Benchmark Almanac

WritingBench

GPT-5 83.9 leads since Aug 2025 Fading

Models complete 1,000 real-world writing requests across 6 domains and 100 subdomains. A judge model scores each reply on five query-specific criteria.

The first release had 1,239 queries, and a later update cut it to 1,000, so older scores differ.

In the authors’ words

Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have significantly enhanced text generation capabilities, yet evaluating their performance in generative writing remains a challenge. Existing benchmarks primarily focus on generic text generation or limited in writing tasks, failing to capture the diverse requirements of high-quality written contents across various domains. To bridge this gap, we present WritingBench, a comprehensive benchmark designed to evaluate LLMs across 6 core writing domains and 100 subdomains. We further propose a query-dependent evaluation framework that empowers LLMs to dynamically generate instance-specific assessment criteria. This framework is complemented by a fine-tuned critic model for criteria-aware scoring, enabling evaluations in style, format and length. The framework's validity is further demonstrated by its data curation capability, which enables a 7B-parameter model to outperform the performance of GPT-4o in writing. We open-source the benchmark, along with evaluation tools and modular framework components, to advance the development of LLMs in writing.

Abstract of WritingBench: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Generative Writing (arXiv:2503.05244, CC0)
Made by Alibaba Group (X-PLUG) Released Mar 2025 Creative writing All tasks public Last in a launch post Jul 2026 , dropped before it saturated Last model added Jul 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.
49
Entries on its own leaderboard, 45 models we track
10
Launch posts list it, from 6 labs
11
System cards report it, from 3 labs

GPT-5 leads with 83.9 among models released by Nov 2025

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.

The newest model with a score here came out in Nov 2025, and nobody has tested a newer one. Among the 20 highest-ranked models on the capability index, these have no score yet:

  1. 1 GPT-5 83.9
  2. 2 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking Jul 2025 82.3
  3. 3 Kimi K2 Jul 2025 81.3
  4. 4 Claude Sonnet 4.5 80.7
  5. 5 o3 80.5
  6. 6 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct Jul 2025 80.3
  7. 7 Qwen3-Max 80.3
  8. 8 Claude Opus 4.5 79.8
  9. 9 doubao-seed-1-6-thinking-250715 79.3
  10. 10 Gemini 2.5 Pro Jun 2025 79.3
  11. 11 nanbeige4-3b-thinking-2511 79.0
  12. 12 DeepSeek-R1 May 2025 78.9
  13. 13 Seed1.6-Thinking 78.8
  14. 14 Gemini 3 Pro 78.5
  15. 15 Doubao-Seed-1.6 78.3
  16. 16 Claude Haiku 4.5 77.1
  17. 17 Claude Opus 4.1 76.4
  18. 18 Claude Opus 4 thinking 75.1
  19. 19 Qwen3-235B-A22B thinking 74.7
  20. 20 Grok 4 74.7
  21. 21 Claude Sonnet 4 74.1
  22. 22 Claude 3.7 Sonnet thinking 73.4
  23. 23 chatgpt-4o-latest 73.2
  24. 24 o4-mini 72.9
  25. 25 QwQ-32B 72.4
  26. 26 DeepSeek-R1 72.1
  27. 27 Grok 3 71.7
  28. 28 GPT-4.1 70.9
  29. 29 DeepSeek-V3 Mar 2025 69.4
  30. 30 o3-mini 68.0
  31. 31 GPT-4.5 67.6
  32. 32 Gemini 2.0 Flash Feb 2025 66.8
  33. 33 qwen-max 66.8
  34. 34 o1-preview 63.4
  35. 35 DeepSeek-V3 59.2
  36. 36 Gemini 1.5 Pro Sep 2024 58.8
  37. 37 Qwen2.5-72B 57.8
  38. 38 GPT-4o mini 56.4
  39. 39 Mistral Large 2 Nov 2024 54.4
  40. 40 Claude 3.5 Sonnet 53.8
  41. 41 Llama 4 Maverick 52.5
  42. 42 Llama 4 Scout 52.0
  43. 43 Qwen2.5-7B 49.5
  44. 44 Claude 3.5 Haiku 49.1
  45. 45 Llama 3.3 70B Instruct 48.0
  46. 46 Qwen3-0.6B thinking 45.1
  47. 47 Llama 3.1-8B 40.2
  48. 48 Llama 3.2 3B 38.1
  49. 49 Llama 3.2 1B 28.7
#EntryScoreSettingDateSource
1 GPT-5 83.9 Aug 2025 Official leaderboard
2 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking Jul 2025 82.3 Jul 2025 Official leaderboard
3 Kimi K2 Jul 2025 81.3 Jul 2025 Official leaderboard
4 Claude Sonnet 4.5 80.7 Sep 2025 Official leaderboard
5 o3 80.5 Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
6 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct Jul 2025 80.3 Jul 2025 Official leaderboard
7 Qwen3-Max 80.3 Sep 2025 Official leaderboard
8 Claude Opus 4.5 79.8 Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
9 doubao-seed-1-6-thinking-250715 79.3 Official leaderboard
10 Gemini 2.5 Pro Jun 2025 79.3 Jun 2025 Official leaderboard
11 nanbeige4-3b-thinking-2511 79.0 Official leaderboard
12 DeepSeek-R1 May 2025 78.9 May 2025 Official leaderboard
13 Seed1.6-Thinking 78.8 Jun 2025 Official leaderboard
14 Gemini 3 Pro 78.5 Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
15 Doubao-Seed-1.6 78.3 Jun 2025 Official leaderboard
16 Claude Haiku 4.5 77.1 Oct 2025 Official leaderboard
17 Claude Opus 4.1 76.4 Aug 2025 Official leaderboard
18 Claude Opus 4 75.1 thinking May 2025 Official leaderboard
19 Qwen3-235B-A22B 74.7 thinking Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
20 Grok 4 74.7 Jul 2025 Official leaderboard
21 Claude Sonnet 4 74.1 May 2025 Official leaderboard
22 Claude 3.7 Sonnet 73.4 thinking Feb 2025 Official leaderboard
23 chatgpt-4o-latest 73.2 Official leaderboard
24 o4-mini 72.9 Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
25 QwQ-32B 72.4 Mar 2025 Official leaderboard
26 DeepSeek-R1 72.1 Jan 2025 Official leaderboard
27 Grok 3 71.7 Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
28 GPT-4.1 70.9 Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
29 DeepSeek-V3 Mar 2025 69.4 Mar 2025 Official leaderboard
30 o3-mini 68.0 Jan 2025 Official leaderboard
31 GPT-4.5 67.6 Feb 2025 Official leaderboard
32 Gemini 2.0 Flash Feb 2025 66.8 Feb 2025 Official leaderboard
33 qwen-max 66.8 Official leaderboard
34 o1-preview 63.4 Sep 2024 Official leaderboard
35 DeepSeek-V3 59.2 Dec 2024 Official leaderboard
36 Gemini 1.5 Pro Sep 2024 58.8 Sep 2024 Official leaderboard
37 Qwen2.5-72B 57.8 Sep 2024 Official leaderboard
38 GPT-4o mini 56.4 Jul 2024 Official leaderboard
39 Mistral Large 2 Nov 2024 54.4 Nov 2024 Official leaderboard
40 Claude 3.5 Sonnet 53.8 Jun 2024 Official leaderboard
41 Llama 4 Maverick 52.5 Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
42 Llama 4 Scout 52.0 Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
43 Qwen2.5-7B 49.5 Sep 2024 Official leaderboard
44 Claude 3.5 Haiku 49.1 Oct 2024 Official leaderboard
45 Llama 3.3 70B Instruct 48.0 Dec 2024 Official leaderboard
46 Qwen3-0.6B 45.1 thinking Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
47 Llama 3.1-8B 40.2 Jul 2024 Official leaderboard
48 Llama 3.2 3B 38.1 Sep 2024 Official leaderboard
49 Llama 3.2 1B 28.7 Sep 2024 Official leaderboard

Labs report scores for 14 models in their cards. 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
Claude Opus 4
thinking
75.1
Qwen3-235B-A22B
non-thinking
74.7
Claude Sonnet 4
thinking
74.1
Claude 3.7 Sonnet
thinking
73.4
Qwen3-0.6B
non-thinking thinking
45.1

5 models have held number one since its release in Mar 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.

Anthropic OpenAI Moonshot AI Qwen
Own leaderboard Not tested since Nov 2025
GPT-5 83.9
Lab claims Not tested since Jan 2026

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
0.00 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 2024 2025 2026 0.00 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0 2024 2025 2026

Labs headline it less often now, last in Jul 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.

Qwen
Baichuan
Baidu
Upstage
Sarvam AI
Meituan
DateLaunch postScoreAs the post writes it
5 Jul 2026 LongCat-2.0 83.8 Writing Bench
6 Mar 2026 Sarvam 105B 80.5 Writing Bench (Hugging Face card table, official critic model)
31 Dec 2025 Solar Open 100B 7.51 Writing Bench
23 Sep 2025 Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B 86.7 WritingBench
22 Sep 2025 Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B 82.6 WritingBench
11 Sep 2025 Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B 84.6 WritingBench
9 Sep 2025 ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking 8.65 WritingBench (critic-score, maximum 10)
10 Aug 2025 Baichuan-M2-32B 8.56 WritingBench
25 Jul 2025 Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking 88.3 WritingBench
29 Apr 2025 Qwen3-235B-A22B 8.03 WritingBench

11 system cards report it, from 3 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
11 Jan 2026 Solar Open 100B technical report 7.51 Writing Bench, score out of 10 (Table 6) Capabilities
26 Nov 2025 Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B technical report 86.7 WritingBench (Table 6) Capabilities
22 Sep 2025 Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B technical report 82.6 WritingBench, Instruct (Table 4). Thinking 85.5 (Table 5) Capabilities
2 Sep 2025 Baichuan-M2-32B technical report 8.56 WritingBench, 10-point scale (Table 1) Capabilities
14 May 2025 Qwen3-8B technical report 7.59 WritingBench, thinking mode (Table 17). Non-thinking 7.15 (Table 18) Capabilities
14 May 2025 Qwen3-4B technical report 7.35 WritingBench, thinking mode (Table 17). Non-thinking 6.85 (Table 18) Capabilities
14 May 2025 Qwen3-32B technical report 7.9 WritingBench, thinking mode (Table 13). Non-thinking 7.54 (Table 14) Capabilities
14 May 2025 Qwen3-30B-A3B technical report 7.7 WritingBench, thinking mode (Table 15). Non-thinking 7.22 (Table 16) Capabilities
14 May 2025 Qwen3-235B-A22B technical report 8.03 WritingBench, thinking mode (Table 11). Non-thinking 7.70 (Table 12) Capabilities
14 May 2025 Qwen3-14B technical report 7.8 WritingBench, thinking mode (Table 15). Non-thinking 7.24 (Table 16) Capabilities
14 May 2025 Qwen3-1.7B technical report 7.02 WritingBench, thinking mode (Table 19). Non-thinking 6.54 (Table 20) Capabilities

More in Writing and taste

All 24 in Writing and taste
  • Design Bench (Moonshot) In use Models make graphic designs from direct prompts or few-shot reference images. An automated grader rates the results as Elo scores. Kimi K3.1 Pro 957
  • Creative Writing (MiniMax in-house) Only in system cards Models write creative pieces for real Hailuo AI user requests. Automatic assessments score the writing. MiniMax-Text-01 81.3%
  • DeepSeek Chinese functional writing evaluation Only in system cards Models answer 3,170 everyday Chinese writing prompts such as reports, emails and speeches. Pairwise judging against a baseline model gives a win rate. DeepSeek-V4-Pro 62.6%
  • Slide generation human evaluation (Z.ai) Only in system cards People compare HTML slide decks from two models on content, layout and visual quality. Metric is overall win rate. GLM-5 67.5%
  • Task-dependent output homogenization evaluation Only in system cards Models answer prompts several times. A judge scores functional diversity where it is wanted and consistency where one answer is right. Muse Spark 0.21
  • DeepSeek Chinese creative writing evaluation Only in system cards Models write Chinese fiction, prose, poetry and lyrics for 2,837 prompts. Pairwise judging gives separate win rates for instruction following and writing quality.