Playground · Drawing · SVG · Standing test
Draw a unicorn
"Draw a unicorn" became a famous test when the "Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence" paper (Bubeck et al., Microsoft Research, 2023) asked GPT-4 to draw one in TikZ. Here we ask for SVG. The drawings are static, so look at the details: is the horn on the forehead, are there four legs, do the neck, mane and tail join the body sensibly, and are there stray shapes or awkward overlaps?
The prompt, word for word
Draw a unicorn in SVG.
Every answer runs live, in a sandboxed frame. Click into one to play with it.
How each model did
| Model | Our notes | Checks | Time | Output tokens | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GPT-6.1 Sol Our pick | A lilac unicorn standing on a cloud, with a wavy gradient mane, a sleepy closed eye and a ridged gold horn rising from the forehead. The outline, neck and tail all join smoothly; the only weak spot is the far legs, drawn as thin tapering wedges behind the near ones. | 3 of 3 | 41 s | 2,126 104 thinking |
$0.021 |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | A cheerful white unicorn on a green patch with rainbow stripes for mane and tail and a gold horn. All four legs, mane and tail are in place, but the neck is a hard-cornered block stuck onto the oval body and the mane is a stack of thick separate strokes that floats off the neck.
|
2.5 of 3 | 32 s | 3,141 442 thinking |
$0.063 |
| Claude Fable 5.1 | Similar to Opus: an oval white body, four legs with purple hooves, a gradient mane and tail and a gold horn. The scalloped mane and tail are tidier, but the neck is again an angular block with a visible seam where it meets the body.
|
2.5 of 3 | 41 s | 3,169 699 thinking |
$0.159 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | The most ambitious drawing: a three-quarter view on a dark starry background, with glowing effects and a detailed face. It falls apart in the construction: the mane is a set of ribbons that hang across the body and legs down to the ground, the horn is a line of petal shapes trailing sparkles, and the body shows translucent seams.
|
1.5 of 3 | 74 s | 9,502 531 thinking |
$0.036 |
| Muse Spark 1.3 | A bold-outlined cartoon with a round head, ball-shaped mane, crescent tail and a striped horn. The neck is a separate rounded bar hanging in front of the body like an arm, and two large white ellipses sit on the ground on either side for no clear reason.
|
1.5 of 3 | 69 s | 6,254 3,290 thinking |
$0.027 |
| Grok 4.7 | A pale lilac unicorn with a translucent horn, a mane of upright purple spikes and a big round snout. It reads as a unicorn, but a stray pink arc sits over the mane and another over the tail, the legs are split by odd lines, and a notch is cut into the belly. The fastest and cheapest answer, at 17 seconds and $0.0099.
|
2 of 3 | 17 s | 1,524 28 thinking |
$0.010 |
| Kimi K3 | A flat-style white unicorn in a pale circle, with a long pink and blue mane down a graceful neck, a striped gold horn and a matching tail. The shapes join cleanly; small faults are a sparkle drawn on top of the body and stubby far legs that barely show.
|
2.5 of 3 | 165 s | 15,103 13,179 thinking |
$0.227 |
| Qwen3.8 Max (0902) | The best scene: a unicorn facing left on a moonlit hill at dusk, with a glowing horn, rainbow mane and tail, grass and flowers. The body and head are well shaded, but the legs are flat straight slabs with square hooves that look pasted on, and it took over 12 minutes.
|
2.5 of 3 | 755 s | 29,545 21,727 thinking |
$0.177 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | A white unicorn with a big rainbow mane and tail on a pink-to-blue background. The head sits low on the chest with no neck, the mane hangs below the chin, the horn is a thin crooked line with ticks, and two legs are grey while two are white.
|
1.5 of 3 | 67 s | 14,566 11,880 thinking |
$0.017 |
| Mistral Large 4 | A neat portrait of a unicorn's head and neck in a circle, with a gold horn, closed eye and pastel gradient mane. Cleanly drawn, but it is only a bust, so there are no legs, body or tail.
|
2 of 3 | 575 s | 17,463 11,242 thinking |
$0.037 |
One answer per model, at each model's default settings unless the card says otherwise, through OpenRouter. If an answer ran out of room or stopped short, we asked again with more room, then with thinking off, and say so. We tried every answer, with Claude Opus 5.5 running the checks and drafting the notes; it is an Anthropic model, so we check its calls on Claude answers ourselves. This is a quick look, not a benchmark: run it again and every answer will differ. For measured results, see our benchmarks.
What we checked, by trying each answer ourselves: Recognisably a unicorn: a horse-like animal with one horn on its forehead; Four legs, head, mane and tail in sensible places; Clean, deliberate drawing (no stray shapes, overlaps or broken paths). A partial pass counts as half.
Verdict
GPT-6.1 Sol drew the most complete and cleanest unicorn: every part is in the right place and the outline flows from tail to horn, in 41 seconds for $0.021. Qwen3.8 Max made the most atmospheric picture, a moonlit hillside, but its slab legs let it down and it took 755 seconds. Kimi K3 is also clean but cost the most, at $0.23. Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Fable 5.1 drew friendly unicorns with blocky, seamed necks.
Every model drew a recognisable unicorn. The weakest constructions were DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (no neck, crooked line for a horn), Muse Spark (neck hanging in front of the body) and Gemini 3.8 Flash, whose ribbon mane covers the body and legs. Mistral Large 4 drew a tidy head and neck but no body.
What would your prompt get?The Spring Prompt playground runs one prompt on up to six models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral and others, side by side.
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