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.
"Multi-turn" is LMArena's multi_turn category: only battles with several back-and-forth turns, reflecting how well a model keeps context and revises across a conversation.
- Claude vs GeminiGemini 4 Argon (High)1511.6 vs 1546.6 · Δ35vs Claude Opus 4.6 (High)
- Cheapest in top 20Gemini 3.7 Flash (High)$1.5 / 1MScore 1486.5 · #18
- Best score per $ in top 20Gemini 3.7 Flash (High)991 / $Score 1486.5 · $1.5
Claude vs Gemini: which is better for writing?
| Model | Score | Rank | Creative writing | Input / output | Score per $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Claude Opus 4.6 (High)Top Claude | 1511.6±6.1 | 2 | 1504.8 #4 | $5 / $25 | 151 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 (High)Cheapest Claude in top 20 | 1504±16.6 | 8 | 1534.2 #1 | $4 / $20 | 188 |
| Gemini 4 Argon (High)Top Gemini | 1546.6±16.9 | 1 | 1523.1 #2 | $2 / $10 | 387 |
| Gemini 3.7 Flash (High)Cheapest Gemini in top 20 | 1486.5±9.5 | 18 | 1489.1 #9 | $0.75 / $3.75 | 991 |
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 · Multi-turn
416 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 |
1546.6±16.9 | 1 | 1,363 | 1523.1 | $2 / $10 | $4 | 387 |
| 2 | Claude Opus 4.6 (High)Anthropic |
1511.6±6.1 | 2 | 14,146 | 1504.8 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 151 |
| 3 |  Muse Wonder (Max)Meta |
1507.4±20.3 | 3 | 858 | 1492.6 | $4 / $20 | $8 | 188 |
| 4 | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic |
1505.8±5.9 | 4 | 15,390 | 1483.7 | No price yet | ||
| 5 | Claude Opus 4.7 (High)Anthropic |
1505.3±6.8 | 5 | 11,424 | 1486.2 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 151 |
| 6 | Claude Opus 4.7Anthropic |
1504.2±6.8 | 6 | 11,707 | 1479.7 | No price yet | ||
| 7 | Claude Fable 5 (High)Anthropic |
1504±7.8 | 7 | 7,162 | 1493.4 | $10 / $50 | $20 | 75 |
| 8 | Claude Opus 5.5 (High)Anthropic |
1504±16.6 | 8 | 1,384 | 1534.2 | $4 / $20 | $8 | 188 |
| 9 | Gemini 3.8 Flash (High)Google |
1503.4±8.2 | 9 | 6,579 | 1489.4 | $0.825 / $4.125 | $1.65 | 911 |
| 10 | Claude Opus 5 (Max)Anthropic |
1499.6±8.9 | 10 | 5,195 | 1494.6 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 150 |
| 11 | Muse Spark 1.2 (xHigh)Meta |
1499.6±15.8 | 11 | 1,529 | 1434.7 | $1.25 / $4.25 | $2 | 750 |
| 12 | Claude Fable 5.1 (Max)Anthropic |
1494.6±13.2 | 12 | 2,177 | 1509.7 | $10 / $50 | $20 | 75 |
| 13 | Claude Opus 5 (High)Anthropic |
1493.2±6.9 | 13 | 11,034 | 1486.5 | No price yet | ||
| 14 |  Qwen3.8-MaxAlibaba |
1490.4±9.3 | 14 | 4,609 | 1477.4 | $2 / $6 | $3 | 497 |
| 15 |  Kimi K3 (Max)Moonshot AI |
1489.3±8.7 | 15 | 5,409 | 1456.2 | $0.202 / $20 | $5.152 | 289 |
| 16 | Muse Spark 1.3 (Max)Meta |
1488.7±11.2 | 16 | 3,062 | 1462.4 | $1.25 / $4.25 | $2 | 744 |
| 17 | Gemini 3.1 Pro PreviewGoogle |
1486.8±5.2 | 17 | 22,141 | 1481.8 | $2 / $12 | $4.5 | 330 |
| 18 | Gemini 3.7 Flash (High)Google |
1486.5±9.5 | 18 | 4,628 | 1489.1 | $0.75 / $3.75 | $1.5 | 991 |
| 19 | Gemini 3 ProGoogle |
1484±7.7 | 19 | 6,853 | 1482.5 | $2 / $12 | $4.5 | 330 |
| 20 | Muse Spark 1.1Meta |
1483.8±7.8 | 20 | 7,015 | 1434.6 | $1.25 / $4.25 | $2 | 742 |
| 21 |  GPT-5.4 (High)OpenAI |
1482.1±6.6 | 21 | 11,977 | 1439 | $2.5 / $15 | $5.625 | 264 |
| 22 | Gemini 3.6 Flash (High)Google |
1481.3±8.4 | 22 | 5,794 | 1466.1 | $0.75 / $3.75 | $1.5 | 988 |
| 23 | Gemini 3.5 Flash (High)Google |
1481±7.4 | 23 | 8,094 | 1467.6 | $1.5 / $9 | $3.375 | 439 |
| 24 | Qwen3.7-Max-PreviewAlibaba |
1480.3±22.6 | 24 | 700 | 1447.7 | $1.475 / $4.425 | $2.213 | 669 |
| 25 | Qwen3.5-Max-PreviewAlibaba |
1477.5±9.9 | 25 | 3,825 | 1464.2 | No price yet | ||
| 26 | Muse SparkMeta |
1477.5±13.1 | 26 | 2,281 | 1458.7 | No price yet | ||
| 27 | Gemini 3.5 Flash (Medium)Google |
1476.1±7.6 | 27 | 7,655 | 1470.1 | No price yet | ||
| 28 | GPT-5.5 (High)OpenAI |
1476±6.7 | 28 | 11,822 | 1455.3 | $5 / $30 | $11.25 | 131 |
| 29 | Claude Opus 4.8 (High)Anthropic |
1475.8±6.7 | 29 | 11,185 | 1454.4 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 148 |
| 30 |  MiMo-V2.5-ProXiaomi |
1475.4±6.2 | 30 | 13,092 | 1438 | $0.305 / $0.609 | $0.381 | 3,877 |
| 31 | Claude Opus 4.8Anthropic |
1472.6±6.7 | 31 | 11,399 | 1446.4 | No price yet | ||
| 32 | GPT-5.5OpenAI |
1472.5±6.5 | 32 | 12,382 | 1452.3 | No price yet | ||
| 33 |  GLM-5.1Z.ai |
1471.9±6.6 | 33 | 10,328 | 1452.6 | $1.4 / $4.4 | $2.15 | 685 |
| 34 | Gemini 3 FlashGoogle |
1471.1±8.5 | 34 | 5,457 | 1456.8 | $0.5 / $3 | $1.125 | 1,308 |
| 35 | GLM-5.3-FlashZ.ai |
1471±8.5 | 35 | 5,878 | 1440.8 | $0.15 / $0.5 | $0.238 | 6,194 |
| 36 |  ERNIE 5.1Baidu |
1470.4±8.1 | 36 | 6,808 | 1440.9 | No price yet | ||
| 37 | GLM-5.3 (Max)Z.ai |
1469.9±10.3 | 37 | 3,733 | 1459.2 | $0.07 / $1.4 | $0.402 | 3,653 |
| 38 | GLM-5.2 (Max)Z.ai |
1468.5±7.3 | 38 | 8,277 | 1461.6 | $0.034 / $7 | $1.776 | 827 |
| 39 |  DeepSeek-V4-ProDeepSeek |
1467.6±7 | 39 | 10,357 | 1446.2 | $0.435 / $0.87 | $0.544 | 2,699 |
| 40 | Claude Opus 4.5 (20251101)Anthropic |
1466.3±6 | 40 | 12,965 | 1443 | $5 / $25 | $10 | 147 |
| 41 | Claude Sonnet 5.5 (xHigh)Anthropic |
1465.3±16.8 | 41 | 1,296 | 1468.3 | $2 / $10 | $4 | 366 |
| 42 | MiMo-V2.6-ProXiaomi |
1464.9±23.9 | 42 | 582 | 1466.4 | $0.435 / $0.87 | $0.544 | 2,694 |
| 43 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 (20250929)Anthropic |
1464.6±5.6 | 43 | 14,466 | 1441.6 | No price yet | ||
| 44 | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic |
1463.7±6.4 | 44 | 12,704 | 1435.4 | $3 / $15 | $6 | 244 |
| 45 | GPT-5.4OpenAI |
1463.3±6.5 | 45 | 12,651 | 1427.7 | No price yet | ||
| 46 | GPT-5.6 Sol (xHigh)OpenAI |
1461.1±7.9 | 46 | 6,977 | 1450.2 | $4 / $20 | $8 | 183 |
| 47 | DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-20260910 (Max)DeepSeek |
1460.2±13.5 | 47 | 1,990 | 1438.5 | $0.02 / $1 | $0.265 | 5,510 |
| 48 | Claude Opus 4.5 (High, 32K, 20251101)Anthropic |
1460.1±7.8 | 48 | 6,500 | 1444.8 | No price yet | ||
| 49 | Qwen3.7-PlusAlibaba |
1459.5±7.8 | 49 | 7,004 | 1438 | $0.32 / $1.28 | $0.56 | 2,606 |
| 50 | GPT-5.2 Chat (20260210)OpenAI |
1458.1±7.7 | 50 | 6,804 | 1401 | $1.75 / $14 | $4.813 | 303 |
Show all 416 models (showing top 50)
Data: LMArena (lmarena-ai), CC-BY-4.0 · Multi-turn · 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 is best at multi-turn conversations?
On LMArena's Multi-turn category (published Oct 22, 2026, 416 models), the top three are Gemini 4 Argon (High) (1546.6), Claude Opus 4.6 (High) (1511.6), Muse Wonder (Max) (1507.4).
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.