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Grounding DINO vs YOLO26 vs YOLOv12

3 of 5

Object Detection · verified 13 Aug 2026

×IGrounding DINOIDEA Researchcurrent
×YOLO26Ultralyticscurrent
×YOLOv12Ultralyticscurrent
2 slots left
SpecificationGrounding DINOYOLO26YOLOv12
SummaryDetects whatever you describe in words.The latest in the line most people mean by object detection.Attention-centric YOLO, still widely deployed.
COCO mAP~52 zero-shot~55~55
SpeedModerateVery highVery high
LicenceApache 2.0AGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
FamilyOpen vocabularySingle stageSingle stage
Open vocabularyYesNoNo
Released202320262025
CategoryObject DetectionObject DetectionObject Detection
OfficialIDEA Research ↗Ultralytics ↗Ultralytics ↗

Highlighted rows are where these differ.

Grounding DINO

  • Text prompt in, boxes out
  • Fine-tuning still beats it on specialised objects

Best for classes you have no data for.

Full spec sheet →

YOLO26

  • Strong on Jetson, Snapdragon and ARM CPUs
  • AGPL-3.0: open-source your derivative work or buy a licence

Best for edge and mobile deployment.

Full spec sheet →

YOLOv12

  • Attention added to the classic single-stage design
  • Same licensing consideration as YOLO26

Best for teams already on the YOLO toolchain.

Full spec sheet →