Which AI model is best for coding? A hands-on comparison

As of September 23, 2026, the best AI model for coding is Claude Opus 5.5. It sits at the top of Cursor’s coding leaderboard, it’s cheaper than Opus 5 was, and GPT-5.6 Sol is a close second for careful, well-specified changes, and it used the fewest tokens of any model. See how Flavio Copes came to this conclusion.