LLM landscape

Model release timeline

When and how often the large AI labs ship new models. Release dates come from the Epoch catalogue rebuilt weekly; source-linked official releases and watcher discoveries remain marked as pending until Epoch adds them.

Data as of
Aug 25, 2026
Tracked releases

394

AI labs

5

Pending Epoch

10

Release cadence

Model release cadence by lab

Calendar position = release date · rail = active release span · closer markers = faster cadence

OpenAI shipped 32 tracked releases — median gap 21 days; Alibaba (Qwen) shipped 26 tracked releases — median gap 13 days; Google shipped 14 tracked releases — median gap 42 days; Anthropic shipped 12 tracked releases — median gap 45 days; Microsoft shipped 3 tracked releases — median gap 12 days in the last 24 months.

Oct 24Jan 25Apr 25Jul 25Oct 25Jan 26Apr 26Jul 26TodayOpenAI32 releases · median 21d gap22322222GPT-5.6 +1GPT-5.5 +1GPT-5.4 +1GPT-5.2 +1GPT-5.1 +1GPT-5 +2GPT-4.5o3o1GPT-4oAnthropic12 releases · median 45d gap22Claude Opus 5Claude Opus 4.8Claude Opus 4.7Claude Opus 4.5Claude Opus 4.1Claude Opus 4 +1Claude 3.7 SonnetGoogle14 releases · median 42d gap3Gemini 3.5 +2Gemini 3 ProGemini 2.5 ProGemini 2.0 ProAlibaba (Qwen)26 releases · median 13d gap222Qwen3.8-2.4T-A95BQwen 3.8 MaxQwen 3.6 PlusQwen3.5 397B-A17BQwen3-MaxQwen2.5-32BMicrosoft3 releases · median 12d gap2MAI-Transcribe-1.5 +1MAI-Code-1-Flash

Calendar time · closer hollow circles mean faster cadence · labels mark flagship generations and each lab's latest release

MarkerHollow circle = release daySame-day releases (count inside)Official/watcher release (pending Epoch)Rail = first-to-latest release span

Release dates come from the Epoch AI notable-models export, rebuilt by the scheduled dataset refresh; recent source-linked official releases bridge known crawler misses, and the announcement-watcher agent adds models it has spotted on official announcement pages that Epoch has not catalogued yet (both are drawn with a dashed marker until Epoch adds them). One dot per distinct model version per lab; dates are publication/announcement dates, not API availability dates. More labs join the timeline as they are added to the tracked-lab registry.