What You're Actually Buying When You Pick an LLM Vendor
I started this analysis with a practical question: once the leading models score within a few benchmark points of each other, what should companies actually compare when choosing an LLM provider? I compared 33 models from 15 providers to find out, and the number everyone leads with turned out to be far less useful than the differences behind it.
Vendor comparison pages still lead with one figure: a reasoning benchmark score. But among the leading models, that number is no longer enough to make a vendor decision. The top ten now sit within a six-point spread on GPQA Diamond, the PhD-level science benchmark most vendors quote. Claude Mythos 5 leads at 94.4%, while the tenth-ranked model is at 89%. A gap that small doesn't tell you which vendor to pick.
Among leading models, intelligence alone is no longer the main differentiator. Vendors now differ in three important ways: how often...
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