CoBA-RL: Capability-Oriented Budget Allocation for Reinforcement Learning in LLMs

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2602.03048v3
• Date: Fri, 06 Feb 2026 02:56:57 GMT
• Title: CoBA-RL: Capability-Oriented Budget Allocation for Reinforcement Learning in LLMs
• Authors: Zhiyuan Yao, Yi-Kai Zhang, Yuxin Chen, Yueqing Sun, Zishan Xu, Yu Yang, Tianhao Hu, Qi Gu, Hui Su, Xunliang Cai,
• Abstract summary: CoBA-RL is a reinforcement learning algorithm designed to adaptively allocate rollout budgets based on the model's evolving capability.<n>Our approach effectively orchestrates the trade-off between exploration and exploitation, delivering consistent generalization improvements.
• Score: 31.371566320424552
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR) has emerged as a key approach for enhancing LLM reasoning. However, standard frameworks like Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO) typically employ a uniform rollout budget, leading to resource inefficiency. Moreover, existing adaptive methods often rely on instance-level metrics, such as task pass rates, failing to capture the model's dynamic learning state. To address these limitations, we propose CoBA-RL, a reinforcement learning algorithm designed to adaptively allocate rollout budgets based on the model's evolving capability. Specifically, CoBA-RL utilizes a Capability-Oriented Value function to map tasks to their potential training gains and employs a heap-based greedy strategy to efficiently self-calibrate the distribution of computational resources to samples with high training value. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach effectively orchestrates the trade-off between exploration and exploitation, delivering consistent generalization improvements across multiple challenging benchmarks. These findings underscore that quantifying sample training value and optimizing budget allocation are pivotal for advancing LLM post-training efficiency.

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