GEM-4C 558 -4%
GPT-61S 555 -3.8%
CL-SN55 553 -3.8%
CL-OP55 551 -4%
GPT-61TERR 547 -3.5%
GEM-4CM 546 -4%
CL-OP55EH 542 -3.9%
GPT-61SOLXH 541 -3.6%
GPT-61SOLH 527 -3.7%
CL-SN55XH 523 -3.5%
GEM-4CL 520 -3.9%
GPT-61TERRXH 507 -3.4%
CL-OP55H 506 -4%
GPT-61SOLM 500 -3.5%
KIMI-K31P 499 -3.5%
GEM-4AR 498 -3.9%
GPT-61TERRH 490 -3.2%
CL-OP55M 483 -3.6%
MUSE-WONDFUL 479 -3.8%
CL-SN55H 467 -3.3%
CL-HK55 463 -2.9%
GPT-61TERRM 462 -3.1%
GPT-6A 451 -4.7%
MUSE-WOND 451 -3.6%
CL-HK55XH 450 -3%
GPT-6ASTRXH 440 -4.8%
GROK-47 440 -3.1%
GROK-47H 438 -2.9%
GPT-6ASTRH 437 -4.8%
DSK-V-340615 436 -2.9%
QWEN-38X 428 -2.9%
GPT-61SOLL 423 -3.2%
GLM-53 420 -3%
MIMO-V26P 420 -2.6%
CL-HK55H 419 -2.8%
LING-31F1019 417 -2.6%
GEM-38F 416 -2.8%
GPT-6ASTRM 415 -4.6%
MMAX-M31F 414 -2.8%
GEM-38FM 412 -2.8%
GPT-61TERRNO 411 -2.8%
GROK-47L 410 -2.8%
DSK-V-3E48BD 410 -2.6%
GPT-6L 407 -2.6%
GLM-53F 407 -2.6%
STEP-5 405 -2.6%
CL-FABL51XH 403 -4.7%
GPT-61TERRL 403 -2.9%
MIMO-V26F 401 -2.4%
CL-FABL51 399 -4.5%
CL-SN55M 395 -2.9%
CL-OP55L 393 -3.4%
MIST-LARG4 390 -2.7%
CL-FABL51H 386 -4.5%
CL-HK55M 386 -2.3%
GPT-6LUNAXH 377 -2.6%
MUSE-SPAROPE 375 -2.6%
MIST-LARG4M 371 -2.4%
DSK-V4P 365 -2.4%
GPT-6LUNAH 365 -2.1%
GLM-53L 364 -2.4%
CL-SN55L 362 -2.7%
GEM-38FL 361 -2.4%
GPT-6ASTRL 359 -4.5%
CL-FABL51M 359 -4.5%
QWEN-827B 349 -2.2%
CL-HK55L 347 -2%
MMAX-M3 345 -2%
GPT-6LUNAM 344 -2.3%
DSK-V-02811D 344 -2%
K2-HORI375BA 342 -2%
REFL-BEAM 338 -2%
QWEN-827BM 332 -1.8%
CL-FABL51L 329 -4.4%
QWEN-827BL 320 -1.8%
NEMO-35SUPEV 313 -1.9%
INKL 295 -1.7%
NVID-NEMO3UL 295 -1.3%
GEM-35FLITE 295 -1.3%
GPT-6LUNAL 287 -1.4%
GPT-6LUNANON 286 -1%
NANB-333B 285 -2.7%
QWEN-827BNON 282 -1.4%
COMM-APLUS 266 -1.1%
MUSE-GLIM 263 -1.1%
NEMO-35LIGH 261 -0.8%
GRAN-428B 258 -0.8%
MIST-SMAL4 252 -0.4%
INKL-SM 235 -2.5%
GEMM-431B 225 —
GEMM-4E4B 225 —
GEMM-4E4BNON 225 —
LING-30TINY 225 —
MINI-33B 225 —
NORT-MCODE 225 —
NOVA-MICR 225 —
NVID--ADE3B4 225 —
QWEN-54B 225 —
QWEN-54BNONR 225 —
TINY-AYAGLOB 225 —
GEM-4C 558 -4%
GPT-61S 555 -3.8%
CL-SN55 553 -3.8%
CL-OP55 551 -4%
GPT-61TERR 547 -3.5%
GEM-4CM 546 -4%
CL-OP55EH 542 -3.9%
GPT-61SOLXH 541 -3.6%
GPT-61SOLH 527 -3.7%
CL-SN55XH 523 -3.5%
GEM-4CL 520 -3.9%
GPT-61TERRXH 507 -3.4%
CL-OP55H 506 -4%
GPT-61SOLM 500 -3.5%
KIMI-K31P 499 -3.5%
GEM-4AR 498 -3.9%
GPT-61TERRH 490 -3.2%
CL-OP55M 483 -3.6%
MUSE-WONDFUL 479 -3.8%
CL-SN55H 467 -3.3%
CL-HK55 463 -2.9%
GPT-61TERRM 462 -3.1%
GPT-6A 451 -4.7%
MUSE-WOND 451 -3.6%
CL-HK55XH 450 -3%
GPT-6ASTRXH 440 -4.8%
GROK-47 440 -3.1%
GROK-47H 438 -2.9%
GPT-6ASTRH 437 -4.8%
DSK-V-340615 436 -2.9%
QWEN-38X 428 -2.9%
GPT-61SOLL 423 -3.2%
GLM-53 420 -3%
MIMO-V26P 420 -2.6%
CL-HK55H 419 -2.8%
LING-31F1019 417 -2.6%
GEM-38F 416 -2.8%
GPT-6ASTRM 415 -4.6%
MMAX-M31F 414 -2.8%
GEM-38FM 412 -2.8%
GPT-61TERRNO 411 -2.8%
GROK-47L 410 -2.8%
DSK-V-3E48BD 410 -2.6%
GPT-6L 407 -2.6%
GLM-53F 407 -2.6%
STEP-5 405 -2.6%
CL-FABL51XH 403 -4.7%
GPT-61TERRL 403 -2.9%
MIMO-V26F 401 -2.4%
CL-FABL51 399 -4.5%
CL-SN55M 395 -2.9%
CL-OP55L 393 -3.4%
MIST-LARG4 390 -2.7%
CL-FABL51H 386 -4.5%
CL-HK55M 386 -2.3%
GPT-6LUNAXH 377 -2.6%
MUSE-SPAROPE 375 -2.6%
MIST-LARG4M 371 -2.4%
DSK-V4P 365 -2.4%
GPT-6LUNAH 365 -2.1%
GLM-53L 364 -2.4%
CL-SN55L 362 -2.7%
GEM-38FL 361 -2.4%
GPT-6ASTRL 359 -4.5%
CL-FABL51M 359 -4.5%
QWEN-827B 349 -2.2%
CL-HK55L 347 -2%
MMAX-M3 345 -2%
GPT-6LUNAM 344 -2.3%
DSK-V-02811D 344 -2%
K2-HORI375BA 342 -2%
REFL-BEAM 338 -2%
QWEN-827BM 332 -1.8%
CL-FABL51L 329 -4.4%
QWEN-827BL 320 -1.8%
NEMO-35SUPEV 313 -1.9%
INKL 295 -1.7%
NVID-NEMO3UL 295 -1.3%
GEM-35FLITE 295 -1.3%
GPT-6LUNAL 287 -1.4%
GPT-6LUNANON 286 -1%
NANB-333B 285 -2.7%
QWEN-827BNON 282 -1.4%
COMM-APLUS 266 -1.1%
MUSE-GLIM 263 -1.1%
NEMO-35LIGH 261 -0.8%
GRAN-428B 258 -0.8%
MIST-SMAL4 252 -0.4%
INKL-SM 235 -2.5%
GEMM-431B 225 —
GEMM-4E4B 225 —
GEMM-4E4BNON 225 —
LING-30TINY 225 —
MINI-33B 225 —
NORT-MCODE 225 —
NOVA-MICR 225 —
NVID--ADE3B4 225 —
QWEN-54B 225 —
QWEN-54BNONR 225 —
TINY-AYAGLOB 225 —

Delayed ticker data. Last calculated 5 Nov 2026, 11:04 pm Sydney time.

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Ant Group's Ling-2.6-Flash Was the Mystery Model Topping OpenRouter Charts

On April 16, 2026, a model called “Elephant Alpha” appeared on OpenRouter with no attribution and quickly climbed to the top of the trending leaderboard, hitting 100 billion daily token calls within a week. Initial coverage — including here — attributed it to OpenRouter. That attribution was wrong.

Ant Group officially confirmed on April 22 that Elephant Alpha is Ling-2.6-Flash, a production large language model from the research arm of China’s largest fintech company.

The Model

Ling-2.6-Flash is a sparse Mixture-of-Experts model with 104 billion total parameters and 7.4 billion active per forward pass. Ant Group designed it specifically for AI agent applications, claiming state-of-the-art performance for its size class on BFCL-V4, TAU2-bench, SWE-bench Verified, Claw-Eval, and PinchBench.

The standout number from Artificial Analysis: Ling-2.6-Flash scored Intelligence Index 26 while generating only 15 million output tokens to complete the full eval suite. Nemotron-3-Super needed 110 million tokens to reach a comparable score. Ant Group claims this translates to an 86% reduction in inference cost for equivalent intelligence, which is the actual story here: the model is not trying to top raw capability rankings, it is optimized to minimize token spend while staying competitive.

Inference speeds hit 340 tokens per second on a 4-card H20 setup, with Prefill throughput 2.2x that of Nemotron-3-Super.

Pricing

  • Input: $0.10 per million tokens
  • Output: $0.30 per million tokens
  • One-week free trial via OpenRouter and Alipay Tbox

A commercial deployment called LingDT is available through Ant Digital Technologies for enterprise and SME use.

Why the Anonymous Launch

Ant Group did not explain why the model was soft-launched under a codename. The playbook is not unusual for Chinese labs — test real-world adoption and load characteristics before making a formal claim. What is unusual is how fast it moved: reaching the trending top before most observers had time to speculate about the source.

The actual use case Ant Group is pitching is agent pipelines where token cost compounds at scale. At $0.30/M output, Ling-2.6-Flash is 25x cheaper than Claude Opus 4.6 on output and roughly 10x cheaper than GPT-5.4 at standard pricing. For high-volume agentic workloads where the model does not need frontier reasoning but does need to execute thousands of tool calls per day, the cost delta is material.

What Changed

The earlier Stack Futures item attributed Elephant Alpha to OpenRouter directly. That was incorrect. OpenRouter was the distribution platform, not the lab. Ant Group built the model, tested it anonymously, and revealed the name once usage data validated the deployment.

Ling-2.6-Flash is now listed on Artificial Analysis under its official name, where it sits in the mid-tier of the intelligence rankings but near the top of the efficiency tier — which appears to be exactly where Ant Group intended it to land.