Aider works with virtually any LLM and is famous for its code-editing benchmarks, which makes model choice the single biggest lever on its quality. Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.5 sit at the top; Claude Sonnet 4.6 is the value-quality sweet spot; and DeepSeek V4 Pro, GLM 5.2, and Kimi K2.7 Code give Aider excellent results at open-weight prices.
Top of the code-editing benchmarks — the highest-quality option for Aider's diff-based edits.
The value-quality sweet spot — most of Opus's editing ability for far less.
OpenAI's flagship — neck-and-neck with Opus on Aider's hardest edits.
The value champion — top open-weight benchmark scores at a fraction of the cost.
The pick for very large repos thanks to its 1M-token context.
A strong open-weight coder with a 1M context — great value for Aider.
The model picks the moves; the agent runs the loop, the tools, and the guardrails. Once you've chosen a model, see which agent gets the most out of it.