The best AI coding models in 2026
The best AI coding models right now are GLM-5.3, Flint and Ornith-1.5-122B, out of 5 we have reviewed. Each is ranked by our rating, with its price, our verdict and who it suits.
Updated Oct 23, 2026 · Ranked from our reviews · How we review
- 1
Open-weight coding within a few points of the closed frontier, under a licence almost nobody needs to read twice.
Best for: Developers and companies who want a capable open coding and agent model with minimal licence restrictions.
Price: Open weights under a modified MIT licence. Z.ai API: $1.40 input / $0.26 cached / $4.40 output per 1M tokens; GLM-5.3-Flash $0.15 / $0.50.
Read our GLM-5.3 review4.4/5 - 2
A coding model genuinely sized for a 48 GB laptop, from a well-funded lab, with every headline score still Recursive's own.
Best for: Developers who want a fast coding agent model that runs locally on a Mac or a single GPU.
Price: Free open weights under Apache 2.0; free, rate-limited endpoint on OpenRouter. Paid Flint API for select partners, price not published.
Read our Flint review3.9/5 - 3
Striking coding scores from a lab with no public names, and a one-GPU pitch that holds only at 4-bit.
Best for: Teams serving open-weight coding agents on a single large GPU who can run their own evaluations.
Price: Free open weights under MIT. You pay only for your own hardware or hosting.
Read our Ornith-1.5-122B review3.6/5 - 4
Devstral Small 2 still runs well on one gaming GPU, but Mistral has abandoned the line and nobody now sells it as a service.
Best for: Developers who want a self-hosted coding agent on one 24GB GPU or a 32GB Mac and are content to maintain a model its maker no longer develops.
Price: Free weights under Apache 2.0. Mistral's API version was retired on March 31, 2026, and Artificial Analysis lists no public API.
Read our Devstral Small 2 review3.4/5 - 5
A solid coding model for late 2025 that its own maker has retired; new projects belong on Mistral Medium 3.5 or a newer open model.
Best for: Existing self-hosted users who are not ready to migrate yet.
Price: Open weights under a modified MIT licence (not for companies over $20M monthly revenue). Retired from Mistral's API on July 31, 2026.
Read our Devstral 2 review3.1/5