Which AI model should I use?

Question

Accepted Answer

It depends on the job. As of July 2026 the main families are OpenAI's GPT-5 models, Anthropic's Claude models, and Google's Gemini models, each with a small, fast, cheap tier and a larger, more capable one. Match the tier to the task instead of always reaching for the most powerful.

Use a fast, cheap model for high-volume, simple work like classification, extraction, or short replies. Save the top tier for reasoning-heavy tasks: complex writing, code, and multi-step analysis. Many production systems route easy requests to a cheap model and only escalate hard ones.

Don't over-index on benchmark leaderboards. The differences at the frontier are small and shift monthly. Speed, price, context window, and how well a model handles your specific task usually matter more than which one tops a chart this week.

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