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22 Best Large Language Models (LLMs) in 2025

Backlinko Team

Written by Backlinko Team

List ofLLMs – Featured image

Large language models, also known as LLMs, are advanced AI systems that were pre-trained on large data sets designed to recognize human language and generate unique content based on user input.

In fact, there are over 300 LLMs designed for a range of use cases from text generation to writing code. In this blog post, you’ll find a list of 22 leading LLMs as of July 2025.

Best LLMs in July 2025

Here’s a table with 22 key large language models (LLMS) in 2025:

LLM Name Developer Release Date Context Length License Active Parameters
Llama 4 Scout Meta AI April 2025 10 million Open Source 17 billion
Grok 4 xAI July 2025 256 thousand Proprietary Unknown
Gemini 2.5 Pro Google March 2025 1 million Proprietary Unknown
MiniMax-Text-01 MiniMax January 2025 4 million Open Source 45.9 billion
o3-pro OpenAI April 2025 200 thousand Proprietary Unknown
DeepSeek-R1-0528 DeepSeek May 2025 128 thousand Open Source 37 billion
GPT-4.1 xAI April 2025 1 million Proprietary Unknown
Nova Premier Amazon Web Services April 2025 1 million Proprietary Unknown
o4-mini OpenAI April 2025 200 thousand Proprietary Unknown
o3-mini OpenAI January 2025 200 thousand Proprietary Unknown
Gemini 2.5 Flash Google April 2025 1 million Proprietary Unknown
Claude Opus 4 Anthropic May 2025 200 thousand Proprietary Unknown
Claude Sonnet 4 Anthropic May 2025 200 thousand Proprietary Unknown
Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 Alibaba July 2025 262 thousand Open Source 22 billion
Llama Nemotron Ultra NVIDIA April 2025 128 thousand Open Source Unknown
Mistral Medium 3 Mistral AI May 2025 128 thousand Proprietary Unknown
DeepSeek-R1 DeepSeek January 2025 128 thousand Open Source Unknown
Solar Pro 2 Upstage AI July 2025 66 thousand Proprietary Unknown
Kimi K2 Moonshot AI July 2025 128 thousand Open Source 32 billion
o3 OpenAI April 2025 200 thousand Proprietary Unknown
Grok 3 Mini xAI February 2025 1 million Proprietary Unknown
GPT-4o OpenAI March 2025 128 thousand Proprietary Unknown

Let’s take a closer look at some of the most popular models recently introduced to the market.

1. Grok 4

Grok 4 – Homepage

Developer: xAI

Release Date: July 9, 2025

Context Length: 256 thousand tokens

Image Input Support: Available

License: Proprietary

What is it? Grok 4 is the latest AI model developed by xAI, Elon Musk’s startup.

The model utilized a large and varied dataset for training, leveraging xAI’s internal supercomputer, Colossus, which is equipped with 200,000 GPUs.

Grok 4 can utilize external tools such as search engines and code interpreters. When addressing complex programming challenges or looking for current information on a topic, the model can generate its own search queries and retrieve real-time data from the internet to enhance its responses.

The model is also capable of analyzing various media types, including images and videos, which helps to increase the relevance and accuracy of its answers.

2. GPT-4.1

OpenAI – GPT-4.1

Developer: xAI

Release Date: April 14, 2025

Context Length: 1 million tokens

Image Input Support: Available

License: Proprietary

What is it? GPT-4.1 is a flagship general-purpose model from OpenAI designed for “problem solving across domains”, as the company describes itself.

The model supports a context window of up to 1 million tokens, allowing for the analysis of larger datasets. GPT-4.1 is a versatile model capable of analyzing both text and images.

3. Gemini 2.5 Pro

Gemini 2.5 Pro

Developer: Google

Release Date: June 17, 2025

Context Length: 1 million tokens

Image Input Support: Available

License: Proprietary

What is it? Gemini 2.5 Pro is Google’s most advanced AI model within the Gemini series, designed to address complex problems.

Recently released in June 2025, it stands out as a multimodal large language model (LLM), capable of processing and analyzing diverse data types, including text, audio, images, video, and entire code repositories. This versatility allows Gemini 2.5 Pro to extract insights and
generate solutions from a wide array of information sources.

4. DeepSeek R1 0528

Chat – DeepSeek

Developer: DeepSeek

Release Date: May 28, 2025

Context Length: 128 thousand tokens

Image Input Support: Not available

License: Open Source

What is it? DeepSeek R1 0528 is the latest iteration of DeepSeek’s R1 AI model, released on May 28, 2025.

The model’s advanced reasoning features enable it to tackle complex problems more effectively, making it suitable for applications that require deep analytical skills.

DeepSeek R1 0528 continues to be an open-weight model, boasting an impressive architecture with 685 billion parameters. Of these, approximately 37 billion are active at inference time.

This improvement solidifies DeepSeek’s position as a comprehensive open-source alternative to leading proprietary models from OpenAI and Google, all while preserving the cost-effectiveness and accessibility inherent in open-source development.

5. Claude Opus 4

Anthropic – Claude Opus 4

Developer: Anthropic

Release Date: May 22, 2025

Context Length: 200 thousand tokens

Image Input Support: Available

License: Proprietary

What is it? Claude 4 Opus is the most advanced AI model from Anthropic, the company states.

Recently released in May 2025, it excels in handling complex, long-running tasks, making it ideal for coding, deep research, and writing.

The model supports a context length of 200 thousand tokens, which is typical for AI models within the Claude 4 family.

6. Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507

Hugging Face – Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507

Developer: Alibaba

Release Date: July, 2025

Context Length: 262 thousand tokens

Image Input Support: Not available

License: Open Source

What is it? Qwen3-235B-A22B-Thinking-2507 is an advanced, open-source language learning model developed by Alibaba Cloud, designed for reasoning tasks.

Supports a native context length of 262,144 tokens, which is crucial for complex reasoning tasks and can be used in various applications, including code generation tasks and solving math problems.

7. Claude Sonnet 4

Anthropic – Claude Sonnet 4

Developer: Anthropic

Release Date: May 22, 2025

Context Length: 200 thousand tokens

Image Input Support: Available

License: Proprietary

What is it? Claude Sonnet 4 is a mid-sized model developed by Anthropic, designed for high-volume applications.

According to the company, the model strikes a balance between performance and efficiency. Notably, Sonnet 4 excels in managing specific workflows such as code generation, data analysis, and search.

Backlinko is owned by Semrush. We’re still obsessed with bringing you world-class SEO insights, backed by hands-on experience. Unless otherwise noted, this content was written by either an employee or paid contractor of Semrush Inc.