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What is MATH-500?
Last reviewed July 16, 2026
MATH-500 is a benchmark of 500 competition mathematics problems sampled from the larger MATH dataset, spanning subjects like algebra, geometry, number theory, and precalculus across graded difficulty levels. Each problem has a checkable final answer, so scoring is objective. It sits in the middle of the math benchmark ladder: harder than grade-school word problems, well below research mathematics.
Where it sits on the ladder
The math ladder runs roughly: grade-school arithmetic (saturated long ago), MATH-500 competition problems, AIME-level contest exams, then research-grade sets like FrontierMath. Frontier reasoning models now score very high on MATH-500, so it differentiates mid-tier and small models best, while the top of the field is measured on the harder rungs.
Difficulty banding
Problems carry difficulty levels from the original MATH dataset, so evaluators can report performance per band. A model can be reliable on the easy bands and collapse at the hardest; the aggregate score hides that shape. For workloads with real math in them, hard-band behavior matters more than the average.
Top models on MATH-500
Full leaderboardPeak scores from the compiled benchmark data; reasoning models use their highest effort tier.
idapt's math rankings include a MATH-500 lane beside AIME and FrontierMath, with prices next to scores, so you can see which cheaper models already clear this bar.
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