Prompt Rewrite Boosts Small LLM Performance by 20%+

Recent research demonstrates that a simple prompt rewrite can significantly boost the performance of smaller language models. Researchers used the Tau² benchmark framework to test the GPT-5-mini model, finding that rewriting prompts into clearer, more structured instructions increased the model's success rate by over 20%. This is primarily because smaller models struggle with verbose or ambiguous instructions, while clear, step-by-step instructions better guide the model's reasoning. This research shows that even smaller language models can achieve significant performance improvements through clever prompt engineering, offering new avenues for cost-effective and efficient AI applications.