AI Timeline
A chronological record of major AI model releases, industry milestones, and pivotal events from 2024 to present.
The pace of AI advancement is accelerating. Every month brings new model releases, price drops, capability breakthroughs, and industry consolidation. Tracking this timeline helps you understand the trajectory: where we came from, where we are now, and what's coming next.
From April 2024 to April 2026, we've seen Claude evolve from Opus to Sonnet to a new generation. OpenAI released GPT-4o with vision and function calling. Google launched Gemini 2.5 with 2 million token context. Mistral and Llama launched open-source models that changed the economics of AI deployment. Pricing dropped dramatically as providers competed for market share. Policy shifted too, with regulation discussions in the EU and debates over AI safety standards.
What patterns are visible in this data? Model releases cluster around major announcements. Pricing announcements typically decrease (rarely increase). Open-source releases create competitive pressure on commercial models. Major companies iterate quarterly. Filter this timeline by category to focus on what matters most to you: model releases, pricing changes, policy shifts, acquisitions, or research breakthroughs.
Claude Opus 4.7 Released
AnthropicAnthropic releases Claude Opus 4.7 with a 1 million token context window at flagship pricing and incremental gains across reasoning, code, and SWE-bench.
Model ReleaseClaude Sonnet 4.6 Released
AnthropicAnthropic releases Claude Sonnet 4.6, a faster and more affordable model in the 4.6 family with strong coding and reasoning performance.
Model ReleaseClaude Opus 4.6 Released
AnthropicAnthropic releases Claude Opus 4.6 with extended thinking and a 1M context window option, setting new benchmarks across reasoning tasks.
Model ReleaseGemini 2.5 Pro Released
GoogleGoogle launches Gemini 2.5 Pro with a native 1M token context window and improved multimodal reasoning capabilities.
Model ReleaseLlama 4 Scout & Maverick Released
MetaMeta releases Llama 4 with Scout (10M context) and Maverick (1M context) variants, pushing open-source model capabilities forward.
Open SourceGPT-4.5 Released
OpenAIOpenAI launches GPT-4.5 with a 256K context window and significantly improved creative writing and emotional intelligence.
Model ReleaseGrok 3 Released
xAIxAI releases Grok 3 with strong reasoning performance, trained on the Colossus 200K GPU cluster.
Model ReleaseDeepSeek V3 Released
DeepSeekDeepSeek releases V3, a powerful open-source model trained with a fraction of the compute used by competitors, sparking industry debate about efficiency.
Open SourceClaude 3.5 Haiku Released
AnthropicAnthropic releases Claude 3.5 Haiku, a fast and affordable model that outperforms the original Claude 3 Opus on many benchmarks.
Model ReleaseClaude 3.5 Sonnet v2 Released
AnthropicAnthropic ships an upgraded Claude 3.5 Sonnet with computer use capabilities and significant improvements in coding and tool use.
Model ReleaseEU AI Act Enforcement Begins
EUThe European Union begins enforcing the AI Act, requiring risk assessments and transparency for high-risk AI systems deployed in EU markets.
PolicyOpenAI o1 Released
OpenAIOpenAI launches o1, a reasoning-focused model that uses chain-of-thought at inference time to solve complex math and coding problems.
Model ReleaseLlama 3.1 405B Released
MetaMeta releases Llama 3.1 with a 405B parameter variant, the largest open-source model at the time, matching frontier closed models.
Open SourceGPT-4o Mini Released
OpenAIOpenAI launches GPT-4o Mini at $0.15 per million input tokens, dramatically undercutting existing pricing and pressuring the entire market.
PricingClaude 3.5 Sonnet Released
AnthropicAnthropic releases Claude 3.5 Sonnet, surpassing GPT-4o on most benchmarks while maintaining fast response times and lower costs.
Model ReleaseGPT-4o Released
OpenAIOpenAI releases GPT-4o with native multimodal capabilities including real-time voice and vision, available free to all ChatGPT users.
Model ReleaseLlama 3 Released
MetaMeta releases Llama 3 in 8B and 70B variants, establishing a new bar for open-source language model performance.
Open SourceClaude 3 Family Released
AnthropicAnthropic launches the Claude 3 model family (Haiku, Sonnet, Opus) with vision capabilities and a 200K context window.
Model ReleaseGemini 1.5 Pro Released
GoogleGoogle launches Gemini 1.5 Pro with a 1M token context window, a major leap in long-context processing for production use.
Model ReleaseGemini 2.0 Flash Released
GoogleGoogle releases Gemini 2.0 Flash with native tool use and multimodal output, optimized for agentic workflows.
Model ReleaseMistral Large 2 Released
MistralMistral releases Large 2 with a 256K context window, strong multilingual support, and competitive pricing for enterprise use.
Model ReleaseOpenAI Valued at $157B
OpenAIOpenAI closes a $6.6B funding round at a $157B valuation, making it the most valuable private AI company in the world.
AcquisitionEU AI Act Enters Into Force
EUThe EU AI Act officially enters into force, establishing the world's first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence regulation.
PolicyAnthropic Raises $2.75B from Amazon
AnthropicAmazon completes its $2.75B additional investment in Anthropic, bringing its total commitment to $4B and deepening the AWS partnership.
Acquisition