Best Value Multimodal AI Model in 2026 — Cost-Adjusted Rankings
As of October 8, 2026, the top model in best value multimodal ai model on the BenchLM leaderboard is GPT-5.6 Luna with a score of 56.8.
Bottom line: Multimodal inputs are large and expensive.
This ranking moves when models ship. Get the releases, price changes and retirements that affect your shortlist. Follow model changes
Full Rankings (32 ranked, 1 tracked)
Public preview through Mistral Studio; Mistral says the weights are due by the end of October 2026.
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tracked
How to choose
Key Takeaways
The best value model is GPT-5.6 Luna by OpenAI with a provisional Score/$ ratio of 56.75 (score: 68.1, output: $1.2/1M tokens).
The best open-weight model is MiniMax M3 at position #2.
32 models are ranked here; 1 tracked model is listed without a position.
Score in Context
What these scores mean
Value scores divide the weighted multimodal score by output token price (per 1M tokens). Higher means more capability per dollar. Models with no listed price are excluded.
Known limitations
Value rankings favor cheap models even if absolute performance is modest. A model scoring half as well at one-tenth the price wins on value — but may not meet your quality bar. Always check raw scores alongside value rankings.
About this ranking
Ranking data as of October 8, 2026
Multimodal workloads — processing images, charts, documents, and screenshots — often involve large inputs that drive up token costs quickly. This ranking divides each model's weighted multimodal score (MMMU-Pro, OfficeQA-Pro) by output token price. For document processing pipelines and visual AI applications running at scale, the value leaders here offer the best multimodal reasoning per dollar spent.
Unless noted otherwise, ranking surfaces on this page use BenchLM’s provisional leaderboard lane rather than the stricter sourced-only verified leaderboard.
GPT-5.6 Luna leads this ranking with a score of 56.75, followed by MiniMax M3 (42.92) and Inkling-Small (34.58). There is a significant gap between the leading models and the rest of the field.
The best open-weight option is MiniMax M3 (ranked #2 with a score of 42.92). Open-weight models are highly competitive in this category — self-hosting is a viable alternative to proprietary APIs.
This ranking uses provisional weighted averages across the scoring benchmarks in multimodalGrounded. For detailed model profiles, click any model name above. To compare two specific models head-to-head, use the "vs #" links.
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