Skywork-R1V3 Technical Report
On the map: LLM reasoning → Multimodal reasoning
Abstract (arXiv)
We introduce Skywork-R1V3, an advanced, open-source vision-language model (VLM) that pioneers a new approach to visual reasoning. Its key innovation lies in effectively transferring reasoning skills from text-only Large Language Models (LLMs) to visual tasks. The strong performance of Skywork-R1V3 primarily stems from our elaborate post-training RL framework, which effectively activates and enhances the model's reasoning ability, without the need for additional continue pre-training. Through this framework, we further uncover the fundamental role of the connector module in achieving robust cross-modal alignment for multimodal reasoning models. In addition, we introduce a unique indicator of reasoning capability, the entropy of critical reasoning tokens, which has proven highly effective for checkpoint selection during RL training. Skywork-R1V3 achieves state-of-the-art results on MMMU, significantly improving from 64.3% to 76.0%. This performance matches entry-level human capabilities. Remarkably, our RL-powered post-training approach enables even the 38B parameter model to rival top closed-source VLMs. The implementation successfully transfers mathematical reasoning to other subject-related reasoning tasks. We also include an analysis of curriculum learning and reinforcement finetuning strategies, along with a broader discussion on multimodal reasoning. Skywork-R1V3 represents a significant leap in multimodal reasoning, showcasing RL as a powerful engine for advancing open-source VLM capabilities.
Key facts. Cited by 16 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 31 of its 40 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 8 Jul 2025.
Builds on
31 of 40 references.
Closest ancestors · 9
Same direction, newest first
- 2025CSVQA: A Chinese Multimodal Benchmark for Evaluating STEM Reasoning Capabilities of VLMs30 May
- 2025MME-Reasoning: A Comprehensive Benchmark for Logical Reasoning in MLLMs27 May
- 2025Skywork-VL Reward: An Effective Reward Model for Multimodal Understanding and Reasoning12 May
- 2025VisuLogic: A Benchmark for Evaluating Visual Reasoning in Multi-modal Large Language Models21 Apr
- 2025Can MLLMs Reason in Multimodality? EMMA: An Enhanced MultiModal ReAsoning Benchmark9 Jan
- 2024LogicVista: Multimodal LLM Logical Reasoning Benchmark in Visual Contexts6 Jul
- 2024We-Math: Does Your Large Multimodal Model Achieve Human-like Mathematical Reasoning?1 Jul
- 2023MathVista: Evaluating Mathematical Reasoning of Foundation Models in Visual Contexts3 Oct
- 2023MMBench: Is Your Multi-modal Model an All-around Player?12 Jul
Other references · 22
- 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 14,441
- 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,302
- 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
- 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,146
- 2024Qwen2-VL: Enhancing Vision-Language Model's Perception of the World at Any Resolutioncited by 4,151
- 2023MMMU: A Massive Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding and Reasoning Benchmark for Expert AGIcited by 2,044
- 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 1,980
- 2025InternVL3: Exploring Advanced Training and Test-Time Recipes for Open-Source Multimodal Modelscited by 1,769
- 2024Are We on the Right Way for Evaluating Large Vision-Language Models?cited by 893
- 2024MathVerse: Does Your Multi-modal LLM Truly See the Diagrams in Visual Math Problems?cited by 573
- 2023HallusionBench: An Advanced Diagnostic Suite for Entangled Language Hallucination and Visual Illusion in Large Vision-Language Modelscited by 572
- 2025Beyond the 80/20 Rule: High-Entropy Minority Tokens Drive Effective Reinforcement Learning for LLM Reasoningcited by 540
10 more
- 2024MMMU-Pro: A More Robust Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding Benchmarkcited by 494
- 2025The Entropy Mechanism of Reinforcement Learning for Reasoning Language Modelscited by 463
- 2025Open-Reasoner-Zero: An Open Source Approach to Scaling Up Reinforcement Learning on the Base Modelcited by 450
- 2024VLMEvalKit: An Open-Source Toolkit for Evaluating Large Multi-Modality Modelscited by 443
- 2024The Platonic Representation Hypothesiscited by 362
- 2025Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards: GRPO's Effective Loss, Dynamics, and Success Amplificationcited by 108
- 2025Wait, We Don't Need to "Wait"! Removing Thinking Tokens Improves Reasoning Efficiencycited by 65
- 2024VLM See, Robot Do: Human Demo Video to Robot Action Plan via Vision Language Modelcited by 36
- 2025FireEdit: Fine-grained Instruction-based Image Editing via Region-aware Vision Language Modelcited by 31
- 2025Cross-Task Generalization Between Understanding and Generation in Unified Vision-Language Models: A Controlled Studycited by 14
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 11; 2026: 5.
16 papers.
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- 2025InternVL3.5: Advancing Open-Source Multimodal Models in Versatility, Reasoning, and Efficiencycited by 1,419
- 2025A Survey of Reinforcement Learning for Large Reasoning Modelscited by 175
- 2025Thyme: Think Beyond Imagescited by 160
- 2025Step-Audio-R1 Technical Reportcited by 35
- 2025Skywork-R1V4: Toward Agentic Multimodal Intelligence through Interleaved Thinking with Images and DeepResearchcited by 25
- 2025AirCopBench: A Benchmark for Multi-drone Collaborative Embodied Perception and Reasoningcited by 19
- 2025BOTS: A Unified Framework for Bayesian Online Task Selection in LLM Reinforcement Finetuningcited by 12
- 2025MindGPT-4ov: An Enhanced MLLM via a Multi-Stage Post-Training Paradigmcited by 9
- 2025SaFeR-VLM: Toward Safety-aware Fine-grained Reasoning in Multimodal Modelscited by 8
- 2025Where on Earth? A Vision-Language Benchmark for Probing Model Geolocation Skills Across Scalescited by 5
- 2026RetouchIQ: MLLM Agents for Instruction-Based Image Retouching with Generalist Rewardcited by 4
- 2025MathReal: We Keep It Real! A Real Scene Benchmark for Evaluating Math Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 2
4 more
- 2026The Side Effects of Being Smart: Safety Risks in MLLMs' Multi-Image Reasoningcited by 2
- 2026Thinking with Tables: Enhancing Multi-Modal Tabular Understanding via Neuro-Symbolic Reasoningcited by 2
- 2026Kalman Meets Curriculum: Efficient Dynamic Prompt Selection for Adaptive RL Finetuningcited by 2
- 2026Before Thinking, Learn to Decide: Proactive Routing for Efficient Visual Reasoningcited by 0
- 2026Kalman Meets Curriculum: Efficient Dynamic Prompt Selection for Adaptive RL Finetuning30 Jul 2026
- 2026Before Thinking, Learn to Decide: Proactive Routing for Efficient Visual Reasoning29 Jun 2026
- 2026Thinking with Tables: Enhancing Multi-Modal Tabular Understanding via Neuro-Symbolic Reasoning25 Mar 2026
- 2026RetouchIQ: MLLM Agents for Instruction-Based Image Retouching with Generalist Reward19 Feb 2026
- 2026The Side Effects of Being Smart: Safety Risks in MLLMs' Multi-Image Reasoning20 Jan 2026
- 2025MindGPT-4ov: An Enhanced MLLM via a Multi-Stage Post-Training Paradigm2 Dec 2025
- 2025Skywork-R1V4: Toward Agentic Multimodal Intelligence through Interleaved Thinking with Images and DeepResearch2 Dec 2025
- 2025Step-Audio-R1 Technical Report19 Nov 2025
- 2025AirCopBench: A Benchmark for Multi-drone Collaborative Embodied Perception and Reasoning14 Nov 2025
- 2025BOTS: A Unified Framework for Bayesian Online Task Selection in LLM Reinforcement Finetuning30 Oct 2025
- 2025Where on Earth? A Vision-Language Benchmark for Probing Model Geolocation Skills Across Scales13 Oct 2025
- 2025SaFeR-VLM: Toward Safety-aware Fine-grained Reasoning in Multimodal Models8 Oct 2025
4 more
- 2025A Survey of Reinforcement Learning for Large Reasoning Models10 Sep 2025
- 2025InternVL3.5: Advancing Open-Source Multimodal Models in Versatility, Reasoning, and Efficiency25 Aug 2025
- 2025Thyme: Think Beyond Images15 Aug 2025
- 2025MathReal: We Keep It Real! A Real Scene Benchmark for Evaluating Math Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Models8 Aug 2025
- 2025InternVL3.5: Advancing Open-Source Multimodal Models in Versatility, Reasoning, and Efficiencycited by 1,419
- 2025A Survey of Reinforcement Learning for Large Reasoning Modelscited by 175
- 2025Thyme: Think Beyond Imagescited by 160
- 2025Step-Audio-R1 Technical Reportcited by 35
- 2025AirCopBench: A Benchmark for Multi-drone Collaborative Embodied Perception and Reasoningcited by 19
- 2025SaFeR-VLM: Toward Safety-aware Fine-grained Reasoning in Multimodal Modelscited by 8
- 2025MathReal: We Keep It Real! A Real Scene Benchmark for Evaluating Math Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 2
- 2026The Side Effects of Being Smart: Safety Risks in MLLMs' Multi-Image Reasoningcited by 2
- 2026Thinking with Tables: Enhancing Multi-Modal Tabular Understanding via Neuro-Symbolic Reasoningcited by 2
- 2026Kalman Meets Curriculum: Efficient Dynamic Prompt Selection for Adaptive RL Finetuningcited by 2
- 2026Before Thinking, Learn to Decide: Proactive Routing for Efficient Visual Reasoningcited by 0
- 2026Kalman Meets Curriculum: Efficient Dynamic Prompt Selection for Adaptive RL Finetuning30 Jul 2026
- 2026Before Thinking, Learn to Decide: Proactive Routing for Efficient Visual Reasoning29 Jun 2026
- 2026Thinking with Tables: Enhancing Multi-Modal Tabular Understanding via Neuro-Symbolic Reasoning25 Mar 2026
- 2026The Side Effects of Being Smart: Safety Risks in MLLMs' Multi-Image Reasoning20 Jan 2026
- 2025Step-Audio-R1 Technical Report19 Nov 2025
- 2025AirCopBench: A Benchmark for Multi-drone Collaborative Embodied Perception and Reasoning14 Nov 2025
- 2025SaFeR-VLM: Toward Safety-aware Fine-grained Reasoning in Multimodal Models8 Oct 2025
- 2025A Survey of Reinforcement Learning for Large Reasoning Models10 Sep 2025
- 2025InternVL3.5: Advancing Open-Source Multimodal Models in Versatility, Reasoning, and Efficiency25 Aug 2025
- 2025Thyme: Think Beyond Images15 Aug 2025
- 2025MathReal: We Keep It Real! A Real Scene Benchmark for Evaluating Math Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Models8 Aug 2025
Similar, not cited
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- 2025Skywork Open Reasoner 1 Technical Report
- 2024Beyond Visual Understanding: Introducing PARROT-360V for Vision Language Model Benchmarking
- 2025Vision-G1: Towards General Vision Language Reasoning with Multi-Domain Data Curation
- 20253D-R1: Enhancing Reasoning in 3D VLMs for Unified Scene Understanding
- 2025VLM-R1: A Stable and Generalizable R1-style Large Vision-Language Model
- 2025Better Reasoning with Less Data: Enhancing VLMs Through Unified Modality Scoring
- 2024Chart-based Reasoning: Transferring Capabilities from LLMs to VLMs