Season 2026 · Episode 5 · Sep 9, 2026
Which model is best for my AI code generation work?
Zareef explains why picking the best AI model for code generation depends on your project's complexity, stage, and goals rather than one universal answer.
Show notes
Ever wondered which AI model you should actually pick for your coding project? In this episode, Zareef breaks down why there's no single best answer and walks through how to think about model choice based on where you are in your project's life cycle.
- The answer to "best model for code generation" is always it depends
- Your choice depends on project complexity, size, and current stage in the life cycle
- It also depends on what you're trying to achieve next in your project
- Anthropic's Sonnet 4.5 is recommended for planning purposes
- Anthropic suggests using Opus for day to day coding work
- Large context projects can take advantage of the one million token context window
- OpenAI's Codex with GPT-5 and related models are solid options too
- For open source, Qwen is a personal favorite, with GLM models as another option
- Availability and your specific use case matter just as much as raw model quality
- Avoid the trap of always reaching for the flashiest model for every task
- Decide based on what you're actually doing at that moment, then choose accordingly
Transcript
Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Question Minutes with Zareef Ahmed, and today I'm going to answer which model is best for AI code generation work. The simple answer is it depends.
It depends on the complexity of your project. It depends on the stage at which you are currently in the life cycle of your project. It depends on the size of the project. It depends what you want to do at the next level in your project.
As far as models are concerned, if you are into providers like Anthropic or OpenAI, Anthropic has Sonnet 4.5, which I highly recommend for planning purposes, and even Anthropic recommends that for day-to-day work you can use the Opus model. Even if you have a very large context of your project, then you can use the one million context available there. With OpenAI, with the Codex actually, you can use the GPT-5 and you can also use some other models in the same line.
If you are into open source, then Qwen is my personal choice for these kinds of things. Other GLM models are also available, so ultimately it depends what is available to you and it also depends on the project-specific scenario or the use case.
I usually recommend that please don't try to use the best available logical models for each and every task. Just decide what you are doing with your project at that time and then accordingly take your decision. That's best, and that is the only best thing that you can do and you should do with your project.
Thank you. In another episode, I'll try to answer another question. Till then, bye.