# Bookmarked: My AI Model Tier List for mid-2026

- Author: @gurupanguji
- Date: 2026-07-20
- URL: https://gurupanguji.com/blog/2026/07/20/my-ai-model-tier-list-for-mid-2026/
- Categories: link

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> Gemini is… weird. I have it (via GitHub Copilot) on every machine I use and have reached for it on almost none of them. It rides along in [my agent containers "for kicks"](https://taoofmac.com/space/notes/2026/01/25/2030), it’s the third pane in a Copilot side-by-side I mostly use to confirm I prefer the other two, and I can’t remember it ever fixing any of the stuff I handed over to Codex–I’ve never found a reason to start [selling out to Gemini](https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2026/05/14/1220) with actual money.
> 
> This leaves Gemini in the least useful category: a model I have everywhere and no reason to choose. It has one strength I’ve pinned down, and an unsurprising one–[architecting Go packages](https://taoofmac.com/space/notes/2026/01/25/2030)–but I’ve never had the patience to see it through a whole project because nothing it did made me want to keep going.
> 
> The joke, of course, is that it’s the model everyone is going to use without choosing it: [Apple Foundation Models are derived from Gemini](https://taoofmac.com/space/blog/2026/06/08/2040), so half the people who’d never install it are running it by proxy. Nobody *picks* Gemini.

*Source:* [My AI Model Tier List for mid-2026](http://xanadu.lan:5600/unread/entry/101530)

This is so interesting as Gemini is my go-to model for most of my coding needs. I like GPT set of models too. Maybe I don't have complex coding needs like these other people do - but my site, my personal projects, the apps that I am building - all of them use gemini. It's done python, Swift, Kotlin and typescript code with no issues and working in a way that I like to write code in. 

It could just be the novice coder in me that doesn't see bad code or I somehow write requirements and am able to get the best out of these models. But Gemini is my go to. I am trying mistral - specifically devstral's generous free tier as my agent to see if that is better. Let's see.