Benchmark Almanac

FrontierScience-Research

Muse Spark 38% leads since April 2026
GPT-5.2 25.2% leads since December 2025
Muse Spark 38% leads since April 2026
Fading

Models work on open-ended PhD-level research subtasks in physics, chemistry and biology, written by working scientists. A grader scores each answer against a 10-point rubric.

The Research track of FrontierScience. The open gold set has 60 Research problems.

Made by
OpenAI
Released
December 2025
Kind
Research science
Level
Expert
Scored
Graded by a model
Answers
Open-ended
Tasks
Public, plus a private test set
Strongest model tested
GPT-5.4 Pro #19 on the capability index
Last in a launch post
April 2026, dropped before it saturated
Last model added
June 2026
Scores refreshed
November 12th, 2026

In the authors’ words

We introduce FrontierScience, a benchmark evaluating expert-level scientific reasoning in frontier language models. Recent model progress has nearly saturated existing science benchmarks, which often rely on multiple-choice knowledge questions or already published information. FrontierScience addresses this gap through two complementary tracks: (1) Olympiad, consisting of international olympiad problems at the level of IPhO, IChO, and IBO, and (2) Research, consisting of PhD-level, open-ended problems representative of sub-tasks in scientific research. FrontierScience contains several hundred questions (including 160 in the open-sourced gold set) covering subfields across physics, chemistry, and biology, from quantum electrodynamics to synthetic organic chemistry. All Olympiad problems are originally produced by international Olympiad medalists and national team coaches to ensure standards of difficulty, originality, and factuality. All Research problems are research sub-tasks written and verified by PhD scientists (doctoral candidates, postdoctoral researchers, or professors). For Research, we introduce a granular rubric-based evaluation framework to assess model capabilities throughout the process of solving a research task, rather than judging only a standalone final answer.

Abstract of FrontierScience: Evaluating AI's Ability to Perform Expert-Level Scientific Tasks (arXiv:2601.21165, CC0)
5
Models scored in lab cards
3
Launch posts list it, from 2 labs
2
System cards report it, from 1 lab

Muse Spark leads with 38% among models released by June 2026

Best score per model as labs report them in their own cards. Labs pick their own settings, so these compare less cleanly than independent runs.

GPT-5.2 leads with 25.2% across all independent runs

Best score per model across the official leaderboard, Epoch AI’s own runs and any board Epoch AI copied. Each bar and row names its source.

Muse Spark leads with 38%, claims included

Best score per model from every source, including labs’ own numbers and claims Epoch AI collected from reports and papers. Labs pick their own settings, so a claim can beat an independent run of the same model.

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

  1. 1 Muse Spark 38%
  2. 2 GPT-5.4 Pro 36.7%
  3. 3 GPT-5.4 33%
  4. 4 Seed2.1 Pro 28.3%
  5. 5 Seed2.0 Pro 25%

Source: Labs’ model cards

#ModelScoreSettingDateSource
1 Muse Spark 38% Apr 2026 Lab model card
2 GPT-5.4 Pro 36.7% Mar 2026 Lab model card
3 GPT-5.4 33% Mar 2026 Lab model card
4 Seed2.1 Pro 28.3% Jun 2026 Lab model card
5 Seed2.0 Pro 25% Feb 2026 Lab model card
#ModelScoreSettingDateSource
1 GPT-5.2 25.2% xhigh Dec 2025 Official leaderboard
2 Claude Opus 4.5 17.5% maximum reasoning Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
3 Grok 4 15.9% maximum reasoning Jul 2025 Official leaderboard
4 o3 14.4% medium Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
5 Gemini 3 Pro 12.4% maximum reasoning Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
6 o4-mini 8.33% maximum reasoning Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
7 o1 3.17% maximum reasoning Dec 2024 Official leaderboard
#ModelScoreSettingDateSource
1 Muse Spark 38% Apr 2026 Lab model card
2 GPT-5.4 Pro 36.7% Mar 2026 Lab model card
3 GPT-5.4 33% Mar 2026 Lab model card
4 Seed2.1 Pro 28.3% Jun 2026 Lab model card
5 GPT-5.2 25.2% xhigh Dec 2025 Official leaderboard
6 Seed2.0 Pro 25% Feb 2026 Lab model card
7 Claude Opus 4.5 17.5% maximum reasoning Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
8 Grok 4 15.9% maximum reasoning Jul 2025 Official leaderboard
9 o3 14.4% medium Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
10 Gemini 3 Pro 12.4% maximum reasoning Nov 2025 Official leaderboard
11 o4-mini 8.33% maximum reasoning Apr 2025 Official leaderboard
12 o1 3.17% maximum reasoning Dec 2024 Official leaderboard

The benchmark's own leaderboard has 8 entries, 7 of them models we track. Switch the scores above to rank them together.

3 models have held number one in labs’ own numbers since its release in December 2025 2 models have held number one across all independent runs since its release in December 2025 4 models have held number one with claims included since its release in December 2025

Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release. We draw one row each for the benchmark’s own leaderboard and what labs claim in their cards.

Anthropic OpenAI ByteDance Seed Meta
Own leaderboard Not tested since Dec 2025
GPT-5.2 25.2%
Lab claims Not tested since Jun 2026

Sources: Official FrontierScience-Research leaderboard and labs’ model cards

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 Reported by the lab in its model card Best so far
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2025 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) Muse Spark GPT-5.2 Claude Opus 4.5 Grok 4 o1 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 2025 2026 Near the ceiling (85%) Muse Spark GPT-5.2

Sources: Official FrontierScience-Research leaderboard and labs’ model cards

Labs headline it less often now, last in April 2026

Launch posts from every lab that has listed it, one tick per post. Tall colored ticks include it, and short gray ones leave it out.

OpenAI
Meta
DateLaunch postScoreAs the post writes it
Apr 8, 2026 Muse Spark 38 FrontierScience Research, Contemplating mode, 38%
Mar 5, 2026 GPT-5.4 Pro 36.7 Frontier Science Research
Mar 5, 2026 GPT-5.4 33 Frontier Science Research (GPT-5.4)

2 system cards report it, from 1 lab

Besides launch posts, we read the system cards, model cards and technical reports labs publish with a release. They report far more, including safety and frontier-risk tests.

DateDocumentScoreAs the document writes itSection
Jun 23, 2026 Seed2.1 Pro model card 28.3 FrontierScience-Research (Tables 6 and 11). Table 7 prints 33.3 for Seed2.1 Pro Capabilities
Feb 14, 2026 Seed2.0 Pro model card 25 FrontierSci-research (Table 3). Table 13 prints 23.3 Capabilities

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%