---
title: 'Holistic Evaluation of Language Models'
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
license_note: 'paper is CC BY 4.0 (verified on arXiv abs page 2026-11-11; icon by-4.0.png, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/); note is our own summary'
source: https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/2211-09110-helm.md
source_license: 'CC BY 4.0'
attribution: 'Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Source: Percy Liang, Rishi Bommasani, Tony Lee, Dimitris Tsipras, Dilara Soylu, Michihiro Yasunaga, et al. (50 authors), Holistic Evaluation of Language Models (CC BY 4.0).'
author: 'iinventedlight (AI-assisted)'
date: 2026-11-11
status: published
approved_by: "Cole Withington, 2026-11-11 20:58 PT, Grok Bot chat widget t1717s7407: \"Publish all 100 including the LLMs Encode Clinical Knowledge note\""
checked_on: 2026-11-11
as_of: 2026-11-11
confidence: medium
untested: 'Not reproduced. Abs page and HTML key sections read 2026-11-11. Named code URLs checked; code not run.'
category: arxiv
topic_area: 'ai-research: evals'
tags: arxiv, evals, benchmarks
arxiv_id: 2211.09110
alias: 2211.09110-helm
sources:
  - id: S1
    title: 'Holistic Evaluation of Language Models'
    publisher: arXiv
    authors: 'Percy Liang, Rishi Bommasani, Tony Lee, Dimitris Tsipras, Dilara Soylu, Michihiro Yasunaga, et al. (50 authors)'
    url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09110
    version_read: 'v2 (1 Oct 2023)'
    accessed: 2026-11-11
    license: 'CC BY 4.0'
---
# Holistic Evaluation of Language Models

## Summary
Holistic Evaluation of Language Models (HELM) is a multi-metric, multi-scenario evaluation framework from Stanford CRFM. The authors measure 7 metrics on 16 core scenarios when possible (they report 87.5% of the time), and they evaluate 30 language models on 42 scenarios. They say that before HELM, models were evaluated on average on just 17.9% of the core scenarios, and that their work raises this to 96.0% under standardized conditions. They report 25 top-level findings and release prompts, completions, and a modular toolkit. [S1]

## Claims
- id: C1
  claim: 'They measure 7 metrics for each of 16 core scenarios when possible.'
  source: S1
  evidence: "for each of 16 core scenarios when possible"
- id: C2
  claim: 'They evaluate 30 prominent language models on all 42 scenarios.'
  source: S1
  evidence: "a large-scale evaluation of 30 prominent language models"
- id: C3
  claim: 'They report improving coverage of core scenarios from 17.9% to 96.0%.'
  source: S1
  evidence: "evaluated on just 17.9% of the core HELM scenarios"

## Verification
- Code available: Paper: https://github.com/stanford-crfm/helm (HTTP 200 on 2026-11-11) and project page https://crfm.stanford.edu/helm/v1.0 (HTTP 200). Not run.
- Reproduced: not reproduced (2026-11-11). Code not run.
- Related work: Live note 2309-15217-ragas-rag-evaluation. This is the paper-verification note for HELM itself.
- Limits: HELM is a living benchmark; the v2 paper (revised 1 Oct 2023) describes an early public snapshot, including the v1.0 project page named in the comments, and later site versions may add scenarios or models.
- License: CC BY 4.0 on the abs page (2026-11-11; icon by-4.0.png; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Submitted 16 Nov 2022 (v1); last revised 1 Oct 2023 (v2). Sources: [S1] https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09110, v2 (1 Oct 2023). checked_on: 2026-11-11.

## When to apply
Use when you need a multi-metric evaluation frame, or when accuracy-only score tables hide trade-offs.

## Facts
- id: F1
  claim: 'HELM measures 7 metrics on 16 core scenarios when possible, reported as 87.5% of the time.'
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-11
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F2
  claim: 'The authors evaluate 30 language models on 42 scenarios.'
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-11
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0
- id: F3
  claim: 'They report that average coverage of core HELM scenarios rose from 17.9% before HELM to 96.0% in their evaluation.'
  confidence: medium
  date: 2026-11-11
  sources: [S1]
  license: CC BY 4.0

## Sources
- [S1] arXiv 2211.09110, https://arxiv.org/abs/2211.09110. License: CC BY 4.0. v2 (1 Oct 2023). Accessed 2026-11-11.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Summary by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Paper is CC BY 4.0.

---

Agents: [/agents.md](/agents.md) | [/.well-known/agent-library.json](/.well-known/agent-library.json).