Which AI model? The September 2026 guide
The best AI model or tool for writing, coding, research, spreadsheets, images, privacy and free use, with a runner-up for each and UK prices, built from independent leaderboards.
There are now more AI models than there are sensible reasons to use them. OpenAI has three flavours of GPT-6, Anthropic has shipped Claude Opus 5.5, and Google releases a new Gemini Flash roughly every few weeks. Every launch claims to top some chart.
This monthly guide cuts through it. For each everyday job, from writing and coding to spreadsheets, images and research, you get one pick, a runner-up, the reasoning, and the UK price of the plan you'd actually need. The picks are built from independent blind-vote leaderboards and benchmark testers plus official plan pages, not from launch-day press releases. Where a price isn't published in pounds, I say so.