Latest AI Models 2026: GPT-6, Claude 5.5, Gemini 4 & More

AI model names change quickly, but the useful questions stay the same: what is actually new, who can access it, and should you switch? This tracker covers material general-purpose releases from major labs and labels restricted models clearly.

Current as of October 21, 2026. Availability and prices are checked against first-party announcements and developer documentation.

Latest releases at a glance

Lab	Model	Released	Access	Best reason to try it
OpenAI	GPT-6.1 Sol	Sep 29	Broad API and product availability	Current balanced default for coding, agents, and professional work
OpenAI	GPT-6 Astra	Sep 3	Broad API and product availability	Highest-capability GPT-6 tier
Anthropic	Claude Haiku 5.5	Oct 7	Broad Claude and API availability	Fast, low-cost Claude default
Anthropic	Claude Sonnet 5.5	Sep 28	Broad Claude and API availability	Coding and agents with balanced price and quality
Anthropic	Claude Opus 5.5	Sep 22	Broad Claude and API availability	Difficult reasoning and long-horizon work
Anthropic	Claude Fable 5.1	Sep 2026	Broad; Mythos 5.1 remains restricted	Highest-end Fable work with separate safety tiers
Google	Gemini 4 Argon	Oct 2026	Restricted, phased trusted access	Frontier cyber-defense and research workloads
Google	Gemini 3.8 Flash	Sep 2	Generally available in the Gemini API	Fast multimodal production default with 1M context
DeepSeek	V4.1 Flash 1017	Oct 17	API, web, and app	Low-cost coding, vision, and agent workflows
xAI	Grok 4.7	Sep 21	xAI products and API	xAI's current coding and knowledge model
Kimi	Kimi K3	Jul 17	Kimi products, API, and open weights	1M-context multimodal agent work and inspectable weights

OpenAI: GPT-6 is the current family

OpenAI's catalog now recommends GPT-6 Astra for frontier work, GPT-6.1 Sol for the best capability-to-cost balance, and GPT-6 Luna for high-volume workloads. All three support a 1.05M-token context window and up to 128K output tokens.

Model	Input / 1M	Cached input / 1M	Output / 1M	Practical role
GPT-6 Astra	$10.00	$1.00	$50.00	Hardest research, coding, and agent tasks
GPT-6.1 Sol	$2.00	$0.10	$10.00	Default production model
GPT-6 Luna	$0.10	$0.01	$0.50	Routing, extraction, classification, and scale

GPT-5.6 Cyber is newer in one specialized sense, but it is a restricted cybersecurity model requiring separate Daybreak approval. It should not replace the general GPT-6 recommendation.

Anthropic: Claude 5.5 across three tiers

Anthropic refreshed all three familiar tiers in September and October:

Claude Opus 5.5 is the high-capability option at $4/M input and $20/M output.
Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the practical coding and agent default at $2/M input and $10/M output.
Claude Haiku 5.5 is the low-cost tier at $0.10/M input and $0.50/M output for prompts up to 100K tokens; longer prompts use a higher rate.

Claude Fable 5.1 is also broadly available for premium tasks. Mythos 5.1 uses a separate access model and should be treated as restricted, not as an everyday API alternative.

Google: Gemini 3.8 Flash is GA; Gemini 4 Argon is limited

Gemini 3.8 Flash is the current broadly available Google default. It supports a 1,048,576-token input context and 65,536 output tokens. Introductory API pricing through December 31, 2026 is $0.75/M input, $0.075/M cached input, and $3.75/M output; Google lists double those rates beginning January 1, 2027.

Gemini 4 Argon is the newer frontier model, but access is phased and trusted rather than broadly public. Its public positioning centers on advanced cyber-defense and research through Google's Fairwind program. Do not design a general production launch around Argon until your account has confirmed access and terms.

DeepSeek: V4.1 Flash replaces V4 Flash

DeepSeek's current Flash endpoint is deepseek-flash, serving DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017. The July deepseek-v4-flash name is legacy. Flash adds vision and remains the lower-cost choice; V4 Pro is the higher-price option. Both support thinking, tool calls, the Responses API, a 1M context, and up to 384K output tokens.

DeepSeek now uses active peak and off-peak pricing, so compare both tiers on the DeepSeek API pricing page.

xAI: Grok 4.7

Released September 21, Grok 4.7 is xAI's current top model for coding and knowledge work. xAI says it retains Grok 4.6's price and speed while improving capability. Treat 4.7 as the model to evaluate first if your workload already uses the Grok API.

Kimi: K3 is open now

Kimi K3 remains Moonshot AI's latest major release. It combines native vision, a 1M-token context, long-horizon tool use, and a 2.8T-parameter mixture-of-experts architecture. The July promise is no longer pending: Moonshot published the weights, technical report, and supporting systems work on July 27.

K3 is still worth testing for agents that benefit from open weights or very long context, but compare its always-on reasoning cost and latency with newer low-cost proprietary models.

Which latest model should you use?

Priority	Start with	Why
Best balanced production default	GPT-6.1 Sol or Claude Sonnet 5.5	Strong coding and agents without flagship pricing
Hardest broadly available work	GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5, or Fable 5.1	Current premium tiers with public access
Lowest-cost high-volume work	GPT-6 Luna or Claude Haiku 5.5	$0.10/M short-prompt input and $0.50/M output
Fast multimodal work in Google's ecosystem	Gemini 3.8 Flash	GA, 1M context, and broad multimodal support
Cheap coding and vision agents	DeepSeek V4.1 Flash	Very low off-peak rates and a large output limit
Open-weight long-context experiments	Kimi K3	Published weights and a 1M context
Restricted frontier cyber research	Gemini 4 Argon or GPT-5.6 Cyber	Both require access checks before planning deployment

For production, evaluate 20–50 representative tasks and score correctness, latency, tool-call reliability, and total cost. Public benchmarks can shortlist models; they cannot reproduce your prompts or failure tolerance.

Availability labels used here

Generally available: broadly usable in a product or public API.
Preview: usable, but behavior or terms may change.
Restricted: limited to approved users, partners, researchers, or safety programs.
Announced: described publicly but not yet available to typical users.

Frequently asked questions

What is the latest GPT model?

The current general OpenAI family is GPT-6. GPT-6.1 Sol is the balanced default, GPT-6 Astra is the flagship, and GPT-6 Luna is the lowest-cost tier. GPT-5.6 Cyber is newer only as a specialized restricted model.

What is the latest Claude model?

Claude Haiku 5.5, released October 7, is Anthropic's newest release by date. The current family also includes Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Opus 5.5.

What is the latest Gemini model?

Gemini 4 Argon is Google's newest frontier model, but it is restricted. Gemini 3.8 Flash is the current generally available API model most developers can use now.

Is DeepSeek V4 Flash still current?

No. New integrations should use deepseek-flash, which currently serves DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017. The old deepseek-v4-flash slug is only a temporary compatibility route.