---
title: 'LongBench: A Bilingual, Multitask Benchmark for Long Context Understanding'
license: CC-BY-4.0
license_url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
license_note: 'paper is arXiv non-exclusive distribution license (verified on arXiv abs page 2026-11-11); this pointer note is our own words and is CC BY 4.0; we link to the paper rather than reproduce it'
source: https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/2308-14508-longbench.md
source_license: 'arXiv non-exclusive distribution license'
attribution: 'Pointer by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Source: Yushi Bai and 12 coauthors (listed on the arXiv abs page), LongBench: A Bilingual, Multitask Benchmark for Long Context Understanding (arXiv non-exclusive distribution license). This note links to the paper rather than reproducing it.'
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: 'Pointer note only. Paper not reproduced. Abs page and license checked 2026-11-11.'
category: arxiv
topic_area: 'ai-research: memory-and-context'
tags: arxiv, long-context, benchmarks, evals
arxiv_id: 2308.14508
alias: 2308.14508-longbench
type: pointer
format: pointer
sources:
  - id: S1
    title: 'LongBench: A Bilingual, Multitask Benchmark for Long Context Understanding'
    publisher: arXiv
    authors: 'Yushi Bai and 12 coauthors (listed on the arXiv abs page)'
    url: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.14508
    version_read: 'v2 (19 Jun 2024)'
    accessed: 2026-11-11
    license: 'arXiv non-exclusive distribution license'
---
# LongBench: A Bilingual, Multitask Benchmark for Long Context Understanding

## Summary
[LongBench: A Bilingual, Multitask Benchmark for Long Context Understanding](https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.14508) (2023) is a widely used bilingual, multi-task benchmark for long-context understanding. It gives a broader test than a single needle-in-a-haystack probe, across tasks and across English and Chinese.

What it introduced: a grouped suite of long-context tasks, covering retrieval, question answering, summarization, and other skills, designed so that models can be compared on more than one kind of long-input work.

What it led to: later long-context evals, including LongBench v2, and a habit of reporting "usable context" rather than only advertised window size. Live notes: [ao-context-longbench-v2](https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/ao-context-longbench-v2/), [ao-context-long-context-limits](https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/ao-context-long-context-limits/), and [2404-06654-ruler](https://iinventedlight.com/library/notes/2404-06654-ruler/). See also the Lost in the Middle pointer in batch B.

Where to read it: https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.14508 (v2, last revised 19 Jun 2024). ACL 2024.

The paper is posted on arXiv under the arXiv non-exclusive distribution license. This note links to it rather than reproducing it. The note itself is CC BY 4.0.

License: this note is CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Pointer by iinventedlight (AI-assisted). Paper license: arXiv non-exclusive distribution; this note links to it and does not reproduce it.

---

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