Leaderboard / Model

Claude

by AnthropicAssistantFree tier, Pro $20/moUpdated 23 Sept 2026

Claude is the assistant the Blender MCP ecosystem was built around. Connected through the free, open-source MCP for Blender server, it doesn't only write scripts for you: it creates, inspects and edits objects in your open scene.

Open ClaudeCompare it blind

How to connect Claude to Blender

Connect Claude Desktop (MCP)

Claude sees and edits your open scene. Needs Blender 3.0+, Python 3.10+ and uv.

  1. Install uv with its official installer: brew install uv on macOS, the install script on Linux, or the PowerShell installer on Windows. Don't install it with pip.
  2. Run uvx mcp-for-blender install-addon, then in Blender enable “Interface: MCP for Blender” under Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.
  3. In Claude Desktop, open Settings → Developer → Edit Config, add the server below and restart Claude.
  4. In Blender, press N in the 3D viewport, open the MCP for Blender tab and click Connect to MCP server. Then ask “what objects are in the scene?” to check the link.
claude_desktop_config.json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "blender": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-for-blender"]
    }
  }
}

Paste a script

No setup. Claude writes Blender Python and you run it.

  1. Tell Claude which Blender version you use, then ask for “a bpy script that…” rather than an explanation.
  2. In Blender, open the Scripting workspace, click New, paste the script and press Run Script.
  3. If it errors, paste the full traceback back into the chat. Outdated API names are the usual cause, and one round trip fixes them.

MCP for Blender is the project formerly called blender-mcp. Older setups that run uvx blender-mcp keep working.

Which AI built it better?

Two random Season 3 entrants answered the same prompt. Pick the better build and the names are revealed. Your vote counts toward the leaderboard.

Picking a matchup…

AModel A
BModel B

What Claude built

36 of the 12 Season 3 prompts, one script each, exactly as it came out. Click a build to orbit it in 3D, or compare every AI on the same prompt.

Showing 36 of 36 outputs

Earlier seasons stay published in the Season 1 archive.

Arena record

Season 3Ranked

3
Entrants
36
Builds
3 × 12 prompts
6536
Times voted on

Every entrant starts each season at 1500 ±350 and stays unranked until enough votes are in. Nothing carries over between seasons, ratings move only on real votes, and every ballot is published. How the rating works

What is Claude?

Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant and the model most associated with the Blender MCP workflow — the open-source blender-mcp project was built Claude-first, letting the model create objects, apply materials, and inspect the scene through a live two-way connection.

In community testing, Claude stands out for reliable multi-step tool use: it checks what happened after each operation instead of assuming success, which matters when building a scene incrementally.

In the arena, the Claude family competes per-model: Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 5, Opus 4.8, and Fable 5 each generated their Season 1 benchmark entries independently, so blind voting can reveal how much model tier actually matters for 3D work.

Season 2 fielded Claude Opus 5 and Claude Fable 5.1, both writing a single Blender Python script per prompt rather than three.js code, alongside Fable 5 returning on its Season 1 artifacts. Fable 5.1 covered all twelve prompts on its first run, and all three return in Season 3.

Claude Opus 5.5, released September 22, 2026, has its own profile, tracked apart from these entries the same way GPT-6 Astra is tracked apart from ChatGPT.

Opus 5.5 ran the prompt set on its release day at extra-high reasoning effort, writing a single bpy script per prompt executed once in headless Blender 5.1, and entered Season 3 when it opened on September 23. All twelve prompts produced geometry, and the outputs are in blind voting against Opus 5, GPT-6 Astra, Grok 4.7 and the rest of the roster.

If the connection doesn't work

The server has two halves: a Blender add-on that opens a socket server inside Blender, and an MCP server that the client talks to. Both have to be running, and the add-on doesn't start on its own: you click Connect in its sidebar tab each session.

If Claude reports that it can't find the command, replace "uvx" with its absolute path (for example /opt/homebrew/bin/uvx on macOS). The add-on talks over localhost:9876 by default; BLENDER_HOST and BLENDER_PORT override that if Blender runs on another machine.

Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code

The same MCP server works with any MCP-capable client, so you are not tied to the Claude desktop app. Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code all accept the identical mcpServers block — Cursor takes it under Settings → MCP. On Windows, some clients need the command wrapped as "cmd" with args ["/c", "uvx", "mcp-for-blender"].

Practical difference: the desktop app is the smoothest for conversational modelling, while Claude Code is better when the Blender work is part of a larger project — generating assets from a spec file, batch-processing a folder of .blend scenes, or scripting a pipeline where Blender is one step among several.

What Claude can actually do inside Blender

Through MCP for Blender, Claude gets a real toolset rather than a text box. In practice that means:

  • Inspect the scene — list objects, read their properties, and take viewport screenshots to see the result of its own work
  • Create, delete and modify objects, including modifiers and transforms
  • Create or apply materials and colours
  • Execute arbitrary Python (bpy) code inside Blender — the escape hatch that makes everything else possible
  • Pull in assets: download models from Sketchfab and Poly Haven
  • Call out to mesh generators such as Hyper3D Rodin and Hunyuan3D for organic shapes it can't build procedurally

That last pair matters more than it looks. Claude builds geometry as code, so a chest of drawers or a spiral staircase is comfortably within reach, while a gnarled tree stump is not. Delegating the organic pieces to a generator and assembling the scene itself is the workflow that plays to its strengths.

Because arbitrary Python execution is on the table, save your file before a long session. A wrong bpy call can wipe a scene, and Claude has no undo you can trust.

Which Claude model should you use for 3D?

This is the question the arena exists to answer, and we deliberately don't guess at it. Season 1's Round 1 put four Claude tiers — Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 5, Opus 4.8 and Fable 5 — through the same 12 benchmark prompts, each generating its entries independently, one shot, no retries and no cleanup. Their outputs face each other in blind votes on this site, and the standings move only when real ballots arrive.

What we can say without vote data: the cheaper tiers are noticeably faster and cost a fraction as much, which matters because agentic Blender sessions burn through usage quickly; the larger tiers hold multi-step scene state better over long sessions. Whether that translates into better-looking geometry on a single prompt is exactly what the blind votes are testing.

Claude Opus 5.5, released September 22, 2026 and now Anthropic's recommended default, has its own profile page and enters the arena as a separate competitor, so its results stay apart from the Claude models listed above.

Common problems and fixes

  • Claude can't see Blender — check the MCP for Blender sidebar tab actually says it's connected; the add-on's socket server has to be started from inside Blender, it doesn't autostart.
  • “Command not found: uvx” — use the absolute path to uvx in the config; GUI apps don't inherit your shell PATH.
  • The first command fails, later ones work — a known quirk of the connection handshake. Retry once before debugging anything else.
  • Long builds drift — break the task into steps and ask Claude to screenshot the viewport between them, so it corrects against what's actually there instead of what it assumed.
  • Usage burns fast — scene sessions are tool-call heavy. Start on a cheaper tier for blocking out, escalate only for the parts that need it.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Strength:Best-known Blender MCP pairing; most setup guides target Claude
  • Strength:Strong agentic reliability — verifies scene state between steps
  • Strength:High-quality, well-structured bpy code generation
  • Strength:Long context: keeps track of complex scene sessions

Limitations

  • Limitation:Not a mesh generator — procedural geometry via code, so organic sculpting is out of scope
  • Limitation:MCP setup required for hands-on scene work
  • Limitation:Heavy agent sessions consume paid usage quickly

Best for: Multi-step scene construction, parametric modeling, and users who want the most reliable MCP-driven Blender agent experience.

Claude and Blender: FAQ

Can Claude use Blender?

Yes. Connected through the open-source MCP for Blender server (formerly blender-mcp), Claude can create and modify objects, apply materials, run Python inside Blender, and take viewport screenshots to check its own work. Without MCP it can still write Blender Python (bpy) scripts that you paste into the scripting workspace.

How do I connect Claude to Blender?

Install the uv package manager, run uvx mcp-for-blender install-addon and enable “Interface: MCP for Blender” in Blender's add-on preferences, add the blender server to your client config with the command uvx and args ["mcp-for-blender"], then press N in the 3D viewport and click Connect to MCP server in the MCP for Blender tab.

Is Claude for Blender free?

The MCP for Blender add-on is free and open source, and Blender is free. Claude has a free tier that works for scripting help, but sustained agentic scene sessions consume usage quickly enough that a paid plan is realistic for daily work.

Which Claude model is best for Blender?

Unknown until the votes say so — that's what this benchmark is measuring. Haiku 4.5, Sonnet 5, Opus 4.8 and Fable 5 all ran the same 12 prompts independently, and their outputs are being blind-voted in the arena. Larger tiers hold multi-step scene state better; smaller tiers are far cheaper for tool-heavy sessions.

Can Claude generate 3D meshes directly?

Not the way Meshy or Tripo do. Claude builds geometry procedurally through code, which suits hard-surface and architectural work. For organic shapes, MCP for Blender lets it call generators like Hyper3D Rodin or Hunyuan3D and assemble the results in your scene.