How to Choose the Best Model for OpenClaw?

The right model depends on your use case, budget, and performance requirements. Here's a practical decision guide.

For most users, we recommend starting with Claude Sonnet 4. It offers the best balance of quality, speed, and price ($3-10/month typical usage). If budget is tight, DeepSeek V3 delivers 80-90% of the quality at 20% of the cost ($1-5/month).

Decision tree: - Want the best quality regardless of cost? → Claude Opus 4 - Best quality at reasonable cost? → Claude Sonnet 4 - Tight budget but need good quality? → DeepSeek V3 - Need massive context (long documents)? → Gemini 2.5 Pro or Kimi - Want zero API costs? → Ollama + Llama 3.1 - Need maximum speed? → GPT-4o-mini or Claude Haiku - Want easy model switching? → OpenRouter

Task-specific recommendations: - Coding: Claude Sonnet (best) or DeepSeek R1 (budget) - Writing: Claude Opus (best) or GPT-4o - Data analysis: Gemini Pro (large context) or Claude Sonnet - Daily assistant: DeepSeek V3 (value) or GPT-4o-mini (speed) - Research: Claude Opus + Deep Research skill

You can always change models later — OpenClaw preserves conversation history across model switches. Start affordable, upgrade if needed.

Tip: Use OpenRouter to test multiple models before committing to a single provider.