Here's the cheat sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SFDeVvyhf52j9XqpjanQFUl8w3MwIyY6/view?usp=drive_link

In this cheat sheet you will find a summary of the best AI model to use for different tasks, based on the #1 rankings from LM Arena as of March 2026.

Please note that top models are time sensitive, so this summary may be outdated by the time you read this. However, you can reference https://arena.ai/leaderboard for the real time updates.

Here's who's winning in each category:

Text: Claude Opus 4.6 (https://claude.ai) | Pro $20/mo
General-purpose writing, summarising, brainstorming, and conversation.

Creative Writing: Claude Opus 4.6 Thinking (https://claude.ai) | Pro $20/mo
Novels, scripts, essays, marketing copy, and polished long-form content.

Code: Claude Opus 4.6 (https://claude.ai) | Pro $20/mo
Writing, debugging, and reviewing code across languages and frameworks.

Vision: Gemini 3 Pro (https://gemini.google.com) | AI Pro $19.99/mo
Understanding and analysing images, photos, charts, and screenshots.

Document: Claude Opus 4.6 (https://claude.ai) | Pro $20/mo
Processing uploaded documents like PDFs, reports, and spreadsheets.

Text-to-Image: Gemini 3.1 Flash Image Preview (https://aistudio.google.com) | AI Pro $19.99/mo
Generating images from text prompts, including illustrations, photos, and designs.

Image Edit: ChatGPT Image high-fidelity (https://chatgpt.com) | Plus $20/mo
Modifying existing images via text instructions, including retouching and compositing.

Search: Claude Opus 4.6 Search (https://claude.ai) | Pro $20/mo
AI-powered web search that retrieves, summarises, and cites real-time information.

Deep Research: Manus (https://manus.im) | Free / Plus $39/mo / Pro $199/mo
Autonomous multi-step research agent for complex, in-depth investigations.

Real-Time Data: Grok (https://grok.com) | SuperGrok $30/mo
Live information from X/Twitter, news, and trending topics.

Text-to-Video: Google Veo 3.1 (http://gemini.google.com) | AI Pro $19.99/mo
Creating video clips from text descriptions, including motion, scenes, and audio.

Image-to-Video: Grok Imagine Video (https://grok.com) | SuperGrok $30/mo
Animating a still image into a video clip with motion and effects.

Every single one of these has a free tier, so you can try them all without paying anything.

Source: https://arena.ai/leaderboard