How fast AI ships

Each line on the chart is one day a lab put a new AI model in the public's hands. The bottom row is all three labs together.

New-model release days, counted from January 2024 to 5 October 2026:

2024: 11 release days, typically 31 days apart 2025: 21 release days, typically 16 days apart 2026 so far: 21 release days, typically 12 days apart

"Typically" is the median: half the gaps were shorter, half were longer. 2026 has already matched all of 2025 with three months to go.

Anthropic sped up the most. It had 4 release days in 2024 and has had 10 so far in 2026.

How the count works: a release day is the first day a new text model was open to the public. Image, video and voice models are left out. Previews limited to approved users are left out, which is why Google's Gemini 4 and Anthropic's Mythos Preview are not on the chart. Two models on the same day count once. A different rule gives different numbers, so read the direction, not the exact day count.

Many of these are small steps: a faster or cheaper version of a model that already existed. More releases does not mean each one is a big jump.

Only Google is a listed company here (Alphabet). OpenAI and Anthropic are private.