Guide

Arena: compare the top AI models for free before you pay for one

The short version

Arena (arena.ai, formerly LMArena) is a free site: you ask a question, two anonymous models answer, you vote for the better one and both names are revealed. The site has no paid plan; Direct chat runs on a free daily balance, and battles don't use it up.

By Wlad Kowalski and the Mellow team · Updated October 14, 2026, sources read October 11, 2026

How to use it

Open Arena (search "arena ai"). It's free, and there is no paid plan.
Battle mode is on by default: type your question. Two anonymous models answer. Vote for the better one and both names are revealed. Battles don't use up your daily limit.
To pick the model yourself: Log In (Google or email), switch Battle to Direct and choose from the list. On Oct 11 it had Gemini 3.1 Pro, Claude Sonnet 5, Grok 4.6 and GPT-5.5.
Direct chat runs on a free daily balance. When it runs out you'll see a countdown; it refreshes 24 hours after your first prompt.

Good to know

Who runs it: created by researchers from UC Berkeley (formerly Chatbot Arena and LMArena); in 2025 the company became Arena Intelligence Inc.
The ranking is built from people's votes: on 8 October 2026 its text leaderboard showed 8,734,330 votes and 414 models.
Which models you meet in a battle is down to chance. The newest models can't be picked in Direct: on 11 October Claude Opus, Claude Fable, GPT 6 and Gemini 4 weren't in the list, though they are on the leaderboard.

Questions people also ask

Is Arena really free?

Yes. Its Terms of Use (updated 23 February 2026) say the company currently offers the service free of charge, while keeping the right to charge. Its Help Center says Arena offers no paid service that removes the rate limits.

Do I need an account?

Not for Battle mode. Direct, Side by Side, Image Arena and Video Arena need you to log in with Google or email.

How does the daily balance work?

It's spent in Direct chat. A 24-hour period starts with your first prompt, and when the balance is used up the site shows a countdown to the refresh. The size of the balance isn't published. Battles don't count toward it, but they have their own rate limits.

Can I type personal things there?

No. Conversations are disclosed to the model providers and may be published in research datasets; Arena itself asks you not to submit anything you wouldn't want to be public.

Sources

Other companies’ features and prices change. Every statement about them rests on these pages, as they read on the date above.