The Best AI Models of May 2026

Claude Opus 4.8 has joined GPT-5.5 at the top — and the smartest move now is learning when to use each.

Jun 2 • Ryan Shea

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May 2026

Join my new subscriber chat

A private space for us to converse and connect

May 22 • Ryan Shea

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The Best AI Models of April 2026

GPT-5.5 vs Opus 4.7 — and the month the Tier 2 field exploded

May 4 • Ryan Shea

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April 2026

The Best AI Models of March 2026

GPT-5.4 moved the frontier, while MiniMax and Xiaomi made Tier 2 more interesting

Apr 7 • Ryan Shea

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March 2026

The Best AI Models of February 2026

Gemini 3.1 Pro and Opus 4.6 reset Tier 1, while GPT-5.3-Codex made OpenAI harder to compare

Mar 3 • Ryan Shea

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February 2026

The Best AI Models of January 2026

GPT-5.2 stayed on top, but Kimi K2.5 made January interesting

Feb 2 • Ryan Shea

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