Purpose guide · Reasoning and research

Which AI models belong on a reasoning or research shortlist?

Catalog current through July 14, 2026

5 models

Five source-backed models whose Epoch records explicitly name reasoning, proof, or search work. This is a shortlist, not a performance ranking.

Selection rule

Included when the Epoch record explicitly lists mathematical reasoning, quantitative reasoning, theorem proving, proof generation, proof verification, or search. A matching label establishes task relevance only, not quality.

Task-fit shortlist

Evidence first. Your evaluation next.

Ordered by release date for readability, newest first. The order is not a score or recommendation.

  1. 01
    DeepSeek

    DeepSeekMath-V2

    Released November 27, 2025

    Matching evidence
    Mathematical reasoning · Theorem proving · Proof generation · Proof verification
    Domain
    Language
    Access
    Open weights (unrestricted); open weights
    Model source
  2. 02
    xAI

    Grok 4.1

    Released November 17, 2025

    Matching evidence
    Mathematical reasoning · Quantitative reasoning
    Domain
    Language
    Access
    API access; closed weights
    Model source
  3. 03
    xAI

    Grok 4

    Released July 9, 2025

    Matching evidence
    Search · Quantitative reasoning
    Domain
    Language · Multimodal · Vision
    Access
    API access; closed weights
    Model source
  4. 04
    DeepSeek

    DeepSeek-R1 (May 2025)

    Released May 28, 2025

    Matching evidence
    Quantitative reasoning
    Domain
    Language
    Access
    Open weights (unrestricted); open weights
    Model source
  5. 05
    Mistral

    Pixtral Large

    Released November 18, 2024

    Matching evidence
    Mathematical reasoning
    Domain
    Multimodal · Language · Vision
    Access
    Open weights (non-commercial); open weights
    Model source

Decision criteria

Questions the source can help you ask.

These checks narrow an evaluation plan. They do not replace hands-on testing.

01

Research retrieval or analysis?

Search appears as an explicit task for only one model on this shortlist. For every other model, retrieval tooling and citation behavior require separate verification.

02

General reasoning or formal proof?

Use the task labels to distinguish quantitative reasoning from theorem and proof work. Do not assume one label covers the other.

03

What must you test yourself?

Evaluate factual accuracy, source fidelity, calibration, tool use, latency, context handling, and cost on your own workload. This catalog does not measure them.

Evidence boundary

What this guide does not know.

No task-level quality, price, context window, latency, or reliability measurement is present in the Epoch catalog. We therefore publish no ranking or “best” label.

Catalog source: Epoch AI Data on AI Models, retrieved 2026-07-14, CC-BY. Artifact sha256:3c663b17ec989f00ef5f994214b878a914118e2d1fb6077e23329a318209eb86.

Each listed model links to its model-level source above. See the publication source ledger and methodology for the wider evidence policy.