Large Language Models for Vehicle Routing Problems

We currently focus on leveraging large language models for vehicle routing problems (VRPs), including

• Surveys
• Model Construction
• Algorithm Design
• Solution Verification
• Applications
• Datasets and Benchmarks

Important

Last updated: 2026-08-06

Surveys

• [2026] Large Language Models for Operations Research: A Comprehensive Survey, arXiv. [Paper]
• [2026] A Systematic Survey on Large Language Models for Algorithm Design, ACM Computing Surveys. [Paper]
• [2025] A Structured Review of Large Language Models in Metaheuristic Optimisation, Machine Learning with Applications. [Paper]
• [2025] Large Language Models in Operations Research: Methods, Applications, and Challenges, arXiv. [Paper]
• [2025] Large Language Models for Combinatorial Optimization: A Systematic Review, arXiv. [Paper]

Model Construction

• [2026] ORThought: Benchmarking and Automating Logistics Optimization Modeling with Structured LLM Reasoning, Artificial Intelligence for Transportation. [Paper] logistics modeling multi-agent
• [2025] DRoC: Elevating Large Language Models for Complex Vehicle Routing via Decomposed Retrieval of Constraints, ICLR. [Paper] [Code] multi-constraint VRP retrieval
• [2025] ARS: Automatic Routing Solver with Large Language Models, arXiv. [Paper] [Code] multi-variant VRP automatic solver construction

Algorithm Design

• [2026] PyVRP+: LLM-Driven Metacognitive Heuristic Evolution for Hybrid Genetic Search in Vehicle Routing Problems, arXiv. [Paper] VRP hybrid genetic search
• [2026] Enhancing CVRP Solver through LLM-Driven Automatic Heuristic Design, arXiv. [Paper] CVRP solver enhancement
• [2026] G-LNS: Generative Large Neighborhood Search for LLM-Based Automatic Heuristic Design, arXiv. [Paper] [Code] CVRP large neighborhood search
• [2026] Refining Hybrid Genetic Search for CVRP via Reinforcement Learning-Finetuned LLM, ICLR. [Paper] CVRP reinforcement learning
• [2026] LLM-Based Automatic Heuristic Design for Vehicle-Drone Collaborative Routing Problems, Transportation Research Part E. [Paper] vehicle-drone routing automatic heuristic design
• [2025] VRPAgent: LLM-Driven Discovery of Heuristic Operators for Vehicle Routing Problems, arXiv. [Paper] [Code] VRP agentic operator discovery
• [2025] A Large Language Model-Enhanced Q-Learning for Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows, IEEE ITSC. [Paper] CVRPTW Q-learning
• [2024] Automatic Algorithm Design Assisted by LLMs for Solving Vehicle Routing Problems, IEEE ICSP. [Paper] VRP automatic heuristic design
• [2024] ReEvo: Large Language Models as Hyper-Heuristics with Reflective Evolution, NeurIPS. [Paper] [Code] TSP CVRP reflective evolution
• [2024] Evolution of Heuristics: Towards Efficient Automatic Algorithm Design Using Large Language Model, ICML. [Paper] TSP CVRP evolutionary search

Solution Verification

• [2026] An Agentic Framework with LLMs for Solving Complex Vehicle Routing Problems, ICLR. [Paper] multi-variant VRP multi-agent cross-checking
• [2025] Using Large Language Models to Solve the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Advanced Prompting Techniques, IEEE CPE-POWERENG. [Paper] EVRP self-checking
• [2025] ARS: Automatic Routing Solver with Large Language Models, arXiv. [Paper] [Code] multi-variant VRP feasibility validation
• [2025] DRoC: Elevating Large Language Models for Complex Vehicle Routing via Decomposed Retrieval of Constraints, ICLR. [Paper] [Code] multi-constraint VRP execution feedback
• [2024] From Words to Routes: Applying Large Language Models to Vehicle Routing, arXiv. [Paper] CVRP route feasibility

Applications

General and Multi-Variant VRP

• [2026] A Universal Framework for Vehicle Routing Problems with Large Language Models, Journal of the Operations Research Society of China. [Paper] TSP CVRP multi-task transfer
• [2026] A Generalized Neural Solver Based on LLM-Guided Heuristic Evolution Framework for Solving Diverse Variants of Vehicle Routing Problems, Expert Systems with Applications. [Paper] multi-variant VRP neural solver
• [2026] LLMAide: Language-Assisted Neural Solver for Vehicle Routing Problems, AAMAS Extended Abstracts. [Paper] multi-variant VRP neural solver
• [2026] An Agentic Framework with LLMs for Solving Complex Vehicle Routing Problems, ICLR. [Paper] multi-variant VRP multi-agent system
• [2025] Large Language Models Powered Neural Solvers for Generalized Vehicle Routing Problems, ICLR Workshop on Agentic AI for Science. [Paper] generalized VRP neural combinatorial optimization
• [2024] From Words to Routes: Applying Large Language Models to Vehicle Routing, arXiv. [Paper] CVRP end-to-end route reasoning

Specialized and Multimodal Routing

• [2026] Vision-Assisted Foundation Model for Solving Multi-Task Vehicle Routing Problems, arXiv. [Paper] multi-task VRP vision-language model
• [2026] Route Optimization Reimagined: Multi-Modal Large Language Models for Next-Generation Vehicle Routing, IEEE Access. [Paper] VRP multimodal LLM
• [2026] *LM-Based Automatic Heuristic Design for Vehicle-Drone Collaborative Routing Problems, Transportation Research Part E. [Paper] vehicle-drone routing
• [2025] Using Large Language Models to Solve the Electric Vehicle Routing Problem with Advanced Prompting Techniques, IEEE CPE-POWERENG. [Paper] EVRP
• [2024] How Multimodal Integration Boost the Performance of LLM for Optimization: Case Study on Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problems, arXiv. [Paper] CVRP multimodal prompting

Datasets and Benchmarks

LLM-Oriented Benchmarks

• [2026] LogiOR, a logistics optimization modeling benchmark introduced with ORThought. [Paper] modeling logistics
• [2025] RoutBench, 1,000 VRP variants formed from combinations of routing attributes and constraints and introduced with ARS. [Paper] [Code] multi-variant VRP
• [2025] HeuriGym: An Agentic Benchmark for LLM-Crafted Heuristics in Combinatorial Optimization, arXiv. [Paper] [Code] CVRP heuristic generation
• [2025] CO-Bench: Benchmarking Language Model Agents in Algorithm Search for Combinatorial Optimization, arXiv. [Paper] TSP algorithm search

Standard and Operational VRP Data

• CVRPLIB, standard CVRP instances and best-known solutions. [Paper]
• *olomon VRPTW Benchmark, standard instances for vehicle routing with time windows. [Dataset] [Paper]
• [2026] EvoReal: Bridging Synthetic and Real Routing Problems via LLM-Guided Instance Generation and Progressive Adaptation, AAAI. [Paper] TSP CVRP instance generation
• [2025] SVRPBench: A Realistic Benchmark for Stochastic Vehicle Routing Problem, arXiv. [Paper] stochastic VRP dynamic VRP
• [2025] Olist-VRP, near-real CVRP instances constructed from Brazilian e-commerce data and introduced with EARLI. [Paper] CVRP last-mile delivery
• [2025] Delivering Data: A Real-World Dataset for Last-Mile Delivery Optimization, Data in Brief. [Paper] last-mile delivery
• [2022] Amazon Last Mile Routing Research Challenge: Data Set, Transportation Science. [Paper] last-mile delivery

Acknowledgement

Many thanks to C. Shen for his assistance.