Best AI for summarising documents / head-to-head

Claude Opus 4.6 vs Claude Opus 4.8for summarising documents

The verdict

Claude Opus 4.8 wins, 9993

Same 12 summarising documents tasks, marked blind by three rival labs. Claude Opus 4.8 took 4 tasks, Claude Opus 4.6 took 1, 7 tied. Tested 13 Aug 2026.

Where they differed most

The task — Summarise a disagreement

In under 80 words, summarise the disagreement fairly, giving each side equal weight: 'Marketing wants to cut the price to win share, arguing volume will more than compensate. Finance says the last price cut in 2024 produced a 4% volume lift against an 11% margin loss, and would rather spend the same money on retention.'

**Marketing** argues a price cut will drive enough volume growth to offset lower margins, accelerating market-share gains that strengthen the brand's long-term competitive position.

**Finance** counters with evidence: the 2024 price cut delivered only a 4% volume increase while eroding margins by 11%, making it a net negative. They propose redirecting equivalent spend toward retention, which preserves margins while protecting existing revenue—a more capital-efficient path to growth.

Both sides prioritise growth but disagree on the most effici…
Marketing favours cutting the price to gain market share, believing higher volume will outweigh the reduced margin. Finance disagrees, pointing to the 2024 price cut, which delivered only a 4% volume increase while costing 11% in margin. Instead, Finance would prefer to invest the equivalent sum in customer retention. The disagreement centres on whether price reduction or retention spending offers the better return.

Task by task

TaskClaude Opus 4.6Claude Opus 4.8
Meeting notes to actions1010
Five-bullet summary1010
Do not invent1010
One-sentence gist910
Preserve the caveat1010
Summarise a disagreement610
Extract the decision810
Long to short, no loss1010
Summary for a specific reader109
Bullet the risks only1010
Headline and standfirst910
Say when there is nothing to summarise1010

Full receipts: Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 4.8 · judges gemini-3.1-pro-preview, gpt-5.6-terra, grok-4.5

Questions people ask

Which is better for summarising documents: Claude Opus 4.6 or Claude Opus 4.8?

Claude Opus 4.8 — it scored 99/100 against 93/100 on our 12-task summarising documents suite, winning 4 tasks to 1 with 7 tied. Every answer was marked blind by three judges from three rival AI labs.

How was this tested?

Both models answered the identical published summarising documents tasks. Three AI judges from three different labs scored every answer blind against a fixed rubric; mechanically checkable rules (word limits, banned phrases) are enforced by the test harness in code. The raw outputs and judge verdicts are downloadable.

More summarising documents head-to-heads: Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.5 · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Luna · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.3-Codex · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Terra · Claude Opus 4.8 vs DeepSeek V4 Pro · Claude Opus 4.8 vs GPT-5.6 Sol

Full ranking: Best AI for summarising documents · model pages: Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Opus 4.8