Best AI Model for Document Summarization
Summarizing long documents, reports, meetings, and articles. Needs large context windows and good compression ability.
Our Verdict
Gemini 2.5 Flash at $0.15/$0.60 with 1M context is the best deal — summarize entire books for pennies. For higher quality summaries, Gemini 3.1 Pro's 1M context at $2 input gives noticeably better compression. Llama 4 Scout's 10M context is unique if you need to process truly massive documents, and at $0.18 input it's dirt cheap. Input cost is everything here — you're sending lots of text and generating little.
Top Picks
1M context at $0.15 input — cheapest way to summarize long docs
Best for: Budget summarization at scale
Input
$0.15/1M
Output
$0.6/1M
Context
1M
Max Output
66K
1M context with best-in-class comprehension for accurate summaries
Best for: High-quality summaries
Input
$2/1M
Output
$12/1M
Context
1M
Max Output
64K
10M context — the only model that can process truly massive corpora
Best for: Extremely long documents
Input
$0.18/1M
Output
$0.63/1M
Context
10M
Max Output
32K
What Matters for Summarization
Key Factors
- •Context window
- •Input cost
- •Compression quality
Tips
- ✓Input cost dominates — you're sending lots of text but generating little
- ✓1M context models (Gemini, Llama 4 Scout) can handle entire books
- ✓Flash/budget models are usually sufficient for summarization
Full Ranking (All Compatible Models)
| Rank | Model | Input | Output | Avg Bench | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Llama 4 ScoutMeta | $0.18 | $0.63 | 80.1% | 109 |
| #2 | Gemini 2.5 FlashGoogle | $0.15 | $0.60 | 82.8% | 93 |
| #3 | Gemini 3.1 ProGoogle | $2.00 | $12.00 | 93.4% | 68 |
| #4 | Gemini 3 FlashGoogle | $0.50 | $3.00 | 84.0% | 62 |
| #5 | GLM-4.7Zhipu AI | $0.60 | $2.20 | 85.0% | 62 |
| #6 | GPT-4o MiniOpenAI | $0.15 | $0.60 | 77.6% | 56 |
| #7 | Gemini 2.5 ProGoogle | $1.25 | $10.00 | 85.7% | 55 |
| #8 | MiniMax M2.5MiniMax | $0.30 | $1.20 | 86.0% | 54 |
| #9 | o3OpenAI | $0.40 | $1.60 | 86.9% | 54 |
| #10 | Mistral Medium 3Mistral | $0.40 | $2.00 | 81.5% | 53 |
| #11 | Llama 4 MaverickMeta | $0.31 | $0.85 | 85.3% | 53 |
| #12 | DeepSeek R1DeepSeek | $0.55 | $2.19 | 82.5% | 52 |
| #13 | DeepSeek V3DeepSeek | $0.14 | $0.28 | 83.5% | 50 |
| #14 | o4-miniOpenAI | $1.10 | $4.40 | 84.8% | 48 |
| #15 | Claude Haiku 4.5Anthropic | $0.80 | $4.00 | 78.8% | 47 |
| #16 | GLM-5Zhipu AI | $1.00 | $3.20 | 77.8% | 47 |
| #17 | Gemini 3 ProGoogle | $2.00 | $12.00 | 86.9% | 43 |
| #18 | GPT-4oOpenAI | $2.50 | $10.00 | 78.6% | 42 |
| #19 | Claude Sonnet 4.6Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | 83.3% | 38 |
| #20 | GPT-5.2 CodexOpenAI | $1.75 | $14.00 | 86.8% | 38 |
| #21 | Claude Sonnet 4.5Anthropic | $3.00 | $15.00 | 81.9% | 38 |
| #22 | Mistral Large 3Mistral | $2.00 | $5.00 | 87.0% | 38 |
| #23 | GPT-5.3 CodexOpenAI | $2.00 | $16.00 | 88.2% | 37 |
| #24 | GPT-5OpenAI | $1.25 | $10.00 | 85.7% | 34 |
| #25 | Grok 4xAI | $3.00 | $15.00 | 83.7% | 28 |
| #26 | Claude Opus 4.6Anthropic | $5.00 | $25.00 | 86.7% | 24 |