Agnes 2.5 Pro: Singapore Just Entered the Frontier AI Race
Singapore's Agnes AI launched Agnes 2.5 Pro with an 82.7 SWE-bench score and free API access, signaling a major shift in the global AI landscape.
The narrative of Agnes 2.5 Pro: Singapore Just Entered the Frontier AI Race challenges the old US-China rivalry. For years, frontier AI was a two-country story. However, Singapore’s Agnes AI has now launched a model with benchmark numbers in elite territory. Furthermore, it is available today via a free API.
Benchmark Performance for Agnes 2.5 Pro
Internal evaluations place Agnes 2.5 Pro at 82.7 on SWE-bench Verified. This is the industry standard for real-world software engineering ability. To provide context, most open-source models struggle to cross 60%. A score above 75% indicates strong autonomous coding. Therefore, this result places Agnes alongside top models from Anthropic and OpenAI.
The full benchmark profile includes several key metrics:
- 82.7% on SWE-bench Verified for GitHub issue resolution
- 78.7% multilingual coding performance
- Strong gains on SWE Atlas over previous versions
- Leads over GLM 5.2 and DeepSeek V4 Pro
Note that these are currently internal evaluations. Independent verification is still pending. Nevertheless, Agnes AI has a credible track record. It was the first Singapore-founded lab to reach the global top 10 on major leaderboards in May 2026.
Who Is Behind Agnes AI?
Agnes AI is the developer platform of Sapiens AI. Bruce Yang founded the company in July 2025. He is a doctoral candidate at the National University of Singapore. The company grew remarkably fast, surpassing 6 million users by February 2026.
Additionally, it closed a $10 million Series A led by LOOK FORWARD VCC. Annual recurring revenue approached $20 million by March 2026. The platform offers a unified AI gateway for text, image, and video. Crucially, this comes with a free API and no usage cap. Models processed 5.41 trillion tokens in just seven days recently.
Agnes explicitly positions itself as independent from US and Chinese technology blocs. This identity choice is increasingly meaningful as AI intersects with geopolitics. As The Great AI Rotation: Why Money Is Flowing From Korean Chips Into Chinese Tech suggests, capital flows are shifting. Consequently, a credible third-party player carries real strategic weight.
New Model Releases and Tools
The July 2026 release features two distinct models. First, Agnes 2.5 Flash is available now for everyday coding tasks. It improves upon Agnes 2.0 Flash with clear benchmark gains. Second, Agnes 2.5 Pro targets production-grade systems and complex reasoning. Both models share the same account and subscription.
Agnes also announced Agnes Code, a desktop coding workspace. This tool integrates new models directly into development projects. It competes directly with agentic tools like Cursor. Developers pay once and deploy everywhere across chat, API, and desktop.
Comparisons to Leading Chinese Models
Agnes 2.5 Pro claims victories over GLM 5.2 and DeepSeek V4 Pro. Understanding these competitors provides necessary context. GLM 5.2 is a leading open-weight coding model with MIT licensing. It scores 81.0 on Terminal-Bench 2.1.
Meanwhile, DeepSeek V4 Pro leads on cost efficiency. It dominates competitive programming with 93.5% on LiveCodeBench. However, Agnes 2.5 Pro scores higher on SWE-bench Verified if internal numbers hold. This benchmark measures production-relevant coding agent capability best. Thus, beating both rivals here represents a genuine achievement.
A Shift in the Global AI Landscape
Previously, American labs set the frontier while Chinese labs challenged on price. Other nations were merely consumers. Agnes AI disrupts this mental model completely. It builds proprietary models and runs its own infrastructure. Reaching the global top 10 in under one year defies existing narratives.
Singapore serves as a natural hub for this independent lab. Its financial and regulatory strength supports technical innovation. Finally, the key question remains independent validation. If confirmed, the frontier AI story needs a third chapter starting in Singapore.
How to Access the New Models
Agnes 2.5 Flash is live now at agnes-ai.com. API access uses an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Agnes 2.5 Pro follows later this month under the same free model. The API remains uncapped, continuing the scale established by previous releases.
