Best Open-Weight AI Models for Cheaper Inference

Kimi K3.1 Pro is an advanced multimodal AI reasoning model developed by Moonshot AI for software engineering, autonomous agents, technical design, and analytical knowledge work. Built on the Kimi K3 architecture, the model uses approximately 2.8 trillion total parameters with 104 billion active parameters and supports a one-million-token context window. Its enhanced reasoning capabilities enable complex, multistep problem-solving across programming, scientific analysis, financial research, and business operations. Coding features include source code generation, debugging, repository-level modifications, automated testing, and end-to-end application development. The model can create interactive websites, Three.js environments, games, and software projects using development frameworks and engines such as Unity, Unreal Engine, and Godot. Its spatial reasoning capabilities support CAD code generation, parametric modeling, 3D asset creation, and geometry adjustments through tools such as Blender. Financial analysis capabilities include spreadsheet modeling, document-based research, numerical reasoning, and investment analysis using information from multiple sources. Kimi K3.1 Pro supports text and image inputs, external tool use, and long-running agentic workflows that require planning and iterative execution. The model is accessible through Kimi applications and APIs, with an additional Highspeed version designed to deliver approximately two to three times faster responses.

GLM-5.2 is a next-generation large language model built for users who need strong reasoning, coding support, and agentic AI capabilities. It can assist with complex software development tasks, technical problem-solving, automation workflows, and advanced research projects. The model is designed to process long-context information, which makes it helpful for analyzing large documents, reviewing codebases, and maintaining continuity across multi-step tasks. GLM-5.2 supports developers and organizations that want to create AI-powered tools capable of planning, reasoning, and executing more sophisticated workflows. Its architecture is structured to deliver high performance while improving efficiency for demanding AI use cases. Businesses can use GLM-5.2 to enhance productivity, streamline engineering processes, and build more capable intelligent applications. It is also useful for teams that need AI assistance across documentation, data interpretation, coding, testing, and workflow automation. The model’s emphasis on agentic engineering makes it well-suited for applications that require more than simple text generation. GLM-5.2 provides a flexible AI foundation for companies looking to bring advanced reasoning and automation into their products or internal operations.

Kimi K3 is a large-scale AI model from Moonshot AI designed for advanced reasoning, software engineering, visual understanding, agentic workflows, and knowledge work. The model is built with 2.8 trillion parameters and uses Kimi Delta Attention, a hybrid linear attention design created to support long-context intelligence. It also includes Attention Residuals and a native 1 million token context window, giving developers room to work with large files, repositories, documentation sets, transcripts, and enterprise knowledge bases. Kimi K3 always runs with thinking mode enabled and currently supports maximum reasoning effort by default. Developers can access the model through Moonshot’s OpenAI-compatible API using Python, cURL, and the OpenAI SDK. The API supports standard chat completions, streaming output, structured JSON Schema responses, partial continuation from a prefix, custom tool calling, required tool choice, and dynamic tool loading. Kimi K3 also supports vision inputs, including local images encoded as base64 and video files uploaded through the file API. Automatic context caching helps repeated long-prefix workflows become more efficient without requiring manual cache IDs or extra cache parameters. By combining long context, visual understanding, tool use, structured output, and advanced reasoning, Kimi K3 is built for developers creating sophisticated AI agents, coding systems, research tools, and enterprise applications.

GLM-5.3 is Z.ai’s advanced coding and agentic reasoning model built through scaled post-training on top of the GLM-5.2 base model. The release focuses on frontier coding, long-horizon software engineering, agent tasks, cyber evaluation, and reinforcement learning at scale. GLM-5.3 improves significantly over GLM-5.2 on complex coding benchmarks, real-world engineering environments, Terminal Bench 3.0, DeepSWE, Agents’ Last Exam, and Z.ai’s internal Code Bench. The model is trained on environments that resemble real professional work, including tasks involving codebases, infrastructure, documentation, compute clusters, experiments, bottleneck diagnosis, implementation, testing, and measurable optimization. Z.ai’s post-training stack includes IndexShare for efficient long-context processing, SAO for reinforcement learning on long-horizon tasks, and slime for large-scale asynchronous training. GLM-5.3 supports three thinking effort levels, including low, high, and max, with max recommended for coding tasks. The model also demonstrates emergent cyber capabilities across vulnerability discovery and exploitation benchmarks, prompting continued safety evaluation and hardening before weights are released. GLM-5.3 can be used through the GLM Coding Plan, ZCode, Claude Code, OpenCode, and other coding agent workflows. By combining stronger coding performance, long-horizon task execution, post-training scale, cyber evaluation, reasoning effort controls, and coding-agent integrations, GLM-5.3 supports advanced developer and research workflows.

GLM-5.3-Flash is a multimodal foundation model from Z.ai built for high-efficiency reasoning, coding, agents, and visual understanding. The model contains 320 billion parameters in total but activates only 18 billion parameters during inference, helping reduce compute requirements. Its architecture combines linear attention with sparse attention so it can efficiently handle both local dependencies and relevant information spread across very long contexts. Z.ai also introduced IndexPool to reduce the memory and latency overhead associated with long-context retrieval at context lengths reaching one million tokens. The model was pretrained on a 30-trillion-token multimodal dataset that incorporates both textual and visual information. GLM-5.3-Flash is designed for software engineering tasks, autonomous workflows, frontend development, computer use, document analysis, and other professional workloads that benefit from visual reasoning. Its visual coding capabilities allow it to inspect rendered interfaces, identify layout or interaction problems, and use those observations to revise its work. Benchmark results published by Z.ai show that it improves substantially over GLM-5.2 on multiple coding and agentic tests while remaining competitive with more expensive frontier models. GLM-5.3-Flash can be accessed through Z.ai services and is also available as downloadable model weights for deployment through supported open inference frameworks.

DeepSeek-V4-Pro is an advanced Mixture-of-Experts language model built for high-performance reasoning, coding, and large-scale AI applications. With 1.6 trillion total parameters and 49 billion activated parameters, it delivers strong capabilities while maintaining computational efficiency. The model supports a massive context window of up to one million tokens, making it ideal for handling long documents and complex workflows. Its hybrid attention architecture improves efficiency by reducing computational overhead while maintaining accuracy. Trained on more than 32 trillion tokens, DeepSeek-V4-Pro demonstrates strong performance across knowledge, reasoning, and coding benchmarks. It includes advanced training techniques such as improved optimization and enhanced signal propagation for better stability. The model offers multiple reasoning modes, allowing users to choose between faster responses or deeper analytical thinking. It is designed to support agentic workflows and complex multi-step problem solving. As an open-source model, it provides flexibility for developers and organizations to customize and deploy at scale. Overall, DeepSeek-V4-Pro delivers a balance of performance, efficiency, and scalability for demanding AI applications.

Qwen3.6-27B is an open-source, dense multimodal language model from the Qwen3.6 series, engineered to provide top-tier performance in areas such as coding, reasoning, and agent-driven workflows, all while maintaining an efficient parameter count of 27 billion. This model is recognized for its ability to outperform or compete closely with much larger counterparts on essential benchmarks, particularly excelling in agent-based coding tasks. It features dual operational modes—thinking and non-thinking—that enable it to effectively adapt its reasoning depth and response speed based on the specific requirements of each task. Additionally, it supports a variety of input types, including text, images, and video, showcasing its versatility. As part of the Qwen3.6 lineup, this model prioritizes practical usability, consistency, and the enhancement of developer productivity, reflecting advancements inspired by community insights and real-world application demands. Its innovative design not only responds to immediate user needs but also anticipates future trends in AI development.

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is an open-weight multimodal AI model designed for complex reasoning, autonomous agents, software development, and visual analysis. The model is an updated version of DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash, with improvements in benchmark performance, execution speed, and output efficiency. It supports text and image processing, enabling applications that combine natural language understanding with visual interpretation and reasoning. Its one-million-token context window allows developers to analyze large documents, extensive software repositories, and lengthy interactions while maintaining contextual information. Coding capabilities include generating software, debugging existing applications, modifying codebases, and completing multistep engineering assignments. The model also supports end-to-end project generation, including interactive games, 3D scenes, and other software applications. Agentic functionality includes external tool calling, configurable reasoning effort, multi-turn conversations, and workflows involving automated research and task execution. DeepSeek provides prompt encoding libraries, inference examples, and compatibility with deployment frameworks such as Hugging Face Transformers, vLLM, and SGLang. DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-1017 is distributed under the MIT License and can be accessed through DeepSeek's website, mobile application, and API or deployed using its publicly available model weights.

GLM-5 is a next-generation open-source foundation model from Z.ai designed to push the boundaries of agentic engineering and complex task execution. Compared to earlier versions, it significantly expands parameter count and training data, while introducing DeepSeek Sparse Attention to optimize inference efficiency. The model leverages a novel asynchronous reinforcement learning framework called slime, which enhances training throughput and enables more effective post-training alignment. GLM-5 delivers leading performance among open-source models in reasoning, coding, and general agent benchmarks, with strong results on SWE-bench, BrowseComp, and Vending Bench 2. Its ability to manage long-horizon simulations highlights advanced planning, resource allocation, and operational decision-making skills. Beyond benchmark performance, GLM-5 supports real-world productivity by generating fully formatted documents such as .docx, .pdf, and .xlsx files. It integrates with coding agents like Claude Code and OpenClaw, enabling cross-application automation and collaborative agent workflows. Developers can access GLM-5 via Z.ai’s API, deploy it locally with frameworks like vLLM or SGLang, or use it through an interactive GUI environment. The model is released under the MIT License, encouraging broad experimentation and adoption. Overall, GLM-5 represents a major step toward practical, work-oriented AI systems that move beyond chat into full task execution.

GLM-5.1 represents the latest advancement in Z.ai’s GLM series, crafted as a cutting-edge, agent-focused AI model tailored for coding, reasoning, and managing long-term workflows. This iteration builds upon the framework of GLM-5, which employs a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture to achieve high performance without incurring excessive inference expenses, aligning with a larger initiative towards open-weight models that are accessible to developers. A significant emphasis of GLM-5.1 is on fostering agentic behavior, allowing it to plan, execute, and refine multi-step tasks instead of merely reacting to isolated prompts. Its capabilities are specifically engineered to manage intricate workflows, such as debugging code, exploring repositories, and performing sequential operations while maintaining context over time. In comparison to its predecessors, GLM-5.1 enhances reliability during lengthy interactions, ensuring coherence throughout extended sessions and minimizing failures in multi-step reasoning processes. Overall, this model signifies a leap forward in AI development, particularly in its ability to support complex task management seamlessly.

GLM-4.6 builds upon the foundations laid by its predecessor, showcasing enhanced reasoning, coding, and agent capabilities, resulting in notable advancements in inferential accuracy, improved tool usage during reasoning tasks, and a more seamless integration within agent frameworks. In comprehensive benchmark evaluations that assess reasoning, coding, and agent performance, GLM-4.6 surpasses GLM-4.5 and competes robustly against other models like DeepSeek-V3.2-Exp and Claude Sonnet 4, although it still lags behind Claude Sonnet 4.5 in terms of coding capabilities. Furthermore, when subjected to practical tests utilizing an extensive “CC-Bench” suite that includes tasks in front-end development, tool creation, data analysis, and algorithmic challenges, GLM-4.6 outperforms GLM-4.5 while nearing parity with Claude Sonnet 4, achieving victory in approximately 48.6% of direct comparisons and demonstrating around 15% improved token efficiency. This latest model is accessible through the Z.ai API, providing developers the flexibility to implement it as either an LLM backend or as the core of an agent within the platform's API ecosystem. In addition, its advancements could significantly enhance productivity in various application domains, making it an attractive option for developers looking to leverage cutting-edge AI technology.

GLM-4.7 is a next-generation AI model built to serve as a powerful coding and reasoning partner. It improves significantly on its predecessor across software engineering, multilingual coding, and terminal interaction benchmarks. GLM-4.7 introduces enhanced agentic behavior by thinking before tool use or execution, improving reliability in long and complex tasks. The model demonstrates strong performance in real-world coding environments and popular coding agents. GLM-4.7 also advances visual and frontend generation, producing modern UI designs and well-structured presentation slides. Its improved tool-use capabilities allow it to browse, analyze, and interact with external systems more effectively. Mathematical and logical reasoning have been strengthened through higher benchmark performance on challenging exams. The model supports flexible reasoning modes, allowing users to trade latency for accuracy. GLM-4.7 can be accessed via Z.ai, OpenRouter, and agent-based coding tools. It is designed for developers who need high performance without excessive cost.

DeepSeek-V4 is an advanced open-source large language model engineered for efficient long-context processing and high-level reasoning tasks. Supporting a massive one million token context window, it enables developers to build applications that handle extensive data and complex workflows without fragmentation. The model is available in two versions: V4-Pro for maximum reasoning power and V4-Flash for faster, cost-efficient performance. DeepSeek-V4-Pro delivers top-tier results in coding, mathematics, and knowledge benchmarks, rivaling leading proprietary models. Its architecture incorporates innovative attention techniques that significantly improve efficiency while maintaining strong performance. The model is optimized for agent-based workflows, allowing seamless integration with tools and automation systems. It also supports dual reasoning modes, enabling users to switch between quick responses and deeper analytical outputs. DeepSeek-V4 is fully open-source, providing flexibility for customization and deployment across various environments. Overall, it offers a powerful and scalable solution for modern AI development.

MiniMax M2.7 is a powerful AI model built to drive real-world productivity across coding, search, and office-based workflows. It is trained using reinforcement learning across a wide range of real-world environments, enabling it to execute complex, multi-step tasks with precision and efficiency. The model demonstrates strong problem-solving capabilities by breaking down challenges into structured steps before generating solutions across multiple programming languages. It delivers high-speed performance with rapid token output, ensuring faster completion of demanding tasks. With optimized reasoning, it reduces token usage and execution time, making it more efficient than previous models. M2.7 also achieves state-of-the-art results in software engineering benchmarks, significantly improving response times for technical issues. Its advanced agentic capabilities allow it to work seamlessly with tools and support complex workflows with high skill accuracy. The model is designed to handle professional tasks, including multi-turn interactions and high-quality document editing. It also provides strong support for office productivity, enabling efficient handling of structured data and business tasks. With competitive pricing, it delivers high performance while remaining cost-effective. Overall, it combines speed, intelligence, and versatility to meet the needs of modern professionals and teams.

Qwen3.5-35B-A3B is a member of the Qwen3.5 "Medium" model series, meticulously crafted as an effective multimodal foundation model that strikes a balance between robust reasoning capabilities and practical application needs. Utilizing a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture, it boasts a total of 35 billion parameters, yet activates only around 3 billion for each token, enabling it to achieve performance levels similar to much larger models while significantly cutting down on computational expenses. The model employs a hybrid attention mechanism that merges linear attention with traditional attention layers, which enhances its ability to handle extensive context and boosts scalability for intricate tasks. As an inherently vision-language model, it processes both textual and visual data, catering to a variety of applications, including multimodal reasoning, programming, and automated workflows. Furthermore, it is engineered to operate as a versatile "AI agent," proficient in planning, utilizing tools, and systematically solving problems, extending its functionality beyond mere conversational interactions. This capability positions it as a valuable asset across diverse domains, where advanced AI-driven solutions are increasingly required.

Z.ai has unveiled its latest flagship model, GLM-4.5, which boasts an impressive 355 billion total parameters (with 32 billion active) and is complemented by the GLM-4.5-Air variant, featuring 106 billion total parameters (12 billion active), designed to integrate sophisticated reasoning, coding, and agent-like functions into a single framework. This model can switch between a "thinking" mode for intricate, multi-step reasoning and tool usage and a "non-thinking" mode that facilitates rapid responses, accommodating a context length of up to 128K tokens and enabling native function invocation. Accessible through the Z.ai chat platform and API, and with open weights available on platforms like HuggingFace and ModelScope, GLM-4.5 is adept at processing a wide range of inputs for tasks such as general problem solving, common-sense reasoning, coding from the ground up or within existing frameworks, as well as managing comprehensive workflows like web browsing and slide generation. The architecture is underpinned by a Mixture-of-Experts design, featuring loss-free balance routing, grouped-query attention mechanisms, and an MTP layer that facilitates speculative decoding, ensuring it meets enterprise-level performance standards while remaining adaptable to various applications. As a result, GLM-4.5 sets a new benchmark for AI capabilities across numerous domains.

gpt-oss-120b is a text-only reasoning model with 120 billion parameters, released under the Apache 2.0 license and managed by OpenAI’s usage policy, developed with insights from the open-source community and compatible with the Responses API. It is particularly proficient in following instructions, utilizing tools like web search and Python code execution, and allowing for adjustable reasoning effort, thereby producing comprehensive chain-of-thought and structured outputs that can be integrated into various workflows. While it has been designed to adhere to OpenAI's safety policies, its open-weight characteristics present a risk that skilled individuals might fine-tune it to circumvent these safeguards, necessitating that developers and enterprises apply additional measures to ensure safety comparable to that of hosted models. Evaluations indicate that gpt-oss-120b does not achieve high capability thresholds in areas such as biological, chemical, or cyber domains, even following adversarial fine-tuning. Furthermore, its release is not seen as a significant leap forward in biological capabilities, marking a cautious approach to its deployment. As such, users are encouraged to remain vigilant about the potential implications of its open-weight nature.