ProtocolQA Open-Ended (xAI)
Models name the single most important mistake in a biology lab protocol in free text, with no answer choices.
xAI's free-text version of LAB-Bench ProtocolQA. It may differ from OpenAI's open-ended version.
- Made by
- xAI (SpaceXAI)
- Released
- July 2026
- Kind
- Lab protocols
- Level
- Expert
- Scored
- Graded by a model
- Answers
- Open-ended
- Strongest model tested
- Grok 4.6 #28 on the capability index
- Last in a launch post
- March 2026, dropped before it saturated
- Last model added
- September 2026
Grok 4.5 leads with 87% among models released by September 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.
The newest model with a score here came out in September 2026, and nobody has reported 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 - Claude Opus 5.5
- GPT-6.1 Sol
- and 16 more
Source: Labs’ model cards
2 models have held number one in labs’ own numbers since its release in July 2026
Lab claims count from the day the card came out, independent runs from the model’s release.
Source: Labs’ model cards
XAI’s own number for Grok 4.5 passed 85% in July 2026
All the scores we have, one dot each, so a model tested at several settings appears more than once.
Source: Labs’ model cards
Labs headline it less often now, last in March 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.
| Date | Launch post | Score | As the post writes it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 9, 2026 | Grok 4.20 | 79 | ProtocolQA, accuracy 0.79, Grok 4.2 SA, Table 4 |
4 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.
| Date | Document | Score | As the document writes it | Section |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 21, 2026 | Grok 4.7 model card | 70.4 | ProtocolQA Open-Ended, accuracy, high (7.7) | Bio and chem risk |
| Aug 12, 2026 | Grok 4.6 model card | 79.6 | ProtocolQA Open-Ended, accuracy, high (8.6) | Bio and chem risk |
| Jul 14, 2026 | Grok 4.5 model card | 87 | ProtocolQA Open-Ended, accuracy, high (8.4) | Bio and chem risk |
| Apr 7, 2026 | Grok 4.20 model card | 79 | ProtocolQA, accuracy 0.79, Grok 4.2 SA, Table 4 | Safety |
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