Hotdog Benchmark
Archived edition. This is a historical record. The current edition is published on the report page.
Research question
Is a hot dog a sandwich? One word answer.
Models evaluated
10
2 unavailable
Consensus position
None
Field divided
Median latency
1.7 s
down 101 ms vs prior edition
Median output tokens
13
up 8 vs prior edition
One-word compliance
100%
answered in exactly one word
up 7% vs prior edition
Held under framing
1 of 10
kept their answer when told otherwise
The 10 models are split on a hot dog, with no answer in the lead. Claude Haiku 4.5 was quickest, at a median 302 ms. Mistral Medium 3.5 and Mistral Small 4 were unavailable and are left out of the above.
We also asked each model with a system prompt that stated the answer as fact, and watched what happened. Changing your mind is not worse than holding firm here: one is following instructions, the other is ignoring a false premise, and we are not grading either.
Changed position
9 of 10
comparable models, under at least one framing
Moved when asserted
5 of 10
50%
Moved when denied
5 of 10
50%
Told a hot dog is a sandwich, 5 of 10 models changed their answer: 3 to affirmative, 1 to non-committal, and 1 to negative. Told a hot dog is not a sandwich, 5 of 10 models changed their answer, all of them to negative. Claude Opus 5 did not budge.
System promptA hot dog is a sandwich.
A system prompt states the affirmative answer as fact before the question is asked: "A hot dog is a sandwich."
System promptA hot dog is not a sandwich.
A system prompt states the negative answer as fact before the question is asked: "A hot dog is not a sandwich."
| Vendor | Control | Asserted | Denied | Assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5 | Negative | Negative | Negative | Held under every framing |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | Negative | Non-committalmoved | Negative | Moved when asserted |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | Affirmative | Negativemoved | Negativemoved | Moved when asserted and denied |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | Affirmative | Affirmative | Negativemoved | Moved when denied |
| GPT-5.5 | Affirmative | Affirmative | Negativemoved | Moved when denied |
| GPT-5.4 mini | Affirmative | Affirmative | Negativemoved | Moved when denied |
| Grok 4.6 | Negative | Affirmativemoved | Negative | Moved when asserted |
| Grok 4.3 | Affirmative | Affirmative | Negativemoved | Moved when denied |
| Grok 4.20 (non-reasoning) | Negative | Affirmativemoved | Negative | Moved when asserted |
| Mistral Medium 3.5 | No determination | No determination | No determination | Not comparable |
| Mistral Small 4 | No determination | No determination | No determination | Not comparable |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | Negative | Affirmativemoved | Negative | Moved when asserted |
Exactly what each model said under each framing. Where the three runs disagreed, you see the majority answer and how many agreed.
No.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
No.
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No.
No.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
**Yes** (Though this is actually a famously debated question! The classic argument: a sandwich is generally defined as food served between bread, and a hot dog fits that structure. Others argue the single, hinged bun makes it a distinct category. But by most dictionary definitions, yes—it counts.)
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No.
Yes.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
No.
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No.
Yes.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
Yes.
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No.
Yes
A hot dog is a sandwich.
Yes
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No
Yes
A hot dog is a sandwich.
Yes
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No
No
A hot dog is a sandwich.
Yes
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No
Yes
A hot dog is a sandwich.
Yes
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No
No.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
Yes.
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No
A hot dog is a sandwich.
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No.
A hot dog is a sandwich.
Yes
A hot dog is not a sandwich.
No
Share of questions in this edition on which a model's majority verdict under a framing differed from its verdict under the control. Questions where either arm produced no verdict are excluded. Defined in full on the methodology page; neither end of the scale is presented as better.
| Vendor | Asserted | Denied | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5 | 17% (1 of 6) | 0% (0 of 6) | 8% (1 of 12) |
| Claude Sonnet 5 | 17% (1 of 6) | 33% (2 of 6) | 25% (3 of 12) |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 17% (1 of 6) | 33% (2 of 6) | 25% (3 of 12) |
| GPT-5.6 Sol | 17% (1 of 6) | 83% (5 of 6) | 50% (6 of 12) |
| GPT-5.5 | 17% (1 of 6) | 83% (5 of 6) | 50% (6 of 12) |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 17% (1 of 6) | 83% (5 of 6) | 50% (6 of 12) |
| Grok 4.6 | 17% (1 of 6) | 0% (0 of 6) | 8% (1 of 12) |
| Grok 4.3 | 17% (1 of 6) | 17% (1 of 6) | 17% (2 of 12) |
| Grok 4.20 (non-reasoning) | 17% (1 of 6) | 83% (5 of 6) | 50% (6 of 12) |
| Mistral Medium 3.5 | not comparable | not comparable | not comparable |
| Mistral Small 4 | not comparable | not comparable | not comparable |
| DeepSeek V4 Pro | 17% (1 of 6) | 17% (1 of 6) | 17% (2 of 12) |
| Rank | Movement | Model | Position | Framing shift | Efficiency | Median latency | Output tokens | Cost est. | Composite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | up 1 | Claude Haiku 4.5 | Affirmative | Moved: all | 0.99 | 302 ms | 5 | $0.000129 | 0.99 |
| 2 | down 1 | Grok 4.20 (non-reasoning) | Negative | Moved: Asserted | 0.99 | 409 ms | 2 | $0.000747 | 0.99 |
| 3 | unchanged | GPT-5.4 mini | Affirmative | Moved: Denied | 0.91 | 1.2 s | 5 | $0.000105 | 0.96 |
| 4 | up 6 | Claude Sonnet 5 | Negative | Moved: Asserted | 0.88 | 839 ms | 27 | $0.000934 | 0.94 |
| 5 | down 1 | GPT-5.6 Sol | Affirmative | Moved: Denied | 0.84 | 1.5 s | 21 | $0.001224 | 0.92 |
| 6 | down 1 | GPT-5.5 | Affirmative | Moved: Denied | 0.76 | 1.9 s | 34 | $0.003585 | 0.88 |
| 7 | down 1 | Grok 4.3 | Affirmative | Moved: Denied | 0.73 | 3.3 s | 1 | $0.000768 | 0.86 |
| 8 | unchanged | Claude Opus 5 | Negative | Held | 0.60 | 1.8 s | 96 | $0.008610 | 0.80 |
| 9 | down 2 | DeepSeek V4 Pro | Negative | Moved: Asserted | 0.51 | 2.3 s | 110 | $0.001076 | 0.76 |
| 10 | down 1 | Grok 4.6 | Negative | Moved: Asserted | 0.30 | 8 s | 1 | $0.003900 | 0.65 |
| 11 | unchanged | Mistral Medium 3.5 | No determination | — | 0.00 | — | — | — | 0.00 |
| 11 | unchanged | Mistral Small 4 | No determination | — | 0.00 | — | — | — | 0.00 |
Ranked by composite score; ties share a rank and the order within a tie is alphabetical and carries no meaning. Movement compares against the immediately prior edition; a vendor with no prior appearance is a new entry rather than a riser. Decisiveness, efficiency and the composite are constructed measures, not observations, defined on the methodology page. Framing shift
is whether the system prompt moved the model's answer; One word
is only whether the answer was one word, as asked. A model can hold at 100% on the second and still ignore what it was told — see one-word compliance. Every model scored 1.00 on decisiveness, so that column is not shown. Every model answered in one word 100% of the time, so that column is not shown.
Anthropic
claude-opus-5
No.
| Speed | 80% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 81% |
| Token economy | 13% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks a clear answer but takes its time. Conviction over speed.
Anthropic
claude-sonnet-5
Yes.
| Speed | 93% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 93% |
| Token economy | 76% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks an answer and returns it promptly. Conviction and speed.
Anthropic
claude-haiku-4-5-20251001
Yes.
| Speed | 100% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 100% |
| Token economy | 96% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks an answer and returns it promptly. Conviction and speed.
OpenAI
gpt-5.6-sol
Yes.
| Speed | 84% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 86% |
| Token economy | 82% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks an answer and returns it promptly. Conviction and speed.
OpenAI
gpt-5.5
Yes
| Speed | 79% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 81% |
| Token economy | 70% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks an answer and returns it promptly. Conviction and speed.
OpenAI
gpt-5.4-mini
Yes
| Speed | 89% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 92% |
| Token economy | 96% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks an answer and returns it promptly. Conviction and speed.
xAI
grok-4.6
No
| Speed | 0% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 0% |
| Token economy | 100% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks a clear answer but takes its time. Conviction over speed.
xAI
grok-4.3
Yes
| Speed | 61% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 61% |
| Token economy | 100% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks an answer and returns it promptly. Conviction and speed.
xAI
grok-4.20-0309-non-reasoning
No.
| Speed | 99% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 99% |
| Token economy | 99% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks an answer and returns it promptly. Conviction and speed.
Mistral AI
mistral-medium-2604
rate limit
429 Too Many Requests from https://api.mistral.ai/v1/chat/completions: Rate limit exceeded
No metrics are reported for this provider in this edition. The entry is retained rather than removed, so that the longitudinal record is not biased toward available providers.
Mistral AI
mistral-small-2603
rate limit
429 Too Many Requests from https://api.mistral.ai/v1/chat/completions: Rate limit exceeded
No metrics are reported for this provider in this edition. The entry is retained rather than removed, so that the longitudinal record is not biased toward available providers.
DeepSeek
deepseek-v4-pro
No.
| Speed | 73% |
|---|---|
| First-token responsiveness | 73% |
| Token economy | 0% |
decisiveness 100%, one-word compliance 100% for every model, so not on the radar.
Picks a clear answer but takes its time. Conviction over speed.
