Decision Tools
Editorial shortcuts: a model per spend band, pairs that work together, and a short provider guide. For a scored walkthrough, use Find a model or Find a provider.
Budget Picker
Cheap, Value, Mid, and Best are the top Terminal-Bench score in that list-price band. Quality is an editorial plan pick. Prices and scores refresh from the model table.
| Budget / Task | Model | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Free coding | North Mini Code | Apache 2.0, FREE, TB 35.6, 3B active |
| Cheap agent (<$0.30/M out) | DS V4 Flash | $0.14/$0.28, TB 2.1 82.7, SWE-V 79.0 |
| Value agent (<$1/M out) | Hy3 | $0.13/$0.53, TB 71.7, Apache-2 open-weight |
| Open-weight agent | MiniMax M3 | $0.30/$1.20, TB 66 (v), 1M ctx |
| Mid agent ($1-4/M out) | GLM-5.2 | $0.76/$2.42, TB 81, SWE-Pro 62.1 |
| Quality plan ($4-8/M out) | GPT-5.6 Luna | $1/$6, TB 84.7, SWE-Pro 62.7 |
| Best agent (any budget) | GPT-5.6 Sol | TB 88.8 SOTA, DeepSWE 72.7%, AA Coding #1 |
Recommended Model Pairs
Planner plus executor. Rating is editorial; names must exist in the model table.
| Rating | Planner | Executor | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| ★★ | Sonnet 5 | GLM-5.3 | Default agent pipeline (Coding Plan) |
| ★★ | GPT-5.6 Sol | GLM-5.2 | Peak TB + MIT executor |
| ★ | GPT-5.6 Luna | GLM-5.2 | Cost-efficient frontier |
| ★ | Sonnet 5 | Qwen3.8 Max | Long-horizon autonomous |
| ★ | Opus 4.8 | Qwen3.8 Max | Peak accuracy + long-horizon |
| ★ | Composer 2.5 | Grok Build 0.1 | Grok Build /goal mode |
| $ | Opus 4.8 | DS V4 Flash | Budget code gen pipeline |
| $ | MiniMax M3 | Hy3 | Open-weight budget |
| FOSS | GLM-5.2 | Qwen3.8-27B | Self-hosted agents |
If you already pay for a provider
Best model on that catalog for agent/CLI work, cheap coding, and planning. Picks are derived from the live catalog and scores, not a frozen list.
| Provider | Agent / CLI | Budget coding | Planning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Z.AI DevPack | GLM-5.3 | GLM-5.2 | GLM-5.2 |
| ZenMux | GPT-5.6 Sol | DS V4 Flash | Claude Fable 5 |
| OpenCode Go | DS V4 Flash | DS V4 Flash | DS V4 Pro |
| OpenRouter | Grok 4.6 | Step 3.5F | Step 3.5F |
| Ollama Cloud | DS V4 Flash | DS V4 Flash | DS V4 Pro |
| Nous Portal (via OpenRouter) | GPT-5.6 Sol | DS V4 Flash | Claude Fable 5 |
| CrofAI | Kimi K3 | DS V4 Flash | DS V4 Pro |
| Factory | GPT-5.6 Sol | DS V4 Pro | Claude Fable 5 |
If your provider lacks a model: OpenRouter bridges most providers | ZenMux has widest catalog | CrofAI is often the cheapest open-weight token source | Factory is a subscription coding agent