Yandex to Launch Reasoning AI Model in 2025

Posted by By Dan Taylor 2 Min Read

Yandex is developing a reasoning AI model set to launch in 2025. This advanced artificial intelligence will be integrated into Yandex services, including Search with Neuro and the voice assistant Alice.

Early Access for Alice Pro Users

Some Alice Pro subscribers have already gained access to the new feature. Their interface includes a “Reason” button, currently in beta testing, allowing up to 10 requests per day.

Unlike traditional language models, reasoning AI can analyze multiple approaches to problem-solving, check its own work, and correct errors. Similar technologies are found in OpenAI o3, DeepSeek R1, Google Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, and Anthropic Claude 3.7 Sonnet. However, this is a first for the Russian market.

Cost and Monetization Plans

Experts estimate that developing such a model could cost between 500 million and 1 billion rubles. Yandex plans to monetize the AI through subscriptions and business integrations. As reasoning AI becomes more common, it is expected to be a standard feature among leading tech companies.

Other Russian Companies Entering the Market

Other Russian firms are also working on reasoning models. MTS AI is developing the next-generation corporate AI model Cotype. Sber is working on GigaChat, designed to analyze and generate ideas, though its release date remains unknown.

Source: Durov's Code
Dan Taylor
View More Posts
Dan Taylor is the founder and editor of International Search Insights (ISI), the publication behind ReadIsi, and a Partner and Head of Innovation (Search & AI) at SALT.agency. He has worked in search for more than a decade, in-house and agency-side, and is regarded as one of the West’s leading voices on search engines beyond Google, including Yandex, Baidu, Naver and Cốc Cốc. On ReadIsi, Dan covers the engines and AI answer platforms that English-language coverage tends to miss: Baidu and ERNIE, Yandex and Alice AI, Naver, Cốc Cốc, Shenma, Sogou, WeChat and Weibo search, plus DeepSeek and Alibaba’s Qwen. He also keeps dated records of documented changes, such as the Yandex, Baidu and Naver algorithm update histories and the DeepSeek, ERNIE and Qwen model update histories. His approach is to take learnings from global search engines and apply logic with a high evidence threshold. A claim needs a source, patterns seen in one market are treated as a hypothesis until they are checked in another, and where the evidence is thin he says so. For brands, that means advice built on what can be shown, with measurement that separates being cited from being chosen. Dan is credited with coining the term “edge SEO” and won the inaugural TechSEO Boost research competition in 2018 for his work on CDN and edge changes for SEO. In 2026 he was credited with coining “Infinite Tail” to describe how keyword research is changing with AI search. He is the author of AI Search Marketing For The Travel Sector, writes for Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land and Travel Marketing Guy, and has advised technology, SaaS, travel and enterprise ecommerce brands, including Cloudflare, GitLab and Airbnb. He has given multiple talks and panels at the International Search Summit in Barcelona, and has also spoken at Optimization Moscow, brightonSEO, Google Search Central Live Deep Dive Asia in Bangkok, Athens SEO and the Asia SEO Virtual Summit 2026, where his talk looked at how Baidu, Naver, DeepSeek, Tencent, Cốc Cốc and Yandex built their own AI answers.
Founder & Editor