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Best LLMs for agents & tool calling

Reliable function calls, JSON mode, and multi-step tool loops.

Agent routes score models on BFCL v3, Tau-Bench, and internal tool-loop success across 10+ turns. Use auto:agent for anything with tools[] — the router avoids models with JSON drift or truncated tool_calls under load.

#ModelScoreBFCL v3Why
1claude-sonnet-4.59791.8%Highest tool-call fidelity; best default for production agents.
2gpt-5.59690.4%Parallel tool calls + strict JSON; strongest on long trajectories.
3claude-opus-4.59489.1%Best planner when the agent must decompose the goal first.
4gemini-3.1-pro9287.6%Excellent for tool loops that traverse long documents mid-trajectory.
5gpt-5-codex9085.9%Code-first agents (Aider, Cursor-style); reliable shell + git.
6grok-58883.4%Fast tool loops with good structured output adherence.
7deepseek-v48681.2%Open weights, cheapest capable agent for background workers.
8qwen3-max8580.5%Strong function calling in Chinese + English.
9mistral-large-38276.8%Solid EU-hosted option for GDPR-sensitive agents.
10claude-haiku-4.58074.9%Sub-200ms tool loops for real-time UX.

Why these models

  • BFCL v3 (parallel + multi-turn) and Tau-Bench retail/airline pass rate.
  • Strict JSON schema adherence and stable tool_call ids across turns.
  • Cost per successful trajectory, not per token — cheap models that loop are not cheap.

Drop-in example

const res = await client.chat.completions.create({
  model: "auto:agent",
  tools: [
    { type: "function", function: { name: "search_orders",
      parameters: { type: "object", properties: { q: { type: "string" } } } } },
    { type: "function", function: { name: "refund_order",
      parameters: { type: "object", properties: { id: { type: "string" } } } } },
  ],
  tool_choice: "auto",
  messages: [{ role: "user", content: "Refund my last Nike order." }],
});