMMLU-Pro In use Models answer multiple-choice questions taken from Korean National Professional Licensure exams. It tests professional knowledge used in Korean industry.
Solar Pro 4 79.2%
- BIG-Bench Extra Hard In use Models solve harder replacements for each of the 23 BIG-Bench Hard tasks, 4,520 examples in total. The score is a harmonic mean of task accuracies.
Gemma 4 31B IT 74.4%
- HLE-Verified In use Verified and revised version of Humanity's Last Exam (1,811 items) with uncertain items removed.
Seed2.0 Pro 73.6%