/best/creative-writingupdated October 2026164 models evaluated
Best AI for creative writing
Fiction, poetry, worldbuilding, and imaginative prose.
Creative writing is the hardest task to rank objectively. There is no ground truth. What we measure is a proxy: human preference on open-ended generation tasks, diversity of output across repeated prompts, and refusal rate on legitimate creative requests. The last metric matters — overly cautious models are frustrating for fiction writers.
What matters: voice range, structural coherence over long outputs, willingness to inhabit morally complex characters without breaking, and the ability to follow a creative brief without flattening it. The best creative models treat constraints as fuel, not as obstacles.
Our creative-writing rank weights writing quality (2.5×) and persona consistency (1.5×). Persona consistency is a proxy for character fidelity — a model that keeps losing track of who's speaking or drifts from established world rules produces unusable fiction.
Full rankings
All 164 models, scored for creative writing
| # | Model | Provider | Task score | $/in | $/out | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Qwen: Qwen3.7 Flash | QQwen | 5.00/5.0 | $0.030 | $0.130 | 1M |
| 02 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Luna | OOpenAI | 5.00/5.0 | $0.200 | $1.20 | 1.1M |
| 03 | Gemini 3.6 Flash | GGoogle | 5.00/5.0 | $0.750 | $3.75 | 1.0M |
| 04 | Sakana: Fugu Max | SSakana | 5.00/5.0 | $2.00 | $6.00 | 1M |
| 05 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol | OOpenAI | 5.00/5.0 | $2.00 | $10.00 | 1.1M |
| 06 | MoonshotAI: Kimi K3 | MMoonshotAI | 5.00/5.0 | $0.730 | $13.50 | 1.0M |
| 07 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Sol Pro | OOpenAI | 5.00/5.0 | $5.00 | $30.00 | 1.1M |
| 08 | Anthropic: Claude Fable 5 | AAnthropic | 5.00/5.0 | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1M |
| 09 | Claude Opus 5 (Fast) | AAnthropic | 5.00/5.0 | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1M |
| 10 | Anthropic: Claude Fable 5.1 | AAnthropic | 5.00/5.0 | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1M |
| 11 | Inception: Mercury 2.5 Preview | IInception | 4.67/5.0 | $0.040 | $0.150 | 260K |
| 12 | MiMo-V2.5 | XXiaomi | 4.67/5.0 | $0.140 | $0.280 | 1.1M |
| 13 | GLM-4.7 Flash | ZZhipu AI | 4.67/5.0 | $0.060 | $0.400 | 200K |
| 14 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 | DDeepSeek | 4.67/5.0 | $0.016 | $0.640 | 1.0M |
| 15 | Z.ai: GLM 5.3 Flash | ZZhipu AI | 4.67/5.0 | $0.026 | $0.900 | 1.0M |
| 16 | DeepSeek V4 Flash | DDeepSeek | 4.67/5.0 | $0.042 | $1.28 | 1.0M |
| 17 | MiniMax: MiniMax M3 | MMinimax | 4.67/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 1.0M |
| 18 | Meta: Muse Glimmer 30B | MMeta | 4.67/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 131K |
| 19 | Thinking Machines: Inkling Small | TThinkingmachines | 4.67/5.0 | $0.450 | $1.20 | 524K |
| 20 | Qwen: Qwen3.7 Plus | QQwen | 4.67/5.0 | $0.320 | $1.28 | 1M |
| 21 | Qwen: Qwen3.6 Plus | QQwen | 4.67/5.0 | $0.325 | $1.95 | 1M |
| 22 | DeepSeek V4 Pro | DDeepSeek | 4.67/5.0 | $0.955 | $1.91 | 1.0M |
| 23 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 27B | QQwen | 4.67/5.0 | $0.040 | $2.30 | 1M |
| 24 | R1 0528 | DDeepSeek | 4.67/5.0 | $0.500 | $2.15 | 164K |
| 25 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Ultra | NNVIDIA | 4.67/5.0 | $0.600 | $2.40 | 262K |
| 26 | Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite | GGoogle | 4.67/5.0 | $0.300 | $2.50 | 1.0M |
| 27 | R1 | DDeepSeek | 4.67/5.0 | $0.700 | $2.50 | 64K |
| 28 | Grok 4.3 | XXAI | 4.67/5.0 | $1.25 | $2.50 | 1M |
| 29 | Gemini 3 Flash Preview | GGoogle | 4.67/5.0 | $0.500 | $3.00 | 1.0M |
| 30 | Qwen: Qwen3.6 27B | QQwen | 4.67/5.0 | $0.320 | $3.20 | 262K |
| 31 | Kimi K2.7 Code | MMoonshot AI | 4.67/5.0 | $0.671 | $3.35 | 262K |
| 32 | MoonshotAI: Kimi K2.6 | MMoonshotAI | 4.67/5.0 | $0.650 | $3.41 | 262K |
| 33 | Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash | GGoogle | 4.67/5.0 | $0.750 | $3.75 | 1.0M |
| 34 | Google: Gemini 3.7 Flash | GGoogle | 4.67/5.0 | $0.750 | $3.75 | 1.0M |
| 35 | DeepSeek: DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 | DDeepSeek | 4.67/5.0 | $1.32 | $3.96 | 1.0M |
| 36 | Meta: Muse Spark 1.3 | MMeta | 4.67/5.0 | $1.25 | $4.25 | 1.0M |
| 37 | Meta: Muse Spark 1.2 | MMeta | 4.67/5.0 | $1.25 | $4.25 | 1.0M |
| 38 | Meta: Muse Spark 1.1 | MMeta | 4.67/5.0 | $1.25 | $4.25 | 1.0M |
| 39 | Z.ai: GLM 5.3 | ZZhipu AI | 4.67/5.0 | $0.079 | $4.80 | 1.0M |
| 40 | Qwen 3.7 Max | QQwen | 4.67/5.0 | $1.48 | $4.42 | 1M |
| 41 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Luna Pro | OOpenAI | 4.67/5.0 | $1.00 | $6.00 | 1.1M |
| 42 | Qwen: Qwen3.6 Max Preview | QQwen | 4.67/5.0 | $1.03 | $6.16 | 262K |
| 43 | Grok 4.5 | XXAI | 4.67/5.0 | $2.00 | $6.00 | 500K |
| 44 | Z.ai: GLM 5.2 | ZZhipu AI | 4.67/5.0 | $0.060 | $7.00 | 1.0M |
| 45 | Gemini 3.5 Flash | GGoogle | 4.67/5.0 | $1.50 | $9.00 | 1.0M |
| 46 | Anthropic: Claude Sonnet 5 | AAnthropic | 4.67/5.0 | $2.00 | $10.00 | 1M |
| 47 | Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | GGoogle | 4.67/5.0 | $2.00 | $12.00 | 1.0M |
| 48 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Terra | OOpenAI | 4.67/5.0 | $2.00 | $12.00 | 1.1M |
| 49 | GPT-5.2 | OOpenAI | 4.67/5.0 | $1.75 | $14.00 | 400K |
| 50 | OpenAI: GPT-5.6 Terra Pro | OOpenAI | 4.67/5.0 | $2.50 | $15.00 | 1.1M |
| 51 | Claude Opus 5 | AAnthropic | 4.67/5.0 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M |
| 52 | Claude Opus 4.7 | AAnthropic | 4.67/5.0 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M |
| 53 | GPT-5.5 | OOpenAI | 4.67/5.0 | $5.00 | $30.00 | 1.1M |
| 54 | Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.8 (Fast) | AAnthropic | 4.67/5.0 | $10.00 | $50.00 | 1M |
| 55 | Nex AGI: Nex-N2-Mini | NNex-agi | 4.33/5.0 | $0.025 | $0.100 | 262K |
| 56 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-9B | QQwen | 4.33/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.150 | 262K |
| 57 | Ministral 3 8B 2512 | MMistral | 4.33/5.0 | $0.150 | $0.150 | 262K |
| 58 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3.5 Lightning | NNVIDIA | 4.33/5.0 | $0.070 | $0.200 | 262K |
| 59 | Ministral 3 14B 2512 | MMistral | 4.33/5.0 | $0.200 | $0.200 | 262K |
| 60 | Gemma 4 31B | GGoogle | 4.33/5.0 | $0.090 | $0.340 | 262K |
| 61 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Super | NNVIDIA | 4.33/5.0 | $0.080 | $0.450 | 262K |
| 62 | Grok 4.1 Fast | XXAI | 4.33/5.0 | $0.200 | $0.500 | 2M |
| 63 | Qwen: Qwen3 235B A22B Instruct 2507 | QQwen | 4.33/5.0 | $0.090 | $0.550 | 262K |
| 64 | inclusionAI: Ling-2.6-1T | IInclusionai | 4.33/5.0 | $0.075 | $0.625 | 262K |
| 65 | Qwen: Qwen3.5-35B-A3B | QQwen | 4.33/5.0 | $0.080 | $0.750 | 262K |
| 66 | DeepSeek V3.2 | DDeepSeek | 4.33/5.0 | $0.259 | $0.800 | 164K |
| 67 | Qwen: Qwen3.6 35B A3B | QQwen | 4.33/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.950 | 262K |
| 68 | MiMo-V2.5-Pro | XXiaomi | 4.33/5.0 | $0.435 | $0.870 | 1.1M |
| 69 | DeepSeek V3.1 | DDeepSeek | 4.33/5.0 | $0.250 | $0.950 | 164K |
| 70 | Nex-N2-Pro | NNex AGI | 4.33/5.0 | $0.250 | $1.00 | 262K |
| 71 | Qwen: Qwen3.6 Flash | QQwen | 4.33/5.0 | $0.188 | $1.13 | 1M |
| 72 | MiniMax: MiniMax M2 | MMinimax | 4.33/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 205K |
| 73 | GPT-5.4 Nano | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $0.200 | $1.25 | 400K |
| 74 | Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite Preview | GGoogle | 4.33/5.0 | $0.250 | $1.50 | 1.0M |
| 75 | Google: Gemini 3.1 Flash Lite | GGoogle | 4.33/5.0 | $0.250 | $1.50 | 1.0M |
| 76 | Qwen: Qwen3.5 Plus 2026-04-20 | QQwen | 4.33/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.80 | 1M |
| 77 | GPT-5 Mini | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $0.250 | $2.00 | 400K |
| 78 | Mistral Medium 3.1 | MMistral | 4.33/5.0 | $0.400 | $2.00 | 131K |
| 79 | Devstral 2 2512 | MMistral | 4.33/5.0 | $0.400 | $2.00 | 262K |
| 80 | xAI: Grok Build 0.1 | XXAI | 4.33/5.0 | $1.00 | $2.00 | 256K |
| 81 | Gemini 2.5 Flash | GGoogle | 4.33/5.0 | $0.300 | $2.50 | 1.0M |
| 82 | Grok 4.20 | XXAI | 4.33/5.0 | $1.25 | $2.50 | 2M |
| 83 | Thinking Machines: Inkling | TThinkingmachines | 4.33/5.0 | $1.00 | $4.05 | 524K |
| 84 | GPT-5.4 Mini | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $0.750 | $4.50 | 400K |
| 85 | o4 Mini | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $1.10 | $4.40 | 200K |
| 86 | Grok 4.6 | XXAI | 4.33/5.0 | $2.00 | $6.00 | 500K |
| 87 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Max | QQwen | 4.33/5.0 | $2.00 | $6.00 | 1M |
| 88 | Mistral Medium 3.5 | MMistral | 4.33/5.0 | $1.50 | $7.50 | 262K |
| 89 | GPT-4.1 | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $2.00 | $8.00 | 1.0M |
| 90 | o3 | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $2.00 | $8.00 | 200K |
| 91 | GPT-5 | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 400K |
| 92 | Gemini 2.5 Pro | GGoogle | 4.33/5.0 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 1.0M |
| 93 | GPT-5.1 | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $1.25 | $10.00 | 400K |
| 94 | GPT-5.4 | OOpenAI | 4.33/5.0 | $2.50 | $15.00 | 1.1M |
| 95 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | AAnthropic | 4.33/5.0 | $3.00 | $15.00 | 1M |
| 96 | Claude Opus 4.6 | AAnthropic | 4.33/5.0 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M |
| 97 | Anthropic: Claude Opus 4.8 | AAnthropic | 4.33/5.0 | $5.00 | $25.00 | 1M |
| 98 | inclusionAI: Ling-2.6-flash | IInclusionai | 4.00/5.0 | $0.010 | $0.030 | 262K |
| 99 | inclusionAI: Ling 3.0 Flash VL | IInclusionai | 4.00/5.0 | $0.021 | $0.062 | 262K |
| 100 | Ling-3.0-flash | IInclusionai | 4.00/5.0 | $0.021 | $0.063 | 262K |
| 101 | Ministral 3 3B 2512 | MMistral | 4.00/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.100 | 131K |
| 102 | Poolside: Laguna XS 2.1 | PPoolside | 4.00/5.0 | $0.060 | $0.120 | 262K |
| 103 | Gemma 4 26B A4B | GGoogle | 4.00/5.0 | $0.090 | $0.300 | 262K |
| 104 | Xiaomi: MiMo-V2-Flash | XXiaomi | 4.00/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.300 | 262K |
| 105 | StepFun: Step 3.5 Flash | SStepfun | 4.00/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.300 | 262K |
| 106 | Qwen: Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507 | QQwen | 4.00/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.300 | 262K |
| 107 | Upstage: Solar Pro 4 | UUpstage | 4.00/5.0 | $0.090 | $0.360 | 524K |
| 108 | ByteDance Seed: Seed-2.0-Mini | BBytedance-seed | 4.00/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.400 | 262K |
| 109 | Gemini 2.5 Flash Lite | GGoogle | 4.00/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.400 | 1.0M |
| 110 | Grok 3 Mini | XXAI | 4.00/5.0 | $0.300 | $0.500 | 131K |
| 111 | Mistral Small 4 | MMistral | 4.00/5.0 | $0.150 | $0.600 | 262K |
| 112 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-120b | OOpenAI | 4.00/5.0 | $0.150 | $0.600 | 131K |
| 113 | inclusionAI: Ring-2.6-1T | IInclusionai | 4.00/5.0 | $0.075 | $0.625 | 262K |
| 114 | Arcee AI: Trinity Large Thinking | AArcee-ai | 4.00/5.0 | $0.250 | $0.800 | 262K |
| 115 | MiniMax: MiniMax M2.5 | MMinimax | 4.00/5.0 | $0.270 | $1.08 | 205K |
| 116 | StepFun: Step 3.7 Flash | SStepfun | 4.00/5.0 | $0.200 | $1.15 | 262K |
| 117 | Kwaipilot: KAT-Coder-Pro V2 | KKwaipilot | 4.00/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 262K |
| 118 | MiniMax: MiniMax M2.1 | MMinimax | 4.00/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 205K |
| 119 | MiniMax: MiniMax M2.7 | MMinimax | 4.00/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 205K |
| 120 | GPT-4.1 Mini | OOpenAI | 4.00/5.0 | $0.400 | $1.60 | 1.0M |
| 121 | ByteDance Seed: Seed-2.0-Lite | BBytedance-seed | 4.00/5.0 | $0.250 | $2.00 | 262K |
| 122 | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 | BBytedance-seed | 4.00/5.0 | $0.250 | $2.00 | 262K |
| 123 | GLM-4.7 | ZZhipu AI | 4.00/5.0 | $0.600 | $2.20 | 205K |
| 124 | ByteDance Seed: Seed-2.0-Code | BBytedance-seed | 4.00/5.0 | $0.500 | $3.00 | 262K |
| 125 | Claude Haiku 4.5 | AAnthropic | 4.00/5.0 | $1.00 | $5.00 | 200K |
| 126 | Grok 4 | XXAI | 4.00/5.0 | $3.00 | $15.00 | 256K |
| 127 | Poolside Laguna S 2.1 | PPoolside | 3.67/5.0 | $0.090 | $0.180 | 1.0M |
| 128 | ByteDance Seed: Seed 1.6 Flash | BBytedance-seed | 3.67/5.0 | $0.075 | $0.300 | 262K |
| 129 | Upstage: Solar Pro 3 | UUpstage | 3.67/5.0 | $0.150 | $0.600 | 131K |
| 130 | KAT-Coder-Air V2.5 | KKwaipilot | 3.67/5.0 | $0.150 | $0.600 | 256K |
| 131 | Llama 4 Maverick | MMeta | 3.67/5.0 | $0.188 | $0.652 | 1.0M |
| 132 | Inception: Mercury 2 | IInception | 3.67/5.0 | $0.250 | $0.750 | 128K |
| 133 | DeepSeek V3.1 Terminus | DDeepSeek | 3.67/5.0 | $0.270 | $1.00 | 164K |
| 134 | AionLabs: Aion-2.0 | AAion-labs | 3.67/5.0 | $0.800 | $1.60 | 131K |
| 135 | MiniMax: MiniMax M1 | MMinimax | 3.67/5.0 | $0.550 | $2.20 | 1M |
| 136 | AionLabs: Aion-3.0 | AAion-labs | 3.67/5.0 | $3.00 | $6.00 | 131K |
| 137 | GPT-4o | OOpenAI | 3.67/5.0 | $2.50 | $10.00 | 128K |
| 138 | Grok 3 | XXAI | 3.67/5.0 | $3.00 | $15.00 | 131K |
| 139 | OpenAI: gpt-oss-20b | OOpenAI | 3.33/5.0 | $0.018 | $0.090 | 131K |
| 140 | IBM: Granite 4.1 8B | IIbm-granite | 3.33/5.0 | $0.050 | $0.100 | 131K |
| 141 | GPT-5 Nano | OOpenAI | 3.33/5.0 | $0.050 | $0.400 | 400K |
| 142 | GPT-4.1 Nano | OOpenAI | 3.33/5.0 | $0.100 | $0.400 | 1.0M |
| 143 | Meituan: LongCat 2.0 | MMeituan | 3.33/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 1.0M |
| 144 | Grok Code Fast 1 | XXAI | 3.33/5.0 | $0.200 | $1.50 | 256K |
| 145 | AionLabs: Aion-3.0-Mini | AAion-labs | 3.33/5.0 | $0.700 | $1.40 | 131K |
| 146 | IBM: Granite 4.0 Micro | IIbm-granite | 3.00/5.0 | $0.017 | $0.112 | 131K |
| 147 | NVIDIA: Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B | NNVIDIA | 3.00/5.0 | $0.060 | $0.240 | 262K |
| 148 | Mistral Small 3.2 24B | MMistral | 3.00/5.0 | $0.094 | $0.250 | 256K |
| 149 | GPT-4o-mini | OOpenAI | 3.00/5.0 | $0.150 | $0.600 | 128K |
| 150 | Llama 4 Scout | MMeta | 3.00/5.0 | $0.180 | $0.590 | 1.3M |
| 151 | Llama 3.3 70B Instruct | MMeta | 3.00/5.0 | $0.590 | $0.790 | 131K |
| 152 | Mistral Large 3 2512 | MMistral | 3.00/5.0 | $0.500 | $1.50 | 262K |
| 153 | Seed 2.1 Turbo | BByteDance | 3.00/5.0 | $0.500 | $2.50 | 262K |
| 154 | Relace: Relace Search | RRelace | 3.00/5.0 | $1.00 | $3.00 | 256K |
| 155 | Qwen: Qwen3.8 Flash | QQwen | 2.67/5.0 | $0.150 | $0.470 | 1M |
| 156 | Codestral 2508 | MMistral | 2.67/5.0 | $0.300 | $0.900 | 256K |
| 157 | MiniMax: MiniMax-01 | MMinimax | 2.67/5.0 | $0.200 | $1.10 | 1.0M |
| 158 | Inception: Mercury 2.5 | IInception | 2.33/5.0 | $0.040 | $0.150 | 260K |
| 159 | Qwen: Qwen3 Coder 30B A3B Instruct | QQwen | 2.33/5.0 | $0.070 | $0.280 | 262K |
| 160 | Mistral Small 3.1 24B | MMistral | 2.33/5.0 | $0.351 | $0.555 | 128K |
| 161 | MiniMax: MiniMax M2-her | MMinimax | 2.33/5.0 | $0.300 | $1.20 | 66K |
| 162 | IBM: Granite 4.2 8B | IIbm-granite | 2.00/5.0 | $0.060 | $0.250 | 131K |
| 163 | KAT-Coder-Pro V2.5 | KKwaipilot | 2.00/5.0 | $0.740 | $2.96 | 262K |
| 164 | Sakana: Sakana Namazu | SSakana | 0.00/5.0 | $0.950 | $4.00 | 262K |
Pricing — top 5 for creative writing
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5.00/5.0
O
5.00/5.0
G
5.00/5.0
S
5.00/5.0
O
5.00/5.0
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