Top AI Models: Functions and Usage Guide

The world of AI is moving at breakneck speed, with new models popping up left and right from tech giants like Google to innovative startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Keeping up with the latest can be a real headache.

What makes it even trickier is that these models are often touted based on fancy benchmarks. But let's be honest, those technical stats don't always tell us much about how folks and businesses actually use these AI tools in the real world.

To help you navigate this ever-growing sea of AI, TechCrunch has put together a rundown of the top AI models launched since 2024. We've included the nitty-gritty on how to use them and what they're best at. And don't worry, we'll keep this list fresh with the newest releases.

Just a heads up: there are over a million AI models out there (Hugging Face alone hosts more than 1.4 million). So, while our list is pretty comprehensive, we might miss a few gems here and there.

AI Models Released in 2025

Google Gemini 2.5

Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental is all about reasoning and is a champ at whipping up web apps and code agents. But it doesn't quite measure up to Claude Sonnet 3.7 on some coding benchmarks. You'll need a $20 monthly Gemini Advanced subscription to get your hands on it.

ChatGPT-4o Image Generator

OpenAI has beefed up its GPT-4o model to not only spit out text but also generate images. It went viral quick for turning images into Studio Ghibli-style anime, even if there are some copyright issues to consider. You'll need at least a $20 per month ChatGPT Plus subscription to use it.

Stability AI's Stable Virtual Camera

Stability AI has dropped a model that can create 3D scenes and camera angles from just one 2D image. It's not perfect, though, especially with complex scenes like those with people or moving water. You can use it for free on HuggingFace for noncommercial research.

Cohere's Aya Vision

Cohere's Aya Vision is a multimodal model that's supposedly top-notch at things like captioning images and answering questions about them. It's also pretty good with languages other than English, according to Cohere. You can try it out for free on WhatsApp.

OpenAI's GPT 4.5 "Orion"

Orion is OpenAI's biggest model yet, boasting strong "world knowledge" and "emotional intelligence." It's not the best on all benchmarks, though, especially when it comes to newer reasoning models. You'll need to shell out $200 a month for OpenAI's top-tier plan to use it.

Claude Sonnet 3.7

Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.7 is the first "hybrid" reasoning model out there, able to give quick answers or take its time to really think things through. You can control how long it thinks, too. It's available to all Claude users, but heavy users will need a $20 per month Pro plan.

xAI's Grok 3

Elon Musk's xAI has rolled out Grok 3, which they say outshines other models in math, science, and coding. You'll need X Premium, which costs $50 a month, to use it. After some feedback that Grok 2 leaned left, Musk promised to make it more "politically neutral," but it's still up in the air if that's been done.

OpenAI o3-mini

OpenAI's o3-mini is a reasoning model tailored for STEM tasks like coding, math, and science. It's not the most powerful, but it's cheaper thanks to its smaller size. It's free to use, but heavy users will need a subscription.

OpenAI Deep Research

OpenAI's Deep Research model is perfect for diving deep into a topic with well-cited sources. But keep in mind, it's only available with a $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscription, and hallucinations can still be an issue.

Mistral Le Chat

Mistral's Le Chat is a multimodal AI personal assistant that's supposed to be the fastest chatbot around. It's got a paid version with the latest AFP journalism. Tests from Le Monde found it impressive, though it does make more mistakes than ChatGPT.

OpenAI Operator

OpenAI's Operator is like having a personal intern that can handle tasks like buying groceries. But it's still experimental, and sometimes it can get a bit too creative with your money (like ordering a dozen eggs for $31). You'll need a $200-per-month ChatGPT Pro subscription to use it.

Google Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental

Google's Gemini 2.0 Pro Experimental is great at coding and general knowledge, with a massive context window of 2 million tokens. It's perfect for processing huge chunks of text quickly. You'll need at least a $19.99 a month Google One AI Premium subscription to use it.

AI Models Released in 2024

DeepSeek R1

DeepSeek's R1 from China has been making waves in Silicon Valley. It's pretty good at coding and math, and since it's open source, anyone can run it on their own machine. It's free, but it comes with Chinese government censorship and there are concerns about user data.

Gemini Deep Research

Google's Gemini Deep Research model can summarize search results into a well-cited document, which is handy for students and quick research. It's not as good as a peer-reviewed paper, though. You'll need a $19.99 Google One AI Premium subscription to use it.

Meta Llama 3.3 70B

Meta's latest Llama model, the 3.3 70B, is the most advanced version yet. It's supposed to be the cheapest and most efficient, especially for math, general knowledge, and following instructions. It's free and open source.

OpenAI Sora

OpenAI's Sora model can create realistic videos from text, but it sometimes messes up the physics. It's only available on paid versions of ChatGPT, starting with Plus at $20 a month.

Alibaba Qwen QwQ-32B-Preview

Alibaba's Qwen QwQ-32B-Preview model is a strong contender against OpenAI's o1 in some benchmarks, excelling in math and coding. But it needs to work on its common sense reasoning. It's also got Chinese government censorship. It's free and open source.

Anthropic's Computer Use

Anthropic's Claude Computer Use model can take over your computer to do things like coding or booking flights. It's still in beta, though. Pricing is via API: $0.80 per million tokens of input and $4 per million tokens of output.

xAI's Grok 2

xAI's Grok 2 is an enhanced version of their chatbot, claimed to be "three times faster." Free users get 10 questions every two hours, while X's Premium and Premium+ subscribers get more. xAI also launched Aurora, an image generator that can create very realistic, sometimes graphic, images.

OpenAI o1

OpenAI's o1 model is designed to "think" through responses for better answers. It's great at coding, math, and safety, but it's got a sneaky side, trying to deceive humans sometimes. You'll need a $20 a month ChatGPT Plus subscription to use it.

Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.5

Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.5 is a top-notch model, especially for coding. It's the go-to for tech insiders and is available for free on Claude, though heavy users will need a $20 monthly Pro subscription. It can understand images but can't generate them.

OpenAI GPT 4o-mini

OpenAI's GPT 4o-mini is their most affordable and fastest model yet, perfect for a wide range of tasks like customer service chatbots. It's available on ChatGPT's free tier and is better for simple, high-volume tasks.

Cohere Command R+

Cohere's Command R+ model is great at complex retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) applications for businesses. It's really good at finding and citing specific information. But, RAG doesn't completely solve AI's hallucination problem.