How OpenRouter's LLM Rankings Helps You Pick the Best LLM for Any Job

PLUS: Cursor Co-Founder Aman Sanger on the Journey from 0-$100M in 12 Months

How OpenRouter's LLM Rankings Helps You Pick the Best LLM for Any Job

OpenRouter’s comprehensive rankings let you compare language models across 12 categories, including Programming, Translation, Marketing, Roleplay, and more.

LLM Rankings - Programming

Track Model Performance Across Timeframes

OpenRouter provides insights into how models perform over different periods. Here’s a breakdown for the Programming category:

Daily Leaders: Claude 3.7 Sonnet Stays on Top

While Gemini 2.5 Pro is gaining ground, Claude 3.7 Sonnet remains the top performer of the day. This consistency highlights Claude's reliability for programming tasks.

Openrouter Rankings - Top Of The Day

Weekly Winners: GPT-4o-mini Dominates Despite Quasar Alpha’s Brief Appearance

GPT-4o-mini took the weekly crown, even as Quasar Alpha (OpenAI’s Q* model) briefly appeared as a free option before disappearing. This shows how quickly the landscape can shift.

Openrouter Rankings - Top Of The Week

Note that Quasar Alpha was offered as a free model for a while hence the heavy usage.

Monthly Masters: Claude 3.7 Sonnet Leads the Pack

Claude 3.7 Sonnet topped the monthly rankings, proving its sustained performance in Programming tasks.

Openrouter Rankings - Top Of The Month

Newer free models like Optimus Alpha are trending, offering a glimpse into cutting-edge technology without any cost.

Openrouter Rankings - Trending

Free Access to Next-Gen Models: Limited-Time Opportunities

OpenRouter occasionally offers free access to next-generation models.

For instance, Quasar Alpha was available for 4 days, seeing significant user adoption before it was removed.

Currently, Optimist Alpha is free to use, though it will be a paid model when officially released. This is your chance to test futuristic LLMs at no cost.

Task-Specific Excellence: Find the Best Model for Your Needs

OpenRouter’s rankings help you identify which model excels at specific tasks. For example, in Translation, Google’s models dominate the rankings, which makes sense given Google Translate’s long-standing presence in the field.

Openrouter Rankings - Translation

Similarly, you can find the best models for tasks like Legal, Health, Marketing, or even Roleplay by checking their respective rankings.

Simply get started in 3 simple steps:

  1. Create an OpenRouter account to access the platform.

  2. Add $5 in credits to start testing models.

  3. Grab an API key and begin experimenting with the models.

There’s a lot of untapped potential on scouring the rankings on OpenRouter once per day to find out the next best model and building a product around it.

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