mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

TabPFN-2.5: Advancing the State of the Art in Tabular Foundation Models

arXiv 2511.08667 ↗First posted 11 Nov 2025cs.LG stat.MLcited by 115

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Abstract (arXiv)

The first tabular foundation model, TabPFN, and its successor TabPFNv2 have impacted tabular AI substantially, with dozens of methods building on it and hundreds of applications across different use cases. This report introduces TabPFN-2.5, the next generation of our tabular foundation model, built for datasets with up to 50,000 data points and 2,000 features, a 20x increase in data cells compared to TabPFNv2. TabPFN-2.5 is now the leading method for the industry standard benchmark TabArena (which contains datasets with up to 100,000 training data points), substantially outperforming tuned tree-based models and matching the accuracy of AutoGluon 1.4, a complex four-hour tuned ensemble that even includes the previous TabPFNv2. Remarkably, default TabPFN-2.5 has a 100% win rate against default XGBoost on small to medium-sized classification datasets (<=10,000 data points, 500 features) and a 87% win rate on larger datasets up to 100K samples and 2K features (85% for regression). For production use cases, we introduce a new distillation engine that converts TabPFN-2.5 into a compact MLP or tree ensemble, preserving most of its accuracy while delivering orders-of-magnitude lower latency and plug-and-play deployment. This new release will immediately strengthen the performance of the many applications and methods already built on the TabPFN ecosystem.

Key facts. Cited by 115 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 42 of its 218 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 11 Nov 2025.

Builds on

42 of 218 references.

References · 42

  1. 2016XGBoost: A Scalable Tree Boosting Systemcited by 5,120
  2. 2023Vision Transformers Need Registerscited by 844
  3. 2022TabPFN: A Transformer That Solves Small Tabular Classification Problems in a Secondcited by 643
  4. 2015Estimation and Inference of Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Random Forestscited by 597
  5. 2024FlashAttention-3: Fast and Accurate Attention with Asynchrony and Low-precisioncited by 507
  6. 2017Meta-learners for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects using Machine Learningcited by 475
  7. 2020AutoGluon-Tabular: Robust and Accurate AutoML for Structured Datacited by 368
  8. 2025TabICL: A Tabular Foundation Model for In-Context Learning on Large Datacited by 267
  9. 2023Think before you speak: Training Language Models With Pause Tokenscited by 254
  10. 2025TabArena: A Living Benchmark for Machine Learning on Tabular Datacited by 152
  11. 2024TabM: Advancing Tabular Deep Learning with Parameter-Efficient Ensemblingcited by 105
  12. 2024Better by Default: Strong Pre-Tuned MLPs and Boosted Trees on Tabular Datacited by 87
30 more
  1. 2025Mitra: Mixed Synthetic Priors for Enhancing Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 67
  2. 2025LimiX: Unleashing Structured-Data Modeling Capability for Generalist Intelligencecited by 65
  3. 2025Do-PFN: In-Context Learning for Causal Effect Estimationcited by 46
  4. 2020RealCause: Realistic Causal Inference Benchmarkingcited by 44
  5. 2025CausalPFN: Amortized Causal Effect Estimation via In-Context Learningcited by 43
  6. 2025Real-TabPFN: Improving Tabular Foundation Models via Continued Pre-training With Real-World Datacited by 36
  7. 2025Foundation Models for Causal Inference via Prior-Data Fitted Networkscited by 30
  8. 2025Turning Tabular Foundation Models into Graph Foundation Modelscited by 30
  9. 2024Revisiting Nearest Neighbor for Tabular Data: A Deep Tabular Baseline Two Decades Latercited by 28
  10. 2024TabPFGen -- Tabular Data Generation with TabPFNcited by 26
  11. 2025Exact Expressive Power of Transformers with Paddingcited by 19
  12. 2025xRFM: Accurate, scalable, and interpretable feature learning models for tabular datacited by 14
  13. 2022Detecting hidden confounding in observational data using multiple environmentscited by 13
  14. 2025TabPFN-Wide: Continued Pre-Training for Extreme Feature Countscited by 13
  15. 2025Bringing Graphs to the Table: Zero-shot Node Classification via Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 12
  16. 2025Estimating Interventional Distributions with Uncertain Causal Graphs through Meta-Learningcited by 11
  17. 2025TabPFN: One Model to Rule Them All?cited by 10
  18. 2025TIME: TabPFN-Integrated Multimodal Engine for Robust Tabular-Image Learningcited by 10
  19. 2025In-context Learning of Evolving Data Streams with Tabular Foundational Modelscited by 7
  20. 2023Enhancing Actuarial Non-Life Pricing Models via Transformerscited by 6
  21. 2025ICR-RL: Deep Reinforcement Learning via In-Context Regressioncited by 5
  22. 2025Modern Neural Networks for Small Tabular Datasets: The New Default for Field-Scale Digital Soil Mapping?cited by 3
  23. 2025Longitudinal Progression Prediction of Alzheimer's Disease with Tabular Foundation Modelcited by 3
  24. 2025Tabular foundation model for GEOAI benchmark problems BM/AirportSoilProperties/2/2025cited by 3
  25. 2025Kriging prior Regression: A Case for Kriging-Based Spatial Features with TabPFN in Soil Mappingcited by 2
  26. 2025Tabular Data with Class Imbalance: Predicting Electric Vehicle Crash Severity with Pretrained Transformers (TabPFN) and Mamba-Based Modelscited by 2
  27. 2025ACTIVA: Amortized Causal Effect Estimation via Transformer-based Variational Autoencodercited by 1
  28. 2025Uncertainty-Aware Tabular Prediction: Evaluating VBLL-Enhanced TabPFN in Safety-Critical Medical Datacited by 1
  29. 2025Uncertainty-Guided Model Selection for Tabular Foundation Models in Biomolecule Efficacy Predictioncited by 1
  30. 2025FuelCast: Benchmarking Tabular and Temporal Models for Ship Fuel Consumptioncited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 4; 2026: 111.

115 papers.

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  1. 2026PluRel: Synthetic Data unlocks Scaling Laws for Relational Foundation Modelscited by 15
  2. 2026Relational In-Context Learning via Synthetic Pre-training with Structural Priorcited by 11
  3. 2025Conditional Coverage Diagnostics for Conformal Predictioncited by 8
  4. 2026EveNet: A Foundation Model for Particle Collision Data Analysiscited by 8
  5. 2026Tabular Foundation Models are Strong Graph Anomaly Detectorscited by 8
  6. 2026From Zero to Hero: Advancing Zero-Shot Foundation Models for Tabular Outlier Detectioncited by 8
  7. 2026No Need to Train Your RDB Foundation Modelcited by 8
  8. 2026V0: A Generalist Value Model for Any Policy at State Zerocited by 7
  9. 2026EXAONE Tabular 1.0 : Technical Reportcited by 7
  10. 2026Use What You Know: Causal Foundation Models with Partial Graphscited by 6
  11. 2026LimiX-2M: Mitigating Low-Rank Collapse and Attention Bottlenecks in Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 6
  12. 2026Tabular Foundation Models Can Do Survival Analysiscited by 5
38 more
  1. 2026End-to-End Compression for Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 5
  2. 2026TabSwift: An Efficient Tabular Foundation Model with Row-Wise Attentioncited by 5
  3. 2026TabClustPFN: A Prior-Fitted Network for Tabular Data Clusteringcited by 4
  4. 2026ScoringBench: A Benchmark for Evaluating Tabular Foundation Models with Proper Scoring Rulescited by 4
  5. 2026Noise Immunity in In-Context Tabular Learning: An Empirical Robustness Analysis of TabPFN's Attention Mechanismscited by 4
  6. 2026Tabular foundation models for in-context prediction of molecular propertiescited by 4
  7. 2026Is One Layer Enough? Understanding Inference Dynamics in Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 4
  8. 2026Causal Foundation Models with Continuous Treatmentscited by 4
  9. 2026RocketPFN: Accurate Time Series Classification via In-Context Learningcited by 4
  10. 2026TabDPT-Turbo: Efficient In-Context Learning for Tabular Predictioncited by 4
  11. 2026Benchmarking Optimizers for MLPs in Tabular Deep Learningcited by 3
  12. 2026Amortizing Causal Sensitivity Analysis via Prior Data-Fitted Networkscited by 3
  13. 2026VIP-COP: Context Optimization for Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 3
  14. 2026Mitra-v2 Technical Reportcited by 3
  15. 2025Comparing Task-Agnostic Embedding Models for Tabular Datacited by 2
  16. 2026Grables: Tabular Learning Beyond Independent Rowscited by 2
  17. 2026MulTaBench: Benchmarking Multimodal Tabular Learning with Text and Imagecited by 2
  18. 2026KGPFN: Unlocking the Potential of Knowledge Graph Foundation Model via In-Context Learningcited by 2
  19. 2026Foundation Models for Credit Risk Prediction: A Game Changer?cited by 2
  20. 2026Pocket Foundation Models: Distilling TFMs into CPU-Ready Gradient-Boosted Treescited by 2
  21. 2026Shaping the Prior: How Synthetic Task Distributions Determine Tabular Foundation Model Qualitycited by 2
  22. 2026SurvPFN: Towards Foundation Models for Survival Predictionscited by 2
  23. 2026Towards Pretraining Text Encoders for TabPFNcited by 2
  24. 2026Efficient Adaptive Data Acquisition via Pretrained Belief Representationscited by 2
  25. 2026PerturbPFN: Probing the Limits of Synthetic Priors in Drug Perturbation Modellingcited by 2
  26. 2025Beyond Token-level Supervision: Unlocking the Potential of Decoding-based Regression via Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
  27. 2026FIRE: Multi-fidelity Regression with Distribution-conditioned In-context Learning using Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 1
  28. 2026Observationally Informed Adaptive Causal Experimental Designcited by 1
  29. 2026Engineering Regression Without Real-Data Training: Domain Adaptation for Tabular Foundation Models Using Multi-Dataset Embeddingscited by 1
  30. 2026FoMo X: Modular Explainability Signals for Outlier Detection Foundation Modelscited by 1
  31. 2026Survival In-Context: Amortized Bayesian Survival Analysis via Prior-Fitted Networkscited by 1
  32. 2026Selecting Feature Interactions for Generalized Additive Models by Distilling Foundation Modelscited by 1
  33. 2026Distilling Tabular Foundation Models for Structured Health Datacited by 1
  34. 2026LUCoS: Latent Unsupervised Context Selection for Tabular Foundation Modelscited by 1
  35. 2026CalArena: A Large-Scale Post-Hoc Calibration Benchmarkcited by 1
  36. 2026Images as Tables: In-Context Learning with TabPFN for Low-Data Detection of AI-Generated Imagescited by 1
  37. 2026Where Computation Lives Inside TabPFN: Causal Localisation of Attention Head Functioncited by 1
  38. 2026Bounded Context Management for Tabular Foundation Models on Stream Learningcited by 1

50 most cited of 115 All 115 (JSON)