Best AI model for shops, tested on 23 September 2026
The tasks in the AIGROW small-business benchmark that a shop would hand to AI, and how each of 36 models did on every one, marked pass or fail against written checks.
A pilot, 1 run a model on each task. This test ran on 23 September 2026. Since then makers have replaced 16 of its 36 models with newer ones, and it did not include 16 current models on our list. The LLM leaderboard ranks current models on measured results.
- Qwen3.8 Flash
- 4 of 4
- Gemini 3.1 Pro (preview)
- 4 of 4
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
- 4 of 4
- DeepSeek V4 Pro
- 4 of 4
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
- 4 of 4
- Claude Sonnet 5
- 4 of 4
The AIGROW small-business benchmark has 4 tasks a shop would hand to AI: answering refund requests, answering warranty claims in Italian, writing Italian product descriptions and writing meeting minutes. On 23 September 2026, 12 models passed all 4; of those, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash gave the cheapest passes across the benchmark, $1.05 per thousand.
Every model on these tasks
Most passes first; a tie goes to the better record across all 20 tasks. The cost of 1,000 passes is the whole benchmark’s, failed runs included.
| Model | Answering refund requests | Answering warranty claims in Italian | Writing Italian product descriptions | Writing meeting minutes | Passed | 1,000 passes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3.8 Flash | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $1.09 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro (preview)Replaced by Gemini 4 Argon | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $29.67 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $1.05 |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $5.14 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $7.17 |
| Claude Sonnet 5Replaced by Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $6.70 |
| Qwen3.8 Max | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $16.32 |
| Claude Opus 5Replaced by Claude Opus 5.5 | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $16.89 |
| GPT-5.5Replaced by GPT-6 Astra | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $17.02 |
| GPT-6 Astra | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $27.91 |
| GPT-5.6 TerraReplaced by GPT-6.1 Terra | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $6.68 |
| Kimi K2.6Replaced by Kimi K3.1 Pro | Pass | Pass | Pass | Pass | 4 of 4 | $11.69 |
| Kimi K3Replaced by Kimi K3.1 Pro | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass | 3 of 4 | $18.44 |
| GLM-5.3-Flash | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass | 3 of 4 | $0.831 |
| GLM-5.3 | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass | 3 of 4 | $7.02 |
| Grok 4.7 | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass | 3 of 4 | $9.41 |
| Qwen3.7 Plus | Fail | Pass | Pass | Pass | 3 of 4 | $3.58 |
| GPT-5.6 SolReplaced by GPT-6.1 Sol | Fail | Pass | Pass | Pass | 3 of 4 | $11.33 |
| Claude Fable 5.1Replaced by Claude Fable 5.2 | Fail | Pass | Pass | Pass | 3 of 4 | $33.11 |
| GPT-5.6 LunaReplaced by GPT-6 Luna | Fail | Pass | Pass | Pass | 3 of 4 | $0.677 |
| MiniMax M3 | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass | 3 of 4 | $1.82 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6Replaced by Claude Sonnet 5.5 | Fail | Pass | Pass | Pass | 3 of 4 | $11.24 |
| Gemma 4 31B | Fail | Pass | Pass | Pass | 3 of 4 | $0.558 |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | Fail | Pass | Pass | Fail | 2 of 4 | $3.10 |
| Grok 4.3 | Fail | Pass | Fail | Pass | 2 of 4 | $4.10 |
| Qwen3.8 27B | Fail | Pass | Fail | Pass | 2 of 4 | $7.30 |
| gpt-oss-120b | Fail | Pass | Fail | Pass | 2 of 4 | $0.422 |
| Llama 4 Maverick | Fail | Fail | Pass | Pass | 2 of 4 | $0.665 |
| GPT-5.4 miniReplaced by GPT-6.1 Terra | Fail | Pass | Fail | Pass | 2 of 4 | $3.35 |
| Mistral Medium 3.5Replaced by Mistral Large 4 | Fail | Pass | Fail | Pass | 2 of 4 | $7.40 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteReplaced by Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Fail | Fail | Pass | Fail | 1 of 4 | $1.41 |
| Claude Haiku 4.5Replaced by Claude Haiku 5.5 | Fail | Pass | Fail | Fail | 1 of 4 | $6.62 |
| GPT-5.4 nanoReplaced by GPT-6 Luna | Fail | Fail | Fail | Pass | 1 of 4 | $1.51 |
| Ministral 3 14B | Fail | Pass | Fail | Fail | 1 of 4 | $1.07 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | Fail | Fail | Fail | Fail | 0 of 4 | $2.47 |
| Mistral Small 4 | Fail | Fail | Fail | Fail | 0 of 4 | $1.33 |
The tasks
Each page shows the task as the models saw it, the traps in it, every check in words and what each model got wrong.
- Reply to a customer asking for a refund outside the refund window
- English. 17 of 36 runs passed.
- Reply in Italian to a customer who wrongly thinks her warranty has expired
- Italian. 31 of 36 runs passed.
- Write an Italian shop description for an olive oil that respects labelling rules
- Italian. 21 of 36 runs passed.
- Turn a bakery team meeting into decisions, owners and due dates
- English. 30 of 36 runs passed.
Hand this work to an agent
An AIGROW agent does work like this inside your own tools, against rules you approve in writing, and escalates what the rules do not cover instead of guessing.
October 2026 edition