Benchmark Almanac

FrontierChallenge

GPT-5.6 Sol 20.6% leads since August 2026
Not in model cards

Agents complete end-to-end scientific workflows in chemistry, materials, molecular dynamics and life science from fixed inputs, producing a set of required deliverables. Task-specific graders check each deliverable.

97 of 300 workflows are released. The best configurations completed 20 of the 97 tasks, a 20.6 percent Pass Rate. 154 HF paper upvotes.

Released
August 2026
Kind
Research science
Level
Expert
Scored
Checked automatically
Answers
Agent task
Tasks
Public, plus a private test set
Strongest model tested
Claude Opus 5 #10 on the capability index
Last model added
August 2026
Scores refreshed
November 12th, 2026

In the authors’ words

Scientific agents increasingly analyze data, execute code, and produce research artifacts, yet most benchmarks emphasize final answers, isolated programs, or a single domain. We introduce FrontierChallenge, a cross-domain benchmark comprising 300 end-to-end scientific workflows. In this paper, we release and evaluate 97 of these tasks, spanning quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, materials characterization, analytical chemistry, life science, and electrochemistry/environment. Each task provides fixed inputs and specifies a bundle of required scientific deliverables. We evaluate twelve frontier models with three agent scaffolds. Pass Rate measures the fraction of tasks satisfying the full-completion criterion, while Avg. Score captures partial progress. Each of the best-performing configurations completed only 20 of the 97 released tasks, yielding a Pass Rate of 20.6%. Partial progress translated especially poorly into complete delivery in analytical chemistry and electrochemistry/environment: Avg. Scores reached 87.6 and 94.9, but the highest Pass Rates were only 4% and 0%. Among non-passing Claude Code trajectories, 75.5% still ended with language claiming completion. Complementary HDS6 process scores correlate strongly with task outcomes, supporting FrontierChallenge as a benchmark of Heavy Duty Solver capabilities. These findings show that neither high partial scores nor confident claims of completion reliably indicate that a scientific task has been fully delivered, highlighting the need to evaluate end-to-end workflow execution and the completeness of scientific deliverables together.

Abstract of FrontierChallenge: Evaluating Scientific Workflow Completion (arXiv:2608.24979, CC0)
12
Entries on its own leaderboard, 11 models we track

2 models share the top score of 20.6% among models released by August 2026

Best score per entry from the benchmark's own leaderboard, read on November 12th, 2026. Where a model ran with several settings or harnesses, we keep its best. Names in gray aren't in our model list: fine-tunes, agent systems, products and older models. They don't count toward leaders.

The newest model with a score here came out in August 2026, and nobody has tested a newer one. Among the 20 highest-ranked models on the capability index, these have no score yet:

  1. 1 GPT-5.6 Sol Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 20.6%
  2. 2 Grok 4.6 Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 20.6%
  3. 3 Kimi K3 Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 17.5%
  4. 4 Claude Opus 5 Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 17.5%
  5. 5 GPT-5.6 Terra Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks; max 15.5%
  6. 6 Qwen 3.8 Max Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 15.5%
  7. 7 DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 13.4%
  8. 8 Apodex 1.1 Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 12.4%
  9. 9 DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 12.4%
  10. 10 Gemini 3.7 Flash Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 10.3%
  11. 11 Qwen3.5 397B-A17B Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 4.10%
  12. 12 GLM-5.2 Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks 3.10%

Source: Official FrontierChallenge leaderboard

#EntryScoreSettingDateSource
1 GPT-5.6 Sol 20.6% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Codex Jul 2026 Official leaderboard
2 Grok 4.6 20.6% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Aug 2026 Official leaderboard
3 Kimi K3 17.5% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Jul 2026 Official leaderboard
4 Claude Opus 5 17.5% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Jul 2026 Official leaderboard
5 GPT-5.6 Terra 15.5% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks; max, Codex Jul 2026 Official leaderboard
6 Qwen 3.8 Max 15.5% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Aug 2026 Official leaderboard
7 DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 13.4% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Aug 2026 Official leaderboard
8 Apodex 1.1 12.4% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Frontier Agent (Agent Team) Official leaderboard
9 DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731 12.4% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Jul 2026 Official leaderboard
10 Gemini 3.7 Flash 10.3% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Aug 2026 Official leaderboard
11 Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 4.10% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Feb 2026 Official leaderboard
12 GLM-5.2 3.10% Historical native Score >=99.9; 97 tasks, Claude Code Jun 2026 Official leaderboard

Number one over time

Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release.

OpenAI
Own leaderboard Not tested since Aug 2026
GPT-5.6 Sol 20.6%

Source: Official FrontierChallenge leaderboard

Scores over time

All the scores we have, one dot each, so a model tested at several settings appears more than once.

On the benchmark’s own leaderboard Best so far
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) GPT-5.6 Sol Qwen3.5 397B-A17B 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) GPT-5.6 Sol Qwen3.5 397B-A17B

Source: Official FrontierChallenge leaderboard

No lab model card reports it yet

We read the headline results of 522 launch posts from 52 labs, and none of them list this benchmark.

More in Science and reasoning

All 92 in Science and reasoning
  • GPQA Diamond In use 198 graduate-level 'Google-proof' multiple-choice questions in biology, chemistry and physics. Gemini 4 Carbon 96.5%
  • Terminal-Bench-Science In use 70 scientific research-workflow tasks across five science areas, run in Harbor containers. Hidden tests give the resolution rate. GPT-6 Astra 68.1%
  • FrontierScience In use Models solve physics, chemistry, and biology problems in an Olympiad track graded by short answer and a Research track graded by 10-point rubrics. Intern-S2-397B 87%
  • BioMysteryBench In use Bioinformatics problems on anonymized real datasets that require real analysis with tools. Rubric-graded, with human-solvable and human-difficult splits. Claude Fable 5.2 83.7%
  • HiPhO In use Models solve theory problems from 2024 and 2025 physics olympiad exams, some with diagrams. Official marking schemes grade answers and steps, mapped to medal levels. Gemini 3 Pro 78.3%
  • LABBench2 In use 11 biology research sub-tasks (literature, figures, tables, patents, trials and more) with tool access. Macro-averaged accuracy. GPT-5.2 60.9%