Best LLM for Creative Writing: AI Writing Leaderboard
The writing board covers five writing-related categories of the LMArena text leaderboard, one per tab: creative writing (creative_writing, default), writing/literature/language tasks, longer prompts (longer_query; not a long-context test), multi-turn (multi_turn) and instruction following (instruction_following). Scores come from blind human pairwise votes, not automated benchmarks.
"Longer prompts" is LMArena's longer_query category: only battles where the user's prompt itself is long. It reflects handling of detailed, complex requests; it is not a long-context (hundreds of thousands of tokens) test.
- Claude vs GeminiGemini 4 Argon (High)1532.8 vs 1537.8 · Δ5vs Claude Opus 5.5 (High)
- Cheapest in top 20
MiMo-V2.6-Pro$0.544 / 1MScore 1500.5 · #11 - Best score per $ in top 20MiMo-V2.6-Pro2,759 / $Score 1500.5 · $0.544
Claude vs Gemini: which is better for writing?
| Model | Score | Rank | Creative writing | Input / output | Score per $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Claude Opus 5.5 (High)Top Claude | 1532.8±10 | 2 | 1534.2 #1 | $4 / $20 | 192 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 (xHigh)Cheapest Claude in top 20 | 1494.7±10.4 | 13 | 1468.3 #18 | $2 / $10 | 374 |
| Gemini 4 Argon (High)Top Gemini | 1537.8±9.8 | 1 | 1523.1 #2 | $2 / $10 | 385 |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash (High)Cheapest Gemini in top 20 | 1494.3±6.4 | 14 | 1489.1 #9 | $0.75 / $3.75 | 996 |
When the gap is smaller than the combined confidence intervals, the rank difference may not be significant. Prices are OpenRouter quotes (USD / 1M tokens).
Full ranking · Longer prompts
80 modelsSorted by LMArena score; ± is the 95% CI half-width. Prices: OpenRouter quote (official list price if none), USD per 1M tokens.
| # | Model | Score↓ | Rank | Votes | Creative writing | Input / output | Blended | Score per $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gemini 4 Argon (High)Google |
1537.8±9.8 | 1 | 4,297 | 1523.1 | $2 / $10 | $4 | 385 |
| 2 | Claude Opus 5.5 (High)Anthropic |
1532.8±10 | 2 | 4,393 | 1534.2 | $4 / $20 | $8 | 192 |
| 3 | Claude Fable 5.1 (Max)Anthropic |
1523.8±8.2 | 3 | 6,752 | 1509.7 | $10 / $50 | $20 | 76 |
| 4 | Claude Opus 5 (Max)Anthropic |
1517.4±6.1 | 4 | 16,175 | 1494.6 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 152 |
| 5 | Claude Opus 4.6 (High)Anthropic |
1517.3±4.7 | 5 | 35,363 | 1504.8 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 152 |
| 6 | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic |
1514.7±4.6 | 6 | 38,293 | 1483.7 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 152 |
| 7 | Claude Opus 5 (High)Anthropic |
1512.7±5.1 | 7 | 33,259 | 1486.5 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 151 |
| 8 | Claude Fable 5 (High)Anthropic |
1510±5.5 | 8 | 20,521 | 1493.4 | $10 / $50 | $20 | 76 |
| 9 | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)Google |
1506.9±6 | 9 | 20,218 | 1489.4 | $0.825 / $4.125 | $1.65 | 913 |
| 10 | Claude Opus 4.7 (High)Anthropic |
1505±5.1 | 10 | 30,099 | 1486.2 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 151 |
| 11 | MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi |
1500.5±14.6 | 11 | 1,650 | 1466.4 | $0.435 / $0.87 | $0.544 | 2,759 |
| 12 | Claude Opus 4.7Anthropic |
1499±5.1 | 12 | 30,825 | 1479.7 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 150 |
| 13 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (xHigh)Anthropic |
1494.7±10.4 | 13 | 3,810 | 1468.3 | $2 / $10 | $4 | 374 |
| 14 | Gemini 3.7 Flash (High)Google |
1494.3±6.4 | 14 | 14,078 | 1489.1 | $0.75 / $3.75 | $1.5 | 996 |
| 15 |  Kimi K3 (Max)Moonshot AI |
1493.2±6.1 | 15 | 15,307 | 1456.2 | $0.202 / $20 | $5.152 | 290 |
| 16 |  Muse Wonder (Max)Meta |
1491.9±12 | 16 | 2,639 | 1492.6 | $4 / $20 | $8 | 187 |
| 17 | Muse Spark 1.3 (Max)Meta |
1488.9±7.3 | 17 | 9,212 | 1462.4 | $1.25 / $4.25 | $2 | 745 |
| 18 |  Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba |
1488.8±6.4 | 18 | 13,498 | 1477.4 | $2 / $6 | $3 | 496 |
| 19 |  GPT-5.5 (High)OpenAI |
1484.3±5 | 19 | 32,015 | 1455.3 | $5 / $30 | $11.25 | 132 |
| 20 | Claude Opus 4.8 (High)Anthropic |
1483.5±5.1 | 20 | 30,207 | 1454.4 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 148 |
| 21 |  GLM-5.3 (Max)Z.ai |
1482.9±6.7 | 21 | 11,414 | 1459.2 | $0.07 / $1.4 | $0.402 | 3,685 |
| 22 | GPT-5.5OpenAI |
1482.4±4.9 | 22 | 33,410 | 1452.3 | $5 / $30 | $11.25 | 132 |
| 23 | Gemini 3.5 Flash (High)Google |
1482.4±5.3 | 23 | 22,822 | 1467.6 | $1.5 / $9 | $3.375 | 439 |
| 24 | Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGoogle |
1482.3±4.1 | 24 | 57,815 | 1481.8 | $2 / $12 | $4.5 | 329 |
| 25 | GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai |
1482.3±6.2 | 25 | 16,904 | 1440.8 | $0.15 / $0.5 | $0.238 | 6,241 |
| 26 | Qwen3.7-Max-PreviewAlibaba |
1481.6±15.1 | 26 | 1,722 | 1447.7 | $1.475 / $4.425 | $2.213 | 670 |
| 27 | MiMo-V2.5-ProXiaomi |
1481±4.8 | 27 | 34,537 | 1438 | $0.305 / $0.609 | $0.381 | 3,891 |
| 28 | GPT-5.6 Sol (xHigh)OpenAI |
1480.8±5.7 | 28 | 19,663 | 1450.2 | $4 / $20 | $8 | 185 |
| 29 | Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic |
1479.8±5.1 | 29 | 30,877 | 1446.4 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 148 |
| 30 | GLM-5.2 (Max)Z.ai |
1479.5±5.3 | 30 | 23,831 | 1461.6 | $0.034 / $7 | $1.776 | 833 |
| 31 | Claude Opus 4.5 (20251101)Anthropic |
1479.1±4.9 | 31 | 24,230 | 1443 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 148 |
| 32 | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic |
1478.8±4.9 | 32 | 31,089 | 1435.4 | $3 / $15 | $6 | 247 |
| 33 | Claude Opus 4.5 (High, 32K, 20251101)Anthropic |
1478.3±6.6 | 33 | 9,816 | 1444.8 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 148 |
| 34 | Gemini 3.5 Flash (Medium)Google |
1476.9±5.4 | 34 | 22,656 | 1470.1 | $1.5 / $9 | $3.375 | 438 |
| 35 | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)Google |
1474.6±5.9 | 38 | 17,147 | 1466.1 | $0.75 / $3.75 | $1.5 | 983 |
| 36 |  DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-20260910 (Max)DeepSeek |
1473.7±8.3 | 39 | 5,951 | 1438.5 | $0.02 / $1 | $0.265 | 5,561 |
| 37 | GPT-5.4 (High)OpenAI |
1473.5±5.2 | 40 | 28,434 | 1439 | $2.5 / $15 | $5.625 | 262 |
| 38 | Muse Spark 1.2 (xHigh)Meta |
1472.6±9.5 | 41 | 4,570 | 1434.7 | $1.25 / $4.25 | $2 | 736 |
| 39 | Gemini 3 ProGoogle |
1471.1±6.4 | 42 | 11,160 | 1482.5 | $2 / $12 | $4.5 | 327 |
| 40 | Kimi K2.6Moonshot AI |
1467.8±6 | 43 | 16,976 | 1433.6 | $0.65 / $3.41 | $1.34 | 1,095 |
| 41 | GLM-5.1Z.ai |
1467±4.7 | 44 | 29,419 | 1452.6 | $1.4 / $4.4 | $2.15 | 682 |
| 42 | GPT-5.4OpenAI |
1464±5.2 | 45 | 29,943 | 1427.7 | $2.5 / $15 | $5.625 | 260 |
| 43 | Claude Sonnet 5 (High)Anthropic |
1462.4±5.3 | 46 | 23,861 | 1416 | $2 / $10 | $4 | 366 |
| 44 |  Grok 4.5xAI |
1462±5.7 | 47 | 19,271 | 1441.8 | $2 / $6 | $3 | 487 |
| 45 | GPT-6 Astra (Max)OpenAI |
1462±8.5 | 48 | 5,873 | 1420.5 | $10 / $50 | $20 | 73 |
| 46 | Muse Spark 1.1Meta |
1461.1±5.4 | 50 | 21,243 | 1434.6 | $1.25 / $4.25 | $2 | 731 |
| 47 | GPT-6.1 Sol (Max)OpenAI |
1460.7±11 | 51 | 3,356 | 1424.4 | $2 / $10 | $4 | 365 |
| 48 | MiMo-V2.6-FlashXiaomi |
1459.1±8.7 | 52 | 5,627 | 1404.3 | $0.14 / $0.28 | $0.175 | 8,338 |
| 49 | DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek |
1457.6±5.3 | 54 | 25,945 | 1446.2 | $0.435 / $0.87 | $0.544 | 2,680 |
| 50 | DeepSeek-V4-Pro (High, 20260813)DeepSeek |
1457.3±9.2 | 55 | 4,565 | 1438.6 | $0.955 / $1.911 | $1.194 | 1,220 |
Show all 80 models (showing top 50)
Data: LMArena (lmarena-ai), CC-BY-4.0 · Longer prompts · published Oct 22, 2026
Sources & method
- LMLMArena leaderboard dataset (Hugging Face, CC-BY-4.0)
config text · creative_writing · published Oct 22, 2026 · 416 models
- LMLMArena leaderboard dataset (Hugging Face, CC-BY-4.0)
config text · industry_writing_and_literature_and_language · published Oct 22, 2026 · 417 models
- LMLMArena leaderboard dataset (Hugging Face, CC-BY-4.0)
config text · longer_query · published Oct 22, 2026 · 396 models
- LMLMArena leaderboard dataset (Hugging Face, CC-BY-4.0)
config text · multi_turn · published Oct 22, 2026 · 416 models
- LMLMArena leaderboard dataset (Hugging Face, CC-BY-4.0)
config text · instruction_following · published Oct 22, 2026 · 418 models
- $
- Only the latest LMArena publish date is used; score, CI, votes and rank are copied from the dataset.
- Reasoning tiers of one model (e.g. High / Max) are separate LMArena entries and are listed separately.
- Prices are shown only when the entry maps to our LLM leaderboard; otherwise –, never estimated.
- Score ÷ blended price (3:1 input:output). A rough value indicator only.
- Synced daily at 06:35 UTC; if the source fails, the last good snapshot is kept.
FAQ
What is the best AI for writing?
In LMArena's creative writing category published Oct 22, 2026, #1 is Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 (High) (1534.2, 2,453 votes).
Claude or Gemini: which is better for writing?
Top creative-writing scores: Claude Claude Opus 5.5 (High) (1534.2, output $20/1M tokens); Gemini Gemini 4 Argon (High) (1523.1, output $10/1M tokens).
What is the cheapest good LLM for writing?
Among the top 20 for creative writing, the best score per dollar is MiMo-V2.6-Pro (1466.4, #20) at about $0.544/1M tokens blended; the cheapest is MiMo-V2.6-Pro ($0.544/1M, 1466.4).
Which vendors rank highest for writing?
By the creative writing category, each vendor's best model ranks: Anthropic Claude Opus 5.5 (High) (1534.2, #1), Google Gemini 4 Argon (High) (1523.1, #2), Meta Muse Wonder (Max) (1492.6, #7), Alibaba Qwen3.8-Max (1477.4, #16), Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro (1466.4, #20).
Which LLM handles longer prompts best?
On LMArena's Longer prompts category (published Oct 22, 2026, 396 models), the top three are Gemini 4 Argon (High) (1537.8), Claude Opus 5.5 (High) (1532.8), Claude Fable 5.1 (Max) (1523.8).
Where do the scores come from?
From LMArena: users submit writing prompts, two anonymous models answer, users vote for the better one, and scores are fitted with a Bradley-Terry model.