AI Glossary

Benchmark

What does “Benchmark” mean?

Benchmark: Fixed, shared set of tasks with a scoring method, used to compare AI models on the same test. Benchmarks cover skills like reasoning, coding, maths, knowledge and safety. They make progress measurable, but scores can overstate real-world ability if a test is narrow, saturated or leaked into training data.

Benchmark visual guide: Fixed, shared set of tasks with a scoring method, used to compare AI models on the same test. Benchmarks cover skills like reasoning, coding, maths, knowledge and safety. They make progress measurable, but scores can overstate real-world ability if a test is narrow, saturated or leaked into training data.
Visual guide Open full size (new tab)

What is an example of “Benchmark”?

A coding benchmark might ask models to fix real bugs from open-source projects and count how many fixes pass the project's tests.