Four frontier launches in eight days: six labs now field a model above 50 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index

The frontier has opened up: four frontier launches in eight days - Grok 4.5, GPT-5.6, Muse Spark 1.1, and Kimi K3. Six labs now have a model scoring above 50 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, up from two in early June

SpaceXAI's Grok 4.5 (high, 54) landed July 8. OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna (max, scoring 59, 55, and 51) and Meta's Muse Spark 1.1 (xhigh, 51) followed within two days, and Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 launched July 16 at 57 - third overall, ahead of Claude Opus 4.8 (max, 56).

The top three models on the Index now come from three different labs and span just three points. Four of the ten highest-scoring models launched since July 8, and six of ten since early June.

The one thing that did not move is #1: Claude Fable 5 (60) has held the top spot since June 9, but its lead has narrowed from four points to one, and the price of the intelligence beneath it has collapsed.

Congratulations to the teams at SpaceXAI, OpenAI, Meta, and Moonshot AI on a remarkable eight days.

Key Takeaways:

➤ The frontier went from two labs to six in six weeks. Until June, only Anthropic and OpenAI had fielded a model at 51 or above on the Intelligence Index. GLM-5.2 (max, 51) brought Z AI onto the frontier in mid-June; last week added SpaceXAI with Grok 4.5 (high, 54) and Meta with Muse Spark 1.1 (xhigh, 51); Kimi K3 makes Moonshot AI the sixth, entering at 57.

➤ Kimi K3 debuts at #3 with agentic and knowledge work scores behind only the top two. Kimi K3 scores 1668 Elo on GDPval-AA v2, third behind Claude Fable 5 (max, 1760) and GPT-5.6 Sol (max, 1748). On AA-Briefcase, our private benchmark of long-horizon knowledge work, it enters at #2 with 1547 Elo - behind only Claude Fable 5 (max, 1583) and ahead of GPT-5.6 Sol (max, 1495) - with an Analytical Quality Elo (1760) effectively tied with Fable 5 (1764). At $0.94 per Intelligence Index task on its $3/$15 per 1M input/output token pricing, it delivers comparable intelligence to Claude Opus 4.8 (max, $1.80) at roughly half the cost per task.

➤ Near-frontier intelligence got 2-3x cheaper in eight days. GPT-5.6 Sol (max) delivers one point below Claude Fable 5 (max) at $1.04 per Intelligence Index task versus $2.75. Grok 4.5 (high) delivers 54 at $0.31, under a third of GPT-5.5 (xhigh, $0.99). At 51, GPT-5.6 Luna (max, $0.21) and Muse Spark 1.1 (xhigh, $0.26) undercut GLM-5.2 (max, $0.32), the cheapest model at that intelligence level just a week earlier.

Six labs now field a model above 50 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: Anthropic (Claude Fable 5, 60), OpenAI (GPT-5.6 Sol, max, 59), Moonshot AI (Kimi K3, 57), SpaceXAI (Grok 4.5, high, 54), Z AI (GLM-5.2, max, 51), and Meta (Muse Spark 1.1, xhigh, 51). Arrows mark the six entries from the past eight days.

The long view shows how unusual the past six weeks have been. For most of the period since late 2022, the frontier of the Intelligence Index was held by one or two labs at a time. Since early June, SpaceXAI, Moonshot AI, Meta, and Z AI have all closed to within single digits of #1.

The launches also reshaped the Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index. GPT-5.6 Sol (max) in Codex now leads at 80, ahead of GPT-5.6 Terra (max, 77) in Codex and Claude Fable 5 (max, with fallback) in Claude Code (77). Grok 4.5 (high) in Grok Build scores 76, on par with GPT-5.5 (xhigh) in Codex, and Muse Spark 1.1 (xhigh) in Opencode enters at 69.

Eight days redrew the intelligence versus cost frontier. GPT-5.6 Luna (max, $0.21), Muse Spark 1.1 (xhigh, $0.26), and Grok 4.5 (high, $0.31) all sit at or below the price GLM-5.2 (max, $0.32) set a week earlier, while Kimi K3 ($0.94) and GPT-5.6 Sol (max, $1.04) deliver within three and one points of Claude Fable 5 ($2.75) at roughly a third of its cost per task.

For more details and full results see: https://artificialanalysis.ai/models