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Best AI APIs for search & research
Models you can call through a paid API, ranked from public benchmarks, with their price in this task’s unit.
STop ranked: GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI), 1,250 on LMArena Search Arena (style control).9 options listed · data verified 18 Oct 2026
Ranked list
| Tier | Name | Approach | Runs | Rated by | Price | Skill | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S |  GPT-6.1 SolOpenAI | Models | Cloud | 1,250 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $4/M tokens | — | |
| S | GPT-6 Astra OpenAI | Models | Cloud | 1,246 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $20/M tokens | — | vs GPT-6.1 Sol |
| S |  Claude Fable 5.1Anthropic | Models | Cloud | 1,233 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $20/M tokens | — | vs GPT-6.1 Sol |
| S | Qwen3.8-Max Alibaba (Qwen) | Models | Cloud | 1,230 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $3/M tokens | — | vs GPT-6.1 Sol |
| A | Claude Opus 5.5 Anthropic | Models | Cloud | 1,211 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $8/M tokens | — | vs GPT-6.1 Sol |
| A | GPT-6 Luna OpenAI | Models | Cloud | 1,209 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $0.2/M tokens | — | |
| A |  Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview)Google | Models | Cloud | 1,207 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $4.5/M tokens | — | |
| B |  Sonar ProPerplexity AI | Models | Cloud | 1,143 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $6/M tokens | — | |
| B | Sonar Reasoning Pro Perplexity AI | Models | Cloud | 1,139 on LMArena Search Arena (style control) | $3.5/M tokens | — |
Tiers come only from public benchmarks (LMArena Search Arena (style control)); tools without a result of their own inherit the tier of the best model they offer. How we rank.