AI models are being cranked out at a dizzying pace, by everyone from Big Tech companies like Google to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Keeping track of the latest ones can be overwhelming.Adding to the confusion is that AI models are often promoted based on industry benchmarks. But these technical metrics often reveal little about how real people and companies actually use them.To cut through the noise, TechCrunch has compiled an overview of the most advanced AI models released since 2024, with details on how to use them and what theyre best for. Well keep this list updated with the latest launches, too.There are literally hundreds of thousands of AI models out there: HuggingFace, for example, hosts over 900,000. So this list might miss some models that perform better, in one way or another.AI models released in 2025OpenAI o3-miniThis is OpenAIs latest reasoning model and is optimized for STEM-related tasks like coding, math, and science. Its not OpenAIs most powerful model but because its smaller, the company says its significantly lower-cost. It is available for free but requires a subscription for heavy users.OpenAI Deep ResearchOpenAIs Deep Research is designed for doing in-depth research on a topic with clear citations. This service is only available with ChatGPTs $200 per month Pro subscription. OpenAI recommends it for everything from science to shopping research, but beware that hallucinations remain a problem for AI.Mistral Le ChatMistral has launched app versions of Le Chat, a multimodal AI personal assistant. Mistral claims Le Chat responds faster than any other chatbot. It also has a paid version with up-to-date journalism from the AFP. Tests from Le Monde found Le Chats performance impressive, although it made more errors than ChatGPT.OpenAI OperatorOpenAIs Operator is meant to be a personal intern that can do things independently, like help you buy groceries. It requires a $200 a month ChatGPT pro subscription. AI agents hold a lot of promise, but theyre still experimental: a Washington Post reviewer says Operator decided on its own to order a dozen eggs for $31, paid with the reviewers credit card.Google Gemini 2.0 Pro ExperimentalGoogle Geminis much-awaited flagship model says it excels at coding and understanding general knowledge. It also has a super-long context window of 2 million tokens, helping users who need to quickly process massive chunks of text. The service requires (at minimum) a Google One AI Premium subscription of $19.99 a month.AI models released in 2024DeepSeek R1This Chinese AI model took Silicon Valley by storm. DeepSeeks R1 performs well on coding and math, while its open source nature means anyone can run it locally. Plus, its free. However, R1 integrates Chinese government censorship and faces rising bans for potentially sending user data back to China.Gemini Deep ResearchDeep Research summarizes Googles search results in a simple and well-cited document. The service is helpful for students and anyone else who needs a quick research summary. However, its quality isnt nearly as good as an actual peer-reviewed paper. Deep Research requires a $19.99 Google One AI Premium subscription.Meta Llama 3.3 7BThis is the newest and most advanced version of Metas open source Llama AI models. Meta has touted this version as its cheapest and most efficient yet, especially for math, general knowledge, and instruction following. It is free and open source.OpenAI SoraSora is a model that creates realistic videos based on text. While it can generate entire scenes rather than just clips, OpenAI admits that it often generates unrealistic physics. Its currently only available on paid versions of ChatGPT, starting with Plus which is $20 a month.Alibaba Qwen QwQ-32B-PreviewThis model is one of the few to rival OpenAIs o1 on certain industry benchmarks, excelling in math and coding. Ironically for a reasoning model, it has room for improvement in common sense reasoning, Alibaba says. It also incorporates Chinese government censorship, TechCrunch testing shows. Its free and open source.Anthropics Computer UseClaudes Computer Use is meant to take control of your computer to complete tasks like coding or booking a plane ticket, making it a predecessor of OpenAIs Operator. Computer use, however, remains in beta. Pricing is via API: $0.80 per million tokens of input, and $4 per million tokens of output.x.AIs Grok 2x.AI, the Elon Musk-owned AI company, has launched an enhanced version of its flagship Grok 2 chatbot it claims is three times faster. Free users are limited to 10 questions every two hours on Grok, while subscribers to Xs Premium and Premium+ plans enjoy higher usage limits. x.AI also launched an image generator, Aurora, that produces highly photorealistic images, including some graphic or violent content.OpenAI o1OpenAIs o1 family is meant to produce better answers by thinking through responses through a hidden reasoning feature. The model excels at coding, math, and safety, OpenAI claims, but has issues deceiving humans, too. O1 requires subscribing to ChatGPT Plus, which is $20 a month.Anthropics Claude Sonnet 3.5Claude Sonnet 3.5 is a model Anthropic claims as best-in-class. Its become known for its coding capabilities and is considered a tech insiders chatbot of choice.OpenAI GPT 4o-miniOpenAI has touted GPT 4o-mini as its most affordable and fastest model yet thanks to its small size. Its meant to enable a broad range of tasks like powering customer service chatbots. The model is available on ChatGPTs free tier. Its better suited for high-volume simple tasks compared to more complex ones. Cohere Command R+Coheres Command R+ model excels at complex Retrieval-Augmented Generation (or RAG) applications for enterprises. That means it can find and cite specific pieces of information really well. (The inventor of RAG actually works at Cohere.) Still, RAG doesnt fully solve AIs hallucination problem. Coheres models are for enterprise users.