---
id: reasoning-effort-mix/2026-09
series: reasoning-effort-mix
title: Reasoning effort mix, September 2026
period: 2026-09
period_start: 2026-09-01
period_end: 2026-09-30
updated: 2026-11-11
license: CC BY 4.0
canonical: https://www.requesty.ai/data/reasoning-effort-mix/2026-09
latest: https://www.requesty.ai/data/reasoning-effort-mix
---

# Reasoning effort mix, September 2026

> 4.9% of chat requests set a reasoning effort in September 2026. Of those, "low" was the most requested level at 46.6%.

Question: Which reasoning effort level do developers ask for?

## Key findings

1. Low or no reasoning: 65.0% of requests that set an effort asked for none, minimal or low.
2. High and above: 20.2% asked for high, xhigh or max.
3. The share of requests that set an effort moved -3.9 pp since August 2026.

## Data

| Effort | Share of requests that set effort | Organizations (band) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| low | 46.60% | 100-499 |
| none | 17.51% | 100-499 |
| high | 14.47% | 100-499 |
| medium | 8.08% | 100-499 |
| token budget | 6.81% | 25-99 |
| max | 4.97% | 25-99 |
| minimal | 0.84% | 25-99 |
| xhigh | 0.72% | 25-99 |

## Method

- Effort is read from the reasoning.effort or reasoning_effort request parameter. Numeric thinking budgets are grouped as token budget. Requests without the parameter count as not set.
- A row is published only when it has at least 20 requests, at least 5 distinct organizations, and no single organization above 80% of its traffic. These are the same floors /rankings uses. Rows below the floors are withheld, not estimated.
- Only shares, rates, medians and organization bands are published. Absolute request, token and spend totals stay private.

## Caveats

- Requests that do not set an effort run at the model default, which differs by model.
- Some clients set an effort on every request even for models that ignore it.

## Cite as

Requesty (2026). Reasoning effort mix, September 2026. Requesty Data. https://www.requesty.ai/data/reasoning-effort-mix/2026-09

```bibtex
@misc{requesty_reasoning_effort_mix_2026_09,
  author       = {{Requesty}},
  title        = {Reasoning effort mix, September 2026},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.requesty.ai/data/reasoning-effort-mix/2026-09}},
  note         = {Requesty Data}
}
```

Source: Requesty production gateway. License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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