diff --git a/packages/tui/src/component/dialog-model.tsx b/packages/tui/src/component/dialog-model.tsx
index 38db569aaa24..1146fcb5d0b2 100644
--- a/packages/tui/src/component/dialog-model.tsx
+++ b/packages/tui/src/component/dialog-model.tsx
@@ -118,10 +118,7 @@ export function DialogModel(props: { providerID?: string }) {
 
     if (needle) {
       return [
-        ...sortModelOptions(
-          fuzzysort.go(needle, providerOptions, { keys: ["title", "category"] }).map((x) => x.obj),
-          false,
-        ),
+        ...searchModelOptions(needle, providerOptions),
         ...fuzzysort.go(needle, popularProviders, { keys: ["title"] }).map((x) => x.obj),
       ]
     }
@@ -183,6 +180,12 @@ export function DialogModel(props: { providerID?: string }) {
   )
 }
 
+// Search results keep fuzzysort's relevance order: re-sorting them by release date
+// would rank a scattered-letter match above an exact one.
+export function searchModelOptions<T extends { title: string; category?: string }>(needle: string, options: T[]) {
+  return fuzzysort.go(needle, options, { keys: ["title", "category"] }).map((x) => x.obj)
+}
+
 export function sortModelOptions<T extends { footer?: string; releaseDate: string | number; title: string }>(
   options: T[],
   newestFirst: boolean,
diff --git a/packages/tui/test/cli/cmd/tui/model-options.test.ts b/packages/tui/test/cli/cmd/tui/model-options.test.ts
index 97bae7532fe9..fc7dd146e1a5 100644
--- a/packages/tui/test/cli/cmd/tui/model-options.test.ts
+++ b/packages/tui/test/cli/cmd/tui/model-options.test.ts
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 import { describe, expect, test } from "bun:test"
-import { sortModelOptions } from "../../../../src/component/dialog-model"
+import { searchModelOptions, sortModelOptions } from "../../../../src/component/dialog-model"
 
 describe("sortModelOptions", () => {
   test("orders provider-scoped model choices by newest release first", () => {
@@ -30,3 +30,36 @@ describe("sortModelOptions", () => {
     expect(sorted.map((model) => model.title)).toEqual(["Free new", "Free old", "GLM 5.2", "GLM 5.1", "GLM 5"])
   })
 })
+
+describe("searchModelOptions", () => {
+  const category = "OpenRouter"
+  // Titles from a real OpenRouter catalogue, newest first as the picker sorts them.
+  const options = [
+    { title: "inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash", category, releaseDate: "2026-09-01" },
+    { title: "inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-vl", category, releaseDate: "2026-09-01" },
+    { title: "openai/gpt-5.6-luna", category, releaseDate: "2026-08-01" },
+    { title: "openai/gpt-5.6-luna-pro", category, releaseDate: "2026-08-01" },
+    { title: "poolside/laguna-s-2.1", category, releaseDate: "2026-07-01" },
+    { title: "~openai/gpt-luna-latest", category, releaseDate: "2026-06-01" },
+  ]
+
+  test("ranks names containing the query above scattered-letter matches", () => {
+    const titles = searchModelOptions("luna", options).map((option) => option.title)
+    const exact = titles.filter((title) => title.includes("luna"))
+
+    // Every name that literally contains "luna" comes before any that only match
+    // its letters in order, like incLUsioNAi or LagUNA.
+    expect(titles.slice(0, exact.length)).toEqual(exact)
+    expect(exact).toHaveLength(3)
+  })
+
+  test("keeps scattered-letter matches, below the exact ones", () => {
+    const titles = searchModelOptions("luna", options).map((option) => option.title)
+
+    // Search stays fuzzy: every option matches l-u-n-a in order, so none are dropped.
+    expect(titles).toHaveLength(options.length)
+    expect(titles.slice(3)).toEqual(
+      expect.arrayContaining(["inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash", "inclusionai/ling-3.0-flash-vl", "poolside/laguna-s-2.1"]),
+    )
+  })
+})