Hemingway-bench
Professional writers compare two models' answers blind on real writing prompts, from bedtime stories to business documents. The comparisons become ratings.
More than 5,000 blind pairwise judgments at launch.
- Made by
- Surge AI
- Released
- February 2026
- Kind
- Creative writing
- Level
- Expert
- Scored
- Graded by people
- Answers
- Open-ended
- Tasks
- Kept private
- Strongest model tested
- Claude Fable 5.1 #7 on the capability index
- Last model added
- September 2026
- Scores refreshed
- November 12th, 2026
Claude Fable 5 leads with 1,110 among models released by September 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 September 2026, and nobody has tested a newer one. Among the 20 highest-ranked models on the capability index, these have no score yet:
- Claude Fable 5.2
-
Gemini 4 Carbon
- GPT-6 Astra
- Claude Opus 5.5
- and 11 more
- 1,110 Claude Fable 5
- 1,105
Gemini 3.7 Flash
- 1,095 Claude Fable 5.1
- 1,093
Gemini 3.8 Flash
- 1,075
Gemini 3.6 Flash
- 1,073
Gemini 3.1 Pro
- 1,071
Gemini 3.5 Flash
- 1,069 Kimi K3
- 1,057 GPT-5.6 Sol
- 1,056
Gemini 3 Pro
- 1,053 GLM-5.3
- 1,052
Gemini 3 Flash
- 1,047 Claude Opus 5
- 1,046
DeepSeek-V4-Pro
- 1,045 Claude Opus 4.6
- 1,044 Claude Opus 4.8
- 1,042 Claude Opus 4.7
- 1,036 GLM-5.2
- 1,035 GPT-5.5
- 1,034 GLM-5.3-Flash
- 1,021 Kimi K2.6
- 1,016 Claude Opus 4.5
- 1,014
Tencent Hy4 preview
- 1,013
Muse Spark 1.2
- 1,009
Qwen 3.8 Max
- 1,001 Claude Sonnet 4.6
- 999 DeepSeek V4 Pro (preview)
- 994 GPT-5.2 Instant
- 990
Qwen3.5-Plus
- 990
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite
- 988 Kimi K2.5
- 985 GPT-5.4
- 985
Muse Spark 1.1
- 983 Grok 4.6
- 981
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp
- 972 Grok 4.5
- 971
Tencent Hy3
- 969 DeepSeek V4 Flash (preview)
- 954 GPT-5.2
- 948
Qwen3-Max
- 929
Qwen3.8 Flash
- 916 Grok 4.1 Fast
- 913
Muse Glimmer
- 888 Nemotron Lightning 3.5 30B A3B
- 883 Kimi K2 Instruct
- 803
Llama 4 Maverick
- 749 Nova 2 Pro (No reasoning)
Bars start at 700.
- 1 Claude Fable 5 adaptive/high 1,110
- 2
Gemini 3.7 Flash medium 1,105
- 3 Claude Fable 5.1 adaptive/high 1,095
- 4
Gemini 3.8 Flash medium 1,093
- 5
Gemini 3.6 Flash medium 1,075
- 6
Gemini 3.1 Pro high 1,073
- 7
Gemini 3.5 Flash medium 1,071
- 8 Kimi K3 max 1,069
- 9 GPT-5.6 Sol medium 1,057
- 10
Gemini 3 Pro high 1,056
- 11 GLM-5.3 max 1,053
- 12
Gemini 3 Flash high 1,052
- 13 Claude Opus 5 adaptive/high 1,047
- 14
DeepSeek-V4-Pro high 1,046
- 15 Claude Opus 4.6 high 1,045
- 16 Claude Opus 4.8 adaptive/default/high 1,044
- 17 Claude Opus 4.7 high 1,042
- 18 GLM-5.2 auto 1,036
- 19 GPT-5.5 medium 1,035
- 20 GLM-5.3-Flash max 1,034
- 21 Kimi K2.6 thinking on 1,021
- 22 Claude Opus 4.5 high 1,016
- 23
Tencent Hy4 preview high 1,014
- 24
Muse Spark 1.2 auto 1,013
- 25
Qwen 3.8 Max xhigh 1,009
- 26 Claude Sonnet 4.6 high 1,001
- 27 DeepSeek V4 Pro (preview) high 999
- 28 GPT-5.2 Instant 994
- 29
Qwen3.5-Plus thinking on 990
- 30
Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite minimal 990
- 31 Kimi K2.5 thinking on 988
- 32 GPT-5.4 no reasoning 985
- 33
Muse Spark 1.1 medium 985
- 34 Grok 4.6 high 983
- 35
DeepSeek-V4-Flash-Vision-Exp 981
- 36 Grok 4.5 high 972
- 37
Tencent Hy3 no reasoning 971
- 38 DeepSeek V4 Flash (preview) high 969
- 39 GPT-5.2 no reasoning 954
- 40
Qwen3-Max no reasoning 948
- 41
Qwen3.8 Flash xhigh 929
- 42 Grok 4.1 Fast thinking on 916
- 43
Muse Glimmer high 913
- 44 Nemotron Lightning 3.5 30B A3B thinking on 888
- 45 Kimi K2 Instruct 883
- 46
Llama 4 Maverick 803
- 47 Nova 2 Pro (No reasoning) 749
Source: Official Hemingway-bench leaderboard
| # | Entry | Score | Setting | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Fable 5 | 1,110 | adaptive/high | Jun 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 2 | | 1,105 | medium | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 3 | Claude Fable 5.1 | 1,095 | adaptive/high | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 4 | | 1,093 | medium | Sep 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 5 | | 1,075 | medium | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 6 | | 1,073 | high | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 7 | | 1,071 | medium | May 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 8 | Kimi K3 | 1,069 | max | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 9 | GPT-5.6 Sol | 1,057 | medium | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 10 | | 1,056 | high | Nov 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 11 | GLM-5.3 | 1,053 | max | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 12 | | 1,052 | high | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 13 | Claude Opus 5 | 1,047 | adaptive/high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 14 | | 1,046 | high | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 15 | Claude Opus 4.6 | 1,045 | high | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 16 | Claude Opus 4.8 | 1,044 | adaptive/default/high | May 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 17 | Claude Opus 4.7 | 1,042 | high | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 18 | GLM-5.2 | 1,036 | auto | Jun 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 19 | GPT-5.5 | 1,035 | medium | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 20 | GLM-5.3-Flash | 1,034 | max | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 21 | Kimi K2.6 | 1,021 | thinking on | Apr 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 22 | Claude Opus 4.5 | 1,016 | high | Nov 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 23 | | 1,014 | high | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 24 | | 1,013 | auto | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 25 | | 1,009 | xhigh | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 26 | Claude Sonnet 4.6 | 1,001 | high | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 27 | DeepSeek V4 Pro (preview) | 999 | high | Official leaderboard | |
| 28 | GPT-5.2 Instant | 994 | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 29 | | 990 | thinking on | Feb 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 30 | | 990 | minimal | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 31 | Kimi K2.5 | 988 | thinking on | Jan 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 32 | GPT-5.4 | 985 | no reasoning | Mar 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 33 | | 985 | medium | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 34 | Grok 4.6 | 983 | high | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 35 | | 981 | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard | |
| 36 | Grok 4.5 | 972 | high | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 37 | | 971 | no reasoning | Jul 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 38 | DeepSeek V4 Flash (preview) | 969 | high | Official leaderboard | |
| 39 | GPT-5.2 | 954 | no reasoning | Dec 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 40 | | 948 | no reasoning | Sep 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 41 | | 929 | xhigh | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 42 | Grok 4.1 Fast | 916 | thinking on | Nov 2025 | Official leaderboard |
| 43 | | 913 | high | Aug 2026 | Official leaderboard |
| 44 | Nemotron Lightning 3.5 30B A3B | 888 | thinking on | Official leaderboard | |
| 45 | Kimi K2 Instruct | 883 | Official leaderboard | ||
| 46 | | 803 | Apr 2025 | Official leaderboard | |
| 47 | Nova 2 Pro (No reasoning) | 749 | Official leaderboard |
3 models have held number one on the official leaderboard since its release in February 2026
Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release.
Source: Official Hemingway-bench leaderboard
Scores over time
All the scores we have, one dot each, so a model tested at several settings appears more than once.
Source: Official Hemingway-bench 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.
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