mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Models

arXiv 2305.10601 ↗First posted 17 May 2023cs.CL cs.AI cs.LGcited by 3,155

On the map: LLM reasoning → Test-time compute and efficient thinking

Abstract (arXiv)

Language models are increasingly being deployed for general problem solving across a wide range of tasks, but are still confined to token-level, left-to-right decision-making processes during inference. This means they can fall short in tasks that require exploration, strategic lookahead, or where initial decisions play a pivotal role. To surmount these challenges, we introduce a new framework for language model inference, Tree of Thoughts (ToT), which generalizes over the popular Chain of Thought approach to prompting language models, and enables exploration over coherent units of text (thoughts) that serve as intermediate steps toward problem solving. ToT allows LMs to perform deliberate decision making by considering multiple different reasoning paths and self-evaluating choices to decide the next course of action, as well as looking ahead or backtracking when necessary to make global choices. Our experiments show that ToT significantly enhances language models' problem-solving abilities on three novel tasks requiring non-trivial planning or search: Game of 24, Creative Writing, and Mini Crosswords. For instance, in Game of 24, while GPT-4 with chain-of-thought prompting only solved 4% of tasks, our method achieved a success rate of 74%. Code repo with all prompts: https://github.com/princeton-nlp/tree-of-thought-llm.

Key facts. Cited by 3,155 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Test-time compute and efficient thinking, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 24 of its 53 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 17 May 2023.

Builds on

24 of 53 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedback30 Mar

Other references · 23

  1. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,199
  2. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,132
  3. 2023LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Modelscited by 13,958
  4. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
  5. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  6. 2022Self-Consistency Improves Chain of Thought Reasoning in Language Modelscited by 5,601
  7. 2022PaLM: Scaling Language Modeling with Pathwayscited by 5,304
  8. 2022Least-to-Most Prompting Enables Complex Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 1,397
  9. 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,057
  10. 2022Language Models as Zero-Shot Planners: Extracting Actionable Knowledge for Embodied Agentscited by 1,029
  11. 2023Teaching Large Language Models to Self-Debugcited by 963
  12. 2023Plan-and-Solve Prompting: Improving Zero-Shot Chain-of-Thought Reasoning by Large Language Modelscited by 550
11 more
  1. 2023LLM+P: Empowering Large Language Models with Optimal Planning Proficiencycited by 496
  2. 2023Describe, Explain, Plan and Select: Interactive Planning with Large Language Models Enables Open-World Multi-Task Agentscited by 396
  3. 2023Language Models can Solve Computer Taskscited by 371
  4. 2023Planning with Large Language Models for Code Generationcited by 179
  5. 2023Foundation Models for Decision Making: Problems, Methods, and Opportunitiescited by 160
  6. 2022Maieutic Prompting: Logically Consistent Reasoning with Recursive Explanationscited by 159
  7. 2021NeuroLogic A*esque Decoding: Constrained Text Generation with Lookahead Heuristicscited by 153
  8. 2022Faithful Reasoning Using Large Language Modelscited by 130
  9. 2022CHAI: A CHatbot AI for Task-Oriented Dialogue with Offline Reinforcement Learningcited by 33
  10. 2023Large Language Model Programscited by 11
  11. 2022Automated Crossword Solvingcited by 9

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Citing papers per year: 2023: 309; 2024: 784; 2025: 1075; 2026: 987.

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  1. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
  2. 2023A Survey on Large Language Model based Autonomous Agentscited by 2,203
  3. 2024Scaling LLM Test-Time Compute Optimally can be More Effective than Scaling Model Parameterscited by 1,928
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  6. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,422
  7. 2025s1: Simple test-time scalingcited by 1,311
  8. 2024τ-bench: A Benchmark for Tool-Agent-User Interaction in Real-World Domainscited by 1,280
  9. 2023AgentBench: Evaluating LLMs as Agentscited by 1,211
  10. 2025Kimi k1.5: Scaling Reinforcement Learning with LLMscited by 1,193
  11. 2023Llama Guard: LLM-based Input-Output Safeguard for Human-AI Conversationscited by 1,124
  12. 2023SGLang: Efficient Execution of Structured Language Model Programscited by 1,107
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  2. 2023Large Language Models Cannot Self-Correct Reasoning Yetcited by 965
  3. 2024Large Language Monkeys: Scaling Inference Compute with Repeated Samplingcited by 946
  4. 2023Graph of Thoughts: Solving Elaborate Problems with Large Language Modelscited by 873
  5. 2023Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Modelcited by 846
  6. 2023ExpeL: LLM Agents Are Experiential Learnerscited by 814
  7. 2023DSPy: Compiling Declarative Language Model Calls into Self-Improving Pipelinescited by 803
  8. 2023Large Language Modelscited by 774
  9. 2024Training Large Language Models to Reason in a Continuous Latent Spacecited by 763
  10. 2024Large Language Model based Multi-Agents: A Survey of Progress and Challengescited by 752
  11. 2023VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Modelscited by 733
  12. 2023The Dawn of LMMs: Preliminary Explorations with GPT-4V(ision)cited by 677
  13. 2023Measuring Faithfulness in Chain-of-Thought Reasoningcited by 668
  14. 2025SFT Memorizes, RL Generalizes: A Comparative Study of Foundation Model Post-trainingcited by 655
  15. 2025Vision-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 653
  16. 2023A Comprehensive Overview of Large Language Modelscited by 639
  17. 2024Diffusion Forcing: Next-token Prediction Meets Full-Sequence Diffusioncited by 634
  18. 2023Tree of Attacks: Jailbreaking Black-Box LLMs Automaticallycited by 619
  19. 2023Instruction Tuning for Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 617
  20. 2023AgentVerse: Facilitating Multi-Agent Collaboration and Exploring Emergent Behaviorscited by 580
  21. 2024Thinking in Space: How Multimodal Large Language Models See, Remember, and Recall Spacescited by 580
  22. 2024Do NOT Think That Much for 2+3=? On the Overthinking of o1-Like LLMscited by 564
  23. 2025Why Do Multi-Agent LLM Systems Fail?cited by 559
  24. 2023Language Agent Tree Search Unifies Reasoning Acting and Planning in Language Modelscited by 551
  25. 2024Executable Code Actions Elicit Better LLM Agentscited by 537
  26. 2023DriveLM: Driving with Graph Visual Question Answeringcited by 527
  27. 2023Promptbreeder: Self-Referential Self-Improvement Via Prompt Evolutioncited by 521
  28. 2023Identifying the Risks of LM Agents with an LM-Emulated Sandboxcited by 514
  29. 2024Large Language Models: A Surveycited by 506
  30. 2025LIMO: Less is More for Reasoningcited by 488
  31. 2024Generative Verifiers: Reward Modeling as Next-Token Predictioncited by 465
  32. 2025Stop Overthinking: A Survey on Efficient Reasoning for Large Language Modelscited by 456
  33. 2024A Systematic Survey of Prompt Engineering in Large Language Models: Techniques and Applicationscited by 428
  34. 2024Improve Mathematical Reasoning in Language Models by Automated Process Supervisioncited by 426
  35. 2023Cognitive Architectures for Language Agentscited by 422
  36. 2024Mixture-of-Agents Enhances Large Language Model Capabilitiescited by 420
  37. 2023Scaling Relationship on Learning Mathematical Reasoning with Large Language Modelscited by 417
  38. 2023LeanDojo: Theorem Proving with Retrieval-Augmented Language Modelscited by 414

50 most cited of 3,155 All 3,155 (JSON)

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  1. 2024iToT: An Interactive System for Customized Tree-of-Thought Generation
  2. 2023Large Language Model Guided Tree-of-Thought
  3. 2024Tree of Problems: Improving structured problem solving with compositionality
  4. 2026Tree of Thoughts as a Classical Heuristic Search Problem: Formal Foundations and Design Patterns
  5. 2025Reasoning Can Hurt the Inductive Abilities of Large Language Models
  6. 2025ToTRL: Unlock LLM Tree-of-Thoughts Reasoning Potential through Puzzles Solving
  7. 2024T2 of Thoughts: Temperature Tree Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models
  8. 2024Understanding When Tree of Thoughts Succeeds: Larger Models Excel in Generation, Not Discrimination