A reasoning model is an AI model designed to work through harder tasks more deliberately than a standard chat model. It may take longer to respond because it spends more effort on planning, checking, and problem solving.
In practice
Reasoning models are useful for code changes, math, logic, structured analysis, agent planning, and tasks where a quick fluent answer is not enough.
What to watch
Reasoning models can still be wrong. They also may be slower or more expensive, so use them where careful thinking is worth the extra cost.