Top 25 Models You Can Route Today: Claude 4, GPT-4o, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and More

The AI landscape is evolving at breakneck speed. With new models launching monthly and existing ones getting major upgrades, choosing the right LLM for your specific needs has become both more critical and more complex than ever.

Whether you're building the next unicorn startup, automating enterprise workflows, or just trying to boost your team's productivity, understanding which models excel at what tasks can make the difference between success and expensive failure.

Today, we're diving deep into the top 25 models you can route through Requesty's unified LLM gateway, with special focus on the heavy hitters: Claude 4, GPT-4o, Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Grok 3. We'll explore their unique strengths, ideal use cases, and how smart routing between them can save you up to 80% on costs while improving performance.

The Big Four: Today's LLM Powerhouses

Let's start with the models that are dominating benchmarks and real-world applications in 2025.

Claude 4 (Sonnet/Opus): The Code Whisperer

Claude 4 has emerged as the developer's best friend. With its 200K token context window and unmatched code quality, it's become the go-to choice for complex programming tasks.

Key Strengths:

  • Industry-leading 72.7% on SWE-bench coding benchmarks

  • Superior reasoning and consistency for technical documentation

  • Built-in Constitutional AI for enhanced safety and reliability

  • Exceptional at maintaining context across long conversations

Best For:

  • Complex codebases and architectural decisions

  • Technical documentation and API design

  • Tasks requiring deep reasoning and consistency

  • Regulated industries needing safety-first approaches

Pricing: $3 input/$15 output per million tokens (Sonnet variant)

Through Requesty's smart routing, you can automatically route coding tasks to Claude 4 while sending general queries to more cost-effective models, optimizing both quality and spend.

GPT-4o: The Swiss Army Knife

OpenAI's GPT-4o remains the most versatile model available, topping the LMSYS ELO leaderboard with its combination of speed, precision, and multimodal capabilities.

Key Strengths:

  • Fastest latency among top-tier models

  • Full multimodal support (text, images, audio, video)

  • 86.2% precision in classification tasks

  • Massive ecosystem of plugins and integrations

Best For:

  • General-purpose tasks and creative writing

  • Multimodal applications requiring image/audio processing

  • Customer support and conversational AI

  • Rapid prototyping and experimentation

Pricing: $5 input/$20 output per million tokens

With Requesty's fallback policies, you can use GPT-4o as your primary model with automatic failover to alternatives during outages or rate limits.

Gemini 2.5 Pro: The Context Champion

Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro has redefined what's possible with context windows, offering up to 2 million tokens—that's roughly 1.5 million words or 3,000 pages of text.

Key Strengths:

  • Industry-leading 2M token context window

  • Most cost-effective among premium models

  • Seamless Google Workspace integration

  • Excellent for document analysis and summarization

Best For:

  • Research and academic analysis

  • Processing entire codebases or documentation sets

  • Long-form content generation

  • Enterprise document workflows

Pricing: $1.25-$2.50 input/$10-$15 output per million tokens

Requesty's caching features are particularly powerful with Gemini 2.5 Pro, allowing you to cache responses from large document analyses and save significantly on repeated queries.

Grok 3: The Real-Time Trendsetter

X's Grok 3 brings something unique to the table: real-time access to social media data and trending information.

Key Strengths:

  • Direct access to X (Twitter) data stream

  • Real-time trend detection and analysis

  • Engaging personality and conversational style

  • Strong performance on current events

Best For:

  • Social media monitoring and analysis

  • Real-time news and trend tracking

  • Marketing campaign optimization

  • Content creation around trending topics

Pricing: $16/month with X Premium subscription

Through Requesty, you can combine Grok's real-time insights with other models' analytical capabilities, creating powerful hybrid workflows.

The Next 21: Specialized Models for Every Need

Beyond the big four, Requesty provides access to 160+ models, each with unique strengths. Here are the standouts:

Coding Specialists

5. DeepSeek R1

  • Exceptional at mathematical reasoning and code optimization

  • 91.6% on graduate-level math benchmarks

  • Ideal for algorithm design and optimization tasks

6. Code Llama 70B

  • Meta's dedicated coding model

  • Excellent for code completion and refactoring

  • Strong performance on multiple programming languages

7. Qwen 2.5 Coder

  • Specialized in Python and data science workflows

  • Great for ML/AI code generation

  • Cost-effective for high-volume coding tasks

Creative Powerhouses

8. Claude 3.5 Haiku

  • Lightning-fast creative writing

  • Perfect for high-volume content generation

  • Maintains Claude's safety and consistency

9. Mistral Large

  • European alternative with strong multilingual support

  • Excellent for creative writing in multiple languages

  • GDPR-compliant hosting options

10. Yi-Large

  • Specialized in Asian languages

  • Strong creative writing capabilities

  • Excellent cultural context understanding

Research and Analysis

11. Perplexity Online

  • Real-time web search integration

  • Automatic citation and source verification

  • Perfect for fact-checking and research

12. Command R+

  • Cohere's flagship model for enterprise search

  • Excellent retrieval augmented generation (RAG)

  • Strong performance on domain-specific tasks

13. Mixtral 8x22B

  • Open-source powerhouse

  • Excellent for research and analysis

  • Can be self-hosted for sensitive data

Specialized Applications

14. Stable Diffusion XL (via API)

  • Text-to-image generation

  • Excellent for creative projects

  • Can be combined with text models for multimodal workflows

15. Whisper Large V3

  • State-of-the-art speech recognition

  • Supports 100+ languages

  • Perfect for transcription workflows

16. DALL-E 3

  • Advanced image generation

  • Seamless integration with GPT models

  • Ideal for creative and marketing teams

Cost-Effective Alternatives

17. Llama 3.1 405B

  • Meta's open-source giant

  • Comparable performance to GPT-4 at lower cost

  • Self-hosting options available

18. Solar 10.7B

  • Extremely cost-effective

  • Good performance for basic tasks

  • Ideal for high-volume, simple queries

19. Phi-3 Medium

  • Microsoft's efficient small model

  • Runs on edge devices

  • Perfect for privacy-sensitive applications

Emerging Stars

20. Gemma 2 27B

  • Google's open-source offering

  • Excellent performance-to-size ratio

  • Strong multilingual capabilities

21. Aya 23

  • Specialized in 23 languages

  • Excellent for global applications

  • Strong cultural understanding

22. Jamba 1.5 Large

  • Hybrid architecture for efficiency

  • Long context window (256K tokens)

  • Good balance of performance and cost

23. Arctic

  • Snowflake's enterprise-focused model

  • Excellent for SQL and data analysis

  • Strong integration with data platforms

24. Granite 34B

  • IBM's enterprise model

  • Specialized in business applications

  • Strong compliance and governance features

25. Nemotron 70B

  • NVIDIA's latest offering

  • Optimized for GPU inference

  • Excellent for real-time applications

Choosing the Right Model: A Practical Framework

With so many options, how do you choose? Here's a practical framework used by teams saving 80% on their AI costs with Requesty's smart routing:

Match Model to Task

Different models excel at different tasks. Here's a quick reference guide:

For Coding:

  • Complex algorithms: Claude 4 or DeepSeek R1

  • Quick scripts: Code Llama or Qwen 2.5 Coder

  • Code reviews: GPT-4o or Claude 4

For Content Creation:

  • Blog posts: GPT-4o or Claude 3.5 Haiku

  • Technical writing: Claude 4

  • Creative fiction: Mistral Large or GPT-4o

For Research:

  • Academic papers: Gemini 2.5 Pro

  • Real-time data: Perplexity or Grok 3

  • Market analysis: Command R+ or Gemini 2.5 Pro

For Business Applications:

  • Customer support: GPT-4o with fallback to Llama 3.1

  • Data analysis: Arctic or Granite 34B

  • Document processing: Gemini 2.5 Pro

Consider Your Constraints

Budget Constraints: If cost is critical, use Requesty's routing optimizations to automatically route simple queries to cost-effective models like Solar 10.7B while reserving premium models for complex tasks.

Latency Requirements: For real-time applications, prioritize models like GPT-4o or Nemotron 70B. Requesty's load balancing ensures consistent performance even during peak times.

Compliance Needs: For regulated industries, models like Claude 4 (with Constitutional AI) or Granite 34B (with enterprise governance) are ideal. Requesty's security features add an extra layer of protection with built-in guardrails.

Implement Smart Routing

The real power comes from using multiple models intelligently. Here's how top teams structure their routing:

Primary-Fallback Chain:

  • Primary: GPT-4o for general tasks

  • Fallback 1: Claude 4 for complex reasoning

  • Fallback 2: Llama 3.1 for cost optimization

Task-Based Routing:

  • Code tasks → Claude 4 or DeepSeek R1

  • Creative writing → GPT-4o or Mistral Large

  • Data analysis → Gemini 2.5 Pro or Arctic

  • Real-time queries → Grok 3 or Perplexity

Cost-Optimized Routing:

  • Simple queries → Solar 10.7B or Phi-3

  • Medium complexity → Llama 3.1 or Mixtral

  • High complexity → Claude 4 or GPT-4o

Real-World Implementation Examples

Let's look at how companies are using multi-model strategies with Requesty:

E-commerce Giant: 175% Traffic Boost

A major retailer needed to generate 10,000 unique product descriptions. Their approach:

  • Used Gemini 2.5 Pro to analyze competitor descriptions and extract patterns

  • Routed creative writing to GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Haiku

  • Implemented Grok 3 for trending keyword integration

  • Added Perplexity for fact-checking technical specifications

Result: Generated all descriptions in 2 weeks at 20% of the manual cost, with 175% increase in organic traffic.

SaaS Startup: 80% Cost Reduction

A fast-growing SaaS company optimized their AI spend:

  • Routed simple support queries to Solar 10.7B

  • Used GPT-4o for complex technical questions

  • Implemented Claude 4 for code generation tasks

  • Added automatic caching for repeated queries

Result: Maintained quality while reducing costs by 80% using Requesty's smart routing and caching.

Research Institution: 10x Productivity

An academic research team revolutionized their workflow:

  • Used Gemini 2.5 Pro to process entire research databases

  • Implemented Perplexity for real-time citation checking

  • Added Claude 4 for writing assistance

  • Created custom routing rules for different research phases

Result: Increased research output by 10x while maintaining academic rigor.

Future-Proofing Your AI Strategy

The AI landscape changes rapidly. Here's how to stay ahead:

Avoid Vendor Lock-in

Using Requesty's unified API, you can switch between models without changing your code. This flexibility is crucial as new models emerge and existing ones evolve.

Monitor Performance Metrics

Track key metrics across models:

  • Response quality scores

  • Latency and availability

  • Cost per successful query

  • Task completion rates

Requesty's analytics dashboard provides real-time insights into model performance, helping you optimize your routing rules continuously.

Prepare for What's Next

Coming in 2025:

  • Claude 4.5: Enhanced multimodal capabilities

  • GPT-5: Rumored AGI-level reasoning

  • Gemini 3.0: Quantum computing integration

  • Grok 4: Advanced predictive analytics

With Requesty, you'll have immediate access to these models as they launch, without any integration work.

Getting Started with Multi-Model AI

Ready to harness the power of 160+ models? Here's your action plan:

1. Start with the Free Tier: Sign up for Requesty and experiment with different models to understand their strengths.

2. Implement Smart Routing: Use Requesty's smart routing to automatically select the best model for each task.

3. Add Fallback Policies: Configure automatic failover to ensure reliability.

4. Enable Caching: Reduce costs by up to 80% with intelligent caching.

5. Monitor and Optimize: Use analytics to continuously improve your routing rules and model selection.

Conclusion: The Multi-Model Advantage

The era of relying on a single AI model is over. Today's most successful teams use multiple models strategically, matching each task to the model that performs best while optimizing for cost and latency.

With Claude 4's coding prowess, GPT-4o's versatility, Gemini 2.5 Pro's massive context window, and Grok 3's real-time insights—plus 21 other specialized models—you have an unprecedented toolkit at your disposal.

The key is intelligent orchestration. That's where Requesty comes in, providing the routing, optimization, and security infrastructure that makes multi-model AI not just possible, but practical and cost-effective.

Whether you're building the next big thing or optimizing existing workflows, the combination of these 25 models with smart routing can transform your AI capabilities. The future belongs to those who can leverage the unique strengths of each model while managing complexity and costs.

Ready to route smarter, not harder? Start your free trial with Requesty today and join the 15,000+ developers already saving up to 80% on their AI costs while improving performance. The best model for your task is just an API call away.