What Is Temperature in AI Models? (2026): The Dial on Variation

Temperature is a setting that changes how much the model’s next-word choices vary. Lower temperature sticks closer to the most likely wording. Higher temperature allows less likely wording, which reads as more variety and, past a point, as noise. It does not add knowledge, and it does not check a fact.

Most chat products hide the number. You meet it as a slider, a “creative” mode, or an API parameter. This page does not publish a default temperature for ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, because the directory pages we used do not state one. Read the control in the product or the API reference you call.

The model being steered is an LLM. The units it counts are tokens.

What to do with the dial

The task	Where to put variation	Why
Extract a date, a total, or a yes/no from a document	Low	You want the same field on every run
Classify tickets into buckets you defined	Low	A creative label is a bug
Draft three subject lines	Higher, and ask for three options	Variety is the point, and you will pick
Brainstorm headlines	Higher	You are selecting, not publishing the first line
A cited answer	Leave the product’s default, then open the source	Temperature will not create a source

flowchart TD
  task{"Is there one correct wording?"}
  task -->|Yes, a field from a source| low["Keep variation low"]
  task -->|No, you want options| high["Raise variation and ask for several"]
  low --> check["Match the output to the source"]
  high --> pick["You pick. Discard the rest"]

If two runs at low temperature still disagree on a number, the document is ambiguous or the number is not in it. Raising temperature will not settle it. Look at the source. That failure is what an AI hallucination is.

Where you will and will not see the setting

Surface	What the directory records	Price to know
ChatGPT	A chat plan with usage limits. No temperature value on the tool page	Plus is $20/month. Go is $8. Pro starts at $100
Claude	Chat, files, and artifacts on Free. No temperature value on the tool page	Pro is $20/month, or $17 billed annually
DeepSeek	An API with published token rates, plus a free chat app. The page notes thinking and non-thinking modes, which are a different switch	API input from $0.15 per 1 million tokens off-peak on a cache miss
Cursor	Modes that trade cost and capability when the product picks a model: Cost, Balance, and Intelligence. That is model routing, not a temperature number	Plus is $8/month, or $80/year, on The X Subscription
Perplexity	Cited answers. The check is the link, not a sampling slider	Pro is $17/month billed annually

DeepSeek’s rates and the review are in DeepSeek review. Cursor’s plan ladder is Cursor review. The editor comparison is Cursor vs GitHub Copilot.

A “more creative” preset in a chat app is often a bundle: a higher temperature, a different instruction, sometimes a different model. If the vendor does not say which, treat the preset as a label. Run the task twice and keep the draft you can defend.

Temperature is the wrong fix for these problems

The facts are wrong. Attach the source or use retrieval. See what RAG is. A colder sample of a wrong answer is still wrong.

The format is wrong. Change the instruction and give one example. That is prompt engineering. Temperature will not turn a paragraph into a table reliably if you never asked for a table.

The draft is too long. Set a length in the prompt. Temperature does not meter length. Output tokens do.

You need the same style on thousands of calls. That is a product or a training decision, discussed in what fine-tuning is. A temperature setting applies per request. It is not a saved house style.

API parameters named top-p or penalties also change sampling. They are neighbors of temperature. This glossary does not recommend values for them. Use the vendor’s current API reference if you are calling a model directly.

FAQ

What temperature should I use?

For extraction from a source, low variation. For a menu of options you will edit, higher. There is no universal best number, and this page will not invent one.

Does temperature affect the price?

Usually it does not change the rate per token. A more wandering answer can be longer, and length spends output tokens. On a chat plan you notice that as usage, not as a line item labeled temperature.

Is temperature the same as “creativity”?

Products use that word for the effect. The mechanism is sampling. Creativity in the draft still depends on the brief and the source. A high temperature on an empty prompt is variety without a point.

Will a low temperature make citations real?

No. It makes the wording more stable. A citation is real when the page exists and says what the draft says. Use Perplexity when you need the link, then open it.

Last verified

October 16, 2026 for plan prices. Published October 24, 2026. No default temperature is stated, because the directory pages used here do not publish one.

Sources: DeepSeek API pricing, Claude pricing, Cursor pricing.

Published by Andrew for AI Tools Optimizer.

ChatGPT, Claude, and DeepSeek are in the chatbots directory. Directory pages may use affiliate links. A purchase through them may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you.