In September 2024, Chatbot Arena moved to its own dedicated domain name, ”lmarena.ai” (or LMArena).<ref>{{Cite tweet|number=1837233036624286126|user=arena|title=We are happy to announce a new site for Chatbot Arena!|date=20 September 2024|last=arena.ai|access-date=30 January 2026}}</ref>
In September 2024, Chatbot Arena moved to its own dedicated domain name, ”lmarena.ai” (or LMArena).<ref>{{Cite tweet|number=1837233036624286126|user=arena|title=We are happy to announce a new site for Chatbot Arena!|date=20 September 2024|last=arena.ai|access-date=30 January 2026}}</ref>
In April 2025 LMArena incorporated as an independent company.<ref>{{Cite web|title=LMArena is Growing to Support our Community Platform {{!}} LM Arena|url=https://blog.lmarena.ai/blog/2025/new-beta/|website=blog.lmarena.ai|access-date=2026-01-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250524190601/https://blog.lmarena.ai/blog/2025/new-beta/|archive-date=2025-05-24|first=|last=LMArena|date=17 April 2025|url-status=dead}}</ref> That May, LMArena raised $100 million in a seed funding round, valuing the company at $600 million.<ref name=”:0″>{{Cite web|title=LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M|url=https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/21/lm-arena-the-organization-behind-popular-ai-leaderboards-lands-100m/|website=TechCrunch|date=2025-05-21|access-date=30 January 2026|language=en-US|first=Kyle|last=Wiggers|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250521191711/https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/21/lm-arena-the-organization-behind-popular-ai-leaderboards-lands-100m/|archive-date=21 May 2025|url-status=live}}</ref> Participants in the seed funding round included [[Andreessen Horowitz]], [[UC Investments]], [[Lightspeed Venture Partners]], [[Felicis Ventures]], and [[Kleiner Perkins]].<ref name=”:0″ />
In April 2025 LMArena incorporated as an independent company.<ref>{{Cite web|title=LMArena is Growing to Support our Community Platform {{!}} LM Arena|url=https://blog.lmarena.ai/blog/2025/new-beta/|website=blog.lmarena.ai|access-date=2026-01-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250524190601/https://blog.lmarena.ai/blog/2025/new-beta/|archive-date=2025-05-24|first=|last=LMArena|date=17 April 2025|url-status=dead}}</ref> That May, LMArena raised $100 million in a seed funding round, valuing the company at $600 million.<ref name=”:0″>{{Cite web|title=LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M|url=https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/21/lm-arena-the-organization-behind-popular-ai-leaderboards-lands-100m/|website=TechCrunch|date=2025-05-21|access-date=30 January 2026|language=en-US|first=Kyle|last=Wiggers|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250521191711/https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/21/lm-arena-the-organization-behind-popular-ai-leaderboards-lands-100m/|archive-date=21 May 2025|url-status=live}}</ref> Participants in the seed funding round included [[Andreessen Horowitz]], [[UC Investments]], [[Lightspeed Venture Partners]], [[Felicis Ventures]], and [[Kleiner Perkins]].<ref name=”:0″ />
On January 6, 2026, LMArena announced the closing of a $150 million Series A funding round, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to approximately $1.7 billion. The round was led by Felicis and UC Investments (University of California), with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, The House Fund, LDVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Laude Ventures.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wiggers |first=Kyle |date=2025-05-21 |title=LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M |url=https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/21/lm-arena-the-organization-behind-popular-ai-leaderboards-lands-100m/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}</ref>
January 6, 2026, LMArena announced the closing of a $150 million Series A funding round, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to approximately $1.7 billion. The round was led by Felicis and UC Investments (University of California), with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, The House Fund, LDVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Laude Ventures.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wiggers |first=Kyle |date=2025-05-21 |title=LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M |url=https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/21/lm-arena-the-organization-behind-popular-ai-leaderboards-lands-100m/ |access-date=2026-02-11 |website=TechCrunch |language=en-US}}</ref>
On January 2026, LMArena added video support.<ref name=”videoarena”>{{cite web |date=January 21, 2026 |title=Video Arena Is Live on Web |url=https://arena.ai/blog/video-arena/ |access-date=February 4, 2026 |website=Arena Blog}}</ref>
January 2026, LMArena added video support.<ref name=”videoarena”>{{cite web |date=January 21, 2026 |title=Video Arena Is Live on Web |url=https://arena.ai/blog/video-arena/ |access-date=February 4, 2026 |website=Arena Blog}}</ref>
On January 28, 2026, LMArena rebranded to “Arena”.<ref name=arena>{{cite web |date= January 28, 2026 |title=LMArena is now Arena |url=https://arena.ai/blog/lmarena-is-now-arena/ |website=Arena Blog |access-date=January 28, 2026}}</ref>
January 28, 2026, LMArena rebranded to “Arena”.<ref name=arena>{{cite web |date= January 28, 2026 |title=LMArena is now Arena |url=https://arena.ai/blog/lmarena-is-now-arena/ |website=Arena Blog |access-date=January 28, 2026}}</ref>
== References ==
== References ==
 Screenshot as of January 28, 2026 |
|
|
Type of site |
Artificial intelligence |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | United States |
| Founders |
|
| URL | arena |
| Registration | Optional |
| Launched | April 24, 2023 (2023-04-24) |
Website comparing AI chatbots based on votes
Arena (formerly LMArena and Chatbot Arena) is a public, web-based platform that evaluates large language models (LLMs). Users enter prompts for two anonymous models to respond to and vote on the model that gave the better response, after which the models’ identities are revealed. Users can also choose models to test themselves.[1][2]
Companies which have supplied the company with their large language models include OpenAI, Google DeepMind,[3] and Anthropic.[4]
The website has been used for preview releases of upcoming models. Chinese company DeepSeek tested its prototype models in the Arena months before its R1 model gained attention in Western media.[5] Other notable pre-release models include OpenAI’s GPT-5 under the codename “summit” and Google DeepMind’s Gemini 2.5 Flash Image (an image-generation and editing model) under the codename “Nano Banana“.[6][7]
Research has identified specific limitations in Arena’s methodology.[8][9]
Chatbot Arena was released on April 24, 2023.[10]
In June 2024, Chatbot Arena added image support.[11]
In September 2024, Chatbot Arena moved to its own dedicated domain name, lmarena.ai (or LMArena).[12]
In April 2025, LMArena incorporated as an independent company.[13] That May, LMArena raised $100 million in a seed funding round, valuing the company at $600 million.[14] Participants in the seed funding round included Andreessen Horowitz, UC Investments, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Felicis Ventures, and Kleiner Perkins.[14]
In January 6, 2026, LMArena announced the closing of a $150 million Series A funding round, bringing the company’s post-money valuation to approximately $1.7 billion. The round was led by Felicis and UC Investments (University of California), with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, The House Fund, LDVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Laude Ventures.[15]
In January 2026, LMArena added video support.[16]
In January 28, 2026, LMArena rebranded to “Arena”.[17]
- ^ Hart, Robert (July 18, 2024). “What AI Is The Best? Chatbot Arena Relies On Millions Of Human Votes”. Forbes. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
- ^ Kruppa, Miles (December 5, 2024). “The UC Berkeley Project That Is the AI Industry’s Obsession”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
- ^ Nuñez, Michael (November 15, 2024). “Google Gemini unexpectedly surges to No. 1, over OpenAI, but benchmarks don’t tell the whole story”. VentureBeat. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
- ^ Edwards, Benj (March 27, 2024). ““The king is dead”—Claude 3 surpasses GPT-4 on Chatbot Arena for the first time”. Ars Technica. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
- ^ Metz, Rachel (February 18, 2025). “Before DeepSeek Blew Up, Chatbot Arena Announced Its Arrival”. Bloomberg News. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
- ^ Ziff, Maxwell (Aug 26, 2025). “Google Gemini’s AI image model gets a ‘bananas’ upgrade”. TechCrunch. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
- ^ Langley, Hugh (Aug 19, 2025). “Is Google behind a mysterious new AI image generator? These bananas might confirm it”. Business Insider. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
- ^ Stokel-Walker, Chris (February 6, 2025). “Hundreds of rigged votes can skew AI model rankings on Chatbot Arena, study finds”. Fast Company. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
- ^ Wiggers, Kyle (September 5, 2024). “The AI industry is obsessed with Chatbot Arena, but it might not be the best benchmark”. TechCrunch. Retrieved April 21, 2025.
- ^ “Chatbot Arena”. Arena Blog. 2023-05-04. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
- ^ “The Multimodal Arena is Here!”. Arena Blog. June 27, 2024. Retrieved February 3, 2026.
- ^ arena.ai [@arena] (20 September 2024). “We are happy to announce a new site for Chatbot Arena!” (Tweet). Retrieved 30 January 2026 – via Twitter.
- ^ LMArena (17 April 2025). “LMArena is Growing to Support our Community Platform | LM Arena”. blog.lmarena.ai. Archived from the original on 2025-05-24. Retrieved 2026-01-30.
- ^ a b Wiggers, Kyle (2025-05-21). “LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M”. TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 21 May 2025. Retrieved 30 January 2026.
- ^ Wiggers, Kyle (2025-05-21). “LM Arena, the organization behind popular AI leaderboards, lands $100M”. TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-02-11.
- ^ “Video Arena Is Live on Web”. Arena Blog. January 21, 2026. Retrieved February 4, 2026.
- ^ “LMArena is now Arena”. Arena Blog. January 28, 2026. Retrieved January 28, 2026.
