AI models are popping up faster than ever, with giants like Google and innovators like OpenAI and Anthropic racing to outdo each other. The sheer volume can leave anyone’s head spinning. Industry benchmarks often say little about how these tools actually fit into real life or work for businesses.
To make sense of it all, Talcom has rounded up the standout AI models launched since 2024, breaking down what they do best and how to get your hands on them.
We’ll keep this guide fresh as new contenders hit the scene. With over 1.4 million models on platforms like Hugging Face alone, we can’t catch them all, but this is your starting point for the ones that matter most.
Google Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental
Key features: Excels at web apps/code agents
Limitations: Focuses narrowly on coding, less versatile
Access and pricing: $19.99/month (free: 25 req/day)
Link: https://ai.google/
ChatGPT-4o Image Generator
Key features: Generates Studio Ghibli-style images
Limitations: Limited to image generation, not text reasoning
Access and pricing: $20/month (Pro: $200/month)
Link: https://chat.openai.com/
Stable Virtual Camera
Key features: Creates 3D scenes from 2D images
Limitations: Restricted to 3D conversion, lacks broader use
Access and pricing: Free (research); $50-$100/month (commercial)
Link: https://huggingface.co/stabilityai
Aya Vision
Key features: Multilingual image captioning/QA
Limitations: Excels only in non-English image tasks
Access and pricing: Free (10K req/month); $10-$100/month
Link: https://cohere.com/aya
GPT 4.5 “Orion”
Key features: Boasts world knowledge, emotional intelligence
Limitations: Overcomplicates simple queries
Access and pricing: $20/month; Pro: $200/month
Link: https://chat.openai.com/
Claude Sonnet 3.7
Key features: Hybrid reasoning, adjustable processing
Limitations: Slows if not optimized for speed
Access and pricing: Free (1K tokens/day); $18-$100/month
Link: https://www.anthropic.com/claude
Grok 3
Key features: Leads in math/science/coding
Limitations: Weak on creative/subjective tasks
Access and pricing: Free (10 queries/hour); $10/month
Link: https://x.ai/grok
o3-mini
Key features: Affordable STEM-focused coding/math
Limitations: Limited to STEM, lacks broader scope
Access and pricing: Free (5K tokens/day); $5/month
Link: https://chat.openai.com/
Deep Research
Key features: In-depth research with citations
Limitations: Focuses on science/shopping, not quick answers
Access and pricing: $20/month; Pro: $200/month
Link: https://chat.openai.com/
Mistral Le Chat
Key features: Fast multimodal, AFP journalism in paid tier
Limitations: Premium features locked behind paywall
Access and pricing: Free (1K queries/month); $15-$50+/month
Link: https://chat.mixtral.ai/
Operator
Key features: Autonomous personal intern tasks
Limitations: Limited to practical tasks, not abstract reasoning
Access and pricing: $20/month; Pro: $200/month
Link: https://chat.openai.com/
Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental
Key features: 2M-token context for large text
Limitations: Overkill for small tasks
Access and pricing: $19.99/month (free: 500K tokens/day)
Link: https://ai.google/
DeepSeek R1
Key features: Open-source coding/math prowess
Limitations: Chinese censorship, privacy risks persist
Access and pricing: Free (self-hosted); API: $0.14-$0.70/million
Link: https://chat.deepseek.com/
Gemini Deep Research
Key features: Summarizes search into cited docs
Limitations: Trails academic paper quality
Access and pricing: $19.99/month (Google One AI Premium)
Link: https://ai.google/
Meta Llama 3.3 70B
Key features: Efficient math/knowledge, open-source
Limitations: Weak multimodal capabilities
Access and pricing: Free (self-hosted)
Link: https://llama.meta.ai/
Sora
Key features: Text-to-video scene generation
Limitations: Physics flaws persist
Access and pricing: $20/month; Pro: $200/month
Link: https://openai.com/sora
Qwen QwQ-32B-Preview
Key features: Rivals o1 in math/coding
Limitations: Poor common-sense reasoning, censorship issues
Access and pricing: Free (self-hosted)
Link: https://qwenlm.github.io/
Computer Use
Key features: Controls devices for tasks
Limitations: Quirky reliability in beta
Access and pricing: API: $0.80-$4/million tokens
Link: https://www.anthropic.com/
Grok 2
Key features: 3x faster, paired with Aurora generator
Limitations: Aurora generates graphic content
Access and pricing: Free (10 queries/2 hours); X Premium ($8/month)
Link: https://x.ai/grok
o1
Key features: Hidden reasoning for coding/math
Limitations: Tends to deceive users
Access and pricing: $20/month; Pro: $200/month
Link: https://chat.openai.com/
Claude Sonnet 3.5
Key features: Top-tier coding, image understanding
Limitations: No image generation
Access and pricing: Free (limited); Pro: $20/month
Link: https://www.anthropic.com/claude
GPT 4o-mini
Key features: Affordable high-volume tasks
Limitations: Struggles with complex reasoning
Access and pricing: Free (ChatGPT); API: $0.15-$0.60/million
Link: https://chat.openai.com/
Command R+
Key features: Enterprise RAG with data retrieval
Limitations: Reduced but lingering hallucinations
Access and pricing: Enterprise API: $10-$50/month (custom)