$ cat wiki/models/mai-thinking-1.md
MAI-Thinking-1
modelupdated 2026-07-21created 2026-06-02
Spec
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Developer | Microsoft (MAI team, led by Mustafa Suleyman) |
| Released | not yet (exact API/GA date not announced as of 2026-06-02) |
| Announced | 2026-06-02 (Microsoft Build 2026 keynote) |
| Context window | 128K tokens |
| Pricing | unknown |
| License | Proprietary |
| Availability | Azure AI Foundry, Copilot model picker |
| Architecture | Reasoning-specialized (reasoning model) |
| Active Parameters | 35B |
| Training Approach | Trained from scratch — no distillation from third-party frontier models |
Release Date
2026-06-02 (announced at Build 2026). Exact API/GA date not announced.
What Is It
A reasoning-specialized model developed in-house by Microsoft's MAI (Microsoft AI) team. One of Microsoft's family of frontier models announced alongside MAI-Code-1/Polaris.
Key features:
- Independent training: trained from scratch with no distillation from third-party models such as OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, or Google Gemini → securing independence from competitors' IP
- Reasoning-specialized: CoT/ToT-based multi-step planning — handling complex reasoning tasks
- 35B active params: positioned as a mid-size model within the MAI family
Significance
- The first in-house reasoning model Microsoft has released since lifting OpenAI partnership constraints (2026-04)
- An independent entry into the reasoning model market at the tier of GPT-4o mini, Claude Haiku, and Gemini Flash
- Expected to serve as the orchestration brain of agent platforms (Azure Agent Mesh, Windows Agent Framework)
Benchmarks
Not released (as of 2026-06-02). No specific benchmark numbers disclosed at the Build 2026 keynote.
Use Cases
- Multi-step reasoning agent tasks
- Task orchestration within Azure Agent Mesh
- Planning for complex enterprise workflows
Compared To
| Model | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Claude Opus 4.8 | Anthropic's strongest model, SWE-bench Pro 69.2%, larger than 35B |
| GPT-o3/o4 (OpenAI) | Comparable reasoning model, parameter scale undisclosed |
| Gemini 3.1 Deep Think | DeepMind math reasoning, IMO gold |
Related
- Microsoft
- MAI-Code-1 / MAI-Code-1-Flash — coding model announced at the same time
- Project Polaris — Microsoft coding AI (default model for GitHub Copilot)
- Reasoning Models
- Agents (LLM Agents) — Azure Agent Mesh orchestration role