📋 Best AI Models for Instructions
Ranking of language models by instruction-following ability. These models best understand and execute complex, multi-step instructions.Updated August 2026. Based on independent benchmark data.
Why This Matters
Choosing the right model for instruction following is about more than raw benchmark scores. The models below are ranked using a weighted blend of category-specific benchmarks, arena Elo, and the intelligence index — but real-world performance depends on your context window, latency budget, and integration path.
For instructions, we weighted the benchmarks that most strongly predict success in production: task accuracy first, then speed and cost efficiency. Leaders on this page consistently outperform on both standardized tests and real-world workloads.
If you operate under a strict budget, check the Best Value LLMs ranking. If latency matters more than raw quality, see Fastest LLMs. Both pages use the same underlying dataset with different weightings.
| # | Model | Provider | Score | Speed | Price (output) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Mythos 5 | Anthropic | 83.0 | 50 t/s | $50/M |
| 2 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 (max) | Anthropic | 78.0 | 50 t/s | $15/M |
| 3 | GLM-5.1 | Z.ai | 77.0 | 74 t/s | $4.4/M |
| 4 | MiniMax-M2.7 | MiniMax | 74.0 | 40 t/s | $2/M |
| 5 | Mistral Medium 3.5 | Mistral | 59.0 | 60 t/s | $6/M |
| 6 | Claude 4.5 Haiku | Anthropic | 56.0 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 7 | GPT-5.5 Pro | OpenAI | 55.0 | 60 t/s | $10/M |
| 8 | Nova 2.0 Pro Preview | Amazon | 54.0 | 40 t/s | $3.2/M |
| 9 | GPT-oss-120B | OpenAI | 50.0 | 240 t/s | $0.4/M |
| 10 | Claude Opus 5 Xhigh | Anthropic | 45.0 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 11 | Claude Opus 5 High | Anthropic | 45.0 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 12 | Grok 4 | xAI | 45.0 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 13 | Grok 4 6 | xAI | 45.0 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 14 | Claude Opus 5 Medium | Anthropic | 45.0 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
| 15 | Qwen3 8 2 4t A95b | Alibaba | 45.0 | 85 t/s | $2/M |
| 16 | Gpt 5 6 Sol High | OpenAI | 45.0 | 90 t/s | $10/M |
| 17 | Muse Spark 1 2 | Meta | 45.0 | 80 t/s | $0/M |
| 18 | Gpt 5 6 Sol Medium | OpenAI | 45.0 | 90 t/s | $10/M |
| 19 | Glm 5 | Z.ai | 45.0 | 60 t/s | $3/M |
| 20 | Claude Opus 5 Low | Anthropic | 45.0 | 80 t/s | $15/M |
Top 5 Instructions — Quick Comparison
Methodology
Rankings are based on independent benchmark evaluations. The instructions score is computed from multiple standardized benchmarks and normalized to 0–100. Data is updated regularly from public benchmark results.