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Google Gemini 2.5 Pro tops coding charts and tops MENSA IQ charts

AI is both getting faster at automating cognitive skills, but it's also getting way smarter.

Key takeaways

  • Released earlier this year Gemini 2.5 Pro ranks first across several categories, including coding, style control, and creative writing.
  • For context, powerful models like ChatGPT and Claude 3.7 Sonnet can only handle up to 128K tokens.
  • Gemini 2.5 Pro scored higher than competitors on these tests, even when using bespoke questions not publicly available in training data.
Cite or link to this article

Griffin, M. (2025) 'Google Gemini 2.5 Pro tops coding charts and tops MENSA IQ charts', 311 Institute, 23 May. Available at: https://www.311institute.com/google-gemini-2-5-pro-tops-coding-charts-and-tops-mensa-iq-charts/ (Accessed: 1 October 2026).

Google's recently launched Gemini 2.5 Pro has risen to the top spot on coding leaderboards, beating Anthropic’s Claude in the famous WebDev Arena - a non-denominational ranking site akin to the LLM Arena, but focused specifically on measuring how good Artificial Intelligence (AI) models are at coding. The achievement comes amid Google's push to position its flagship AI model as a leader in both coding and reasoning tasks.

Released earlier this year Gemini 2.5 Pro ranks first across several categories, including coding, style control, and creative writing. The model's massive context window - one million tokens expanding to two million soon - allows it to handle large codebases and complex projects that would choke even the closest competitors. For context, powerful models like ChatGPT and Claude 3.7 Sonnet can only handle up to 128K tokens.

Gemini also has the highest “IQ” of all AI models. TrackingAI put it through formalized MENSA tests, using verbalized questions from Mensa Norway to create a standardized way to compare AI models.

Gemini 2.5 Pro scored higher than competitors on these tests, even when using bespoke questions not publicly available in training data.

With an IQ score of 115 in offline tests, the new Gemini ranks among the “bright minded,” with the average human intelligence scoring around 85 to 114 points. But the notion of an AI having IQ needs unpacking. AI systems don't have intelligence quotients like humans do, so it’s better to think of the benchmark as a metaphor for performance on reasoning benchmarks.

For benchmarks specifically designed for AI, Gemini 2.5 Pro scored 86.7% on the AIME 2025 math test and 84.0% on the GPQA science assessment. On Humanity's Last Exam (HLE), a newer and harder benchmark created to avoid test saturation problems, Gemini 2.5 scored 18.8%, beating OpenAI's o3 mini (14%) and Claude 3.7 Sonnet (8.9%) which is remarkable in terms of the performance boost.

The new version of Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available for free (with rate limits) to all Gemini users. Google previously described this release as an "experimental version of 2.5 Pro," part of its family of "thinking models" designed to reason through responses rather than simply generate text.

Despite not winning every benchmark, Gemini has caught developers' attention with its versatility. The model can create complex applications from single prompts, building interactive web apps, endless runner games, and visual simulations without requiring detailed instructions.

We tested the model asking it to fix a broken HTML5 code. It generated almost 1,000 lines of code, providing results that beat Claude 3.7 Sonnet - the previous leader - in terms of quality and understanding of the full set of instructions.

For working developers, Gemini 2.5 Pro's input costs $2.50 per million tokens and output costs $15.00 per million tokens, positioning it as a cheaper alternative to some competitors while still offering impressive capabilities.

The AI model handles up to 30,000 lines of code in its Advanced plan, making it suitable for enterprise-level projects. Its multimodal abilities - working with text, code, audio, images, and video - add flexibility that other coding-focused models can't match.

FAQ

Why does this matter?

AI is both getting faster at automating cognitive skills, but it's also getting way smarter.

Matthew Griffin

About the author

Matthew Griffin Founder, 311 Institute

Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath."

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Matthew Griffin is a multi-award winning Futurist and expert in Disruption and Innovation, Geopolitics, Leadership, and Technology, who NASA have described as a "walking encyclopaedia of the future" and a "futurist Polymath." 15-time best selling author of the "Codex of the Future" series, Matthew is the Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm working with royal households, world leaders, G7, G20, and G77 governments, NGOs, and multi-national mid and mega cap firms to help them explore, shape, and lead the next 50 years of business and society.

An award-winning YouTube creator with over a million followers, with an unrivalled global reach and impact, Matthew is a highly sought-after international keynote speaker, lecturer, and mentor who collaborates with global leaders through the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to shape pivotal initiatives such as the UN’s AI for Humanity program, the United Nations Conference of the Parties (UN COP), and the World Economic Forum in Davos.

As the former Global Head of Cloud, National Security, and Enterprise Sales for companies including Atos, Dell-EMC, and IBM, Matthew has a proven track record of building multi-billion dollar business units and turning failing divisions into market leaders. His ability to identify, analyse, and communicate the implications of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends is unparalleled, and his insights are trusted by many of the world’s most respected organisations, including ABB, Accenture, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi, Coca-Cola, Dentons, Deloitte, Dow Jones, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Microsoft, PepsiCo, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, Siemens AG and Siemens Energy, T-Mobile, UBS, VISA, Walmart, Workday, Worldpay and many others.

Regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, Matthews mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.

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Sources and further reading

  1. Leaderboard webdev.lmarena.ai
  2. LLM Arena lmarena.ai
  3. Leaderboard web.lmarena.ai
  4. Gemini model thinking updates march 2025 blog.google
  5. IQ Test Viewer trackingai.org
  6. What is a genius iq score 2795585 verywellmind.com
  7. Gemini collaboration features blog.google
  8. Google gemini 2 flash edit photos words review decrypt.co
  9. Video image generation update december 2024 blog.google

Source: first published by the 311 Institute on 23 May 2025. Cite as: Griffin, M. (2025). Google Gemini 2.5 Pro tops coding charts and tops MENSA IQ charts. 311 Institute. https://www.311institute.com/google-gemini-2-5-pro-tops-coding-charts-and-tops-mensa-iq-charts/

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