AI Model Selection Guide for Chase Agents

LLM & Model Guides · By Caleb Sakala · November 19, 2025

Overwhelmed cartoon person paralyzed by choices at a giant ice cream counter

Chase Agents is a chat platform that uses AI to automate your work. You can automate a wide variety of tasks through different connections, APIs, and MCPs. The better the model you use, the better it can interact with these tools that call APIs and MCPs. This guide will help you select the right AI model to effectively automate your tasks.

The platform supports five major providers: OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, XAI, and Google Gemini. Each has different strengths, and choosing the right one significantly impacts how well your automation tasks perform.

In our development process, we tested extensively with different models. I tend to default to GLM 4.5 Air from Z.ai for simple tasks. It's free and handles most day-to-day work well. But when processing complex documents or images, we recommend Claude Haiku or Gemini 2.5 Pro. For those critical jobs where quality matters most, Claude Sonnet 4.5 is the clear choice.

Available Model Providers

OpenRouter

OpenRouter offers the most models, including many free options. This is ideal for:

Experimentation with different capabilities
Budget-conscious projects
Access to specialized or niche models

Anthropic

Anthropic's Claude models are known for strong reasoning capabilities. We integrated Claude Haiku as a balanced option, while Claude Sonnet 4.5 serves as our premium choice for complex tasks requiring the highest quality.

Google Gemini

Gemini 2.5 Pro is our recommended choice for any image-related work. During development, we found it handles images better than other available options.

Model Selection by Task

Simple Tasks: GLM 4.5 Air (or Grok Code Fast 1)

For basic work like drafting emails, simple summarization, and brainstorming, GLM 4.5 Air is our recommended free option. It's fast and handles 80% of everyday tasks effectively.

Complex Tasks: Claude Haiku

For document analysis, technical problem solving, and data analysis, Claude Haiku is worth the cost. Its reasoning capabilities significantly outperform cheaper options.

Maximum Quality: Claude Sonnet 4.5

For critical tasks like important document analysis, high-quality content generation, and complex API interactions, we recommend Claude Sonnet 4.5.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Assuming All Models Can Do Everything

This is the most common issue. Always check what formats a model supports before starting a project.

Using the Wrong Model for the Job

We've seen users make mistakes in both directions: using expensive models for simple tasks and using simple models for complex tasks. Match the model to the task complexity.

Looking Ahead

As we continue developing Chase Agents, we're expanding model capabilities. We're adding audio and video support, which will make model selection even more critical.

Final Thoughts

There's no universally perfect model. The key is understanding your needs and choosing accordingly. What model selection strategies have you found effective? I'm always interested in learning from real-world usage patterns.