Best Small AI Models

Small AI models (under 10B parameters) ranked by benchmark score. Lightweight models you can run locally.

107
Models
14
Providers
59
Open Source
$0.25
Median $/1M in
#ModelAvg$/1M inContext
1Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.5 Pro Preview 05-06🇺🇸 Google DeepMind76.9$1.251.0M
2Google DeepMind logoGemini 4 Argon🇺🇸 Google DeepMind74.8$2.001.0M
3OpenAI logoo4 Mini High🇺🇸 OpenAI72.0$1.10200K
4minimax logoMiniMax M2🇨🇳 minimaxOpen69.5$0.30205K
5Microsoft logophi-3-small 7.4B🇺🇸 MicrosoftOpen67.4N/A0K
6xAI logoGrok 3 Mini Beta🇺🇸 xAI64.8$0.30131K
7Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.0 Flash Lite🇺🇸 Google DeepMind64.2$0.071.0M
8Alibaba logoQwen3 4B Thinking 2507🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen60.6N/A0K
9OpenAI logoo3 Mini High🇺🇸 OpenAI60.4$1.10200K
10OpenAI logoGPT-5.1-Codex-Mini🇺🇸 OpenAI60.4$0.25400K
11Google DeepMind logoGemini 3.8 Flash🇺🇸 Google DeepMind59.6$0.821.0M
12Mistral AI logoMixtral 8x7B Instruct🇫🇷 Mistral AIOpen57.8$0.5433K
13Google DeepMind logoGemini 3.7 Flash🇺🇸 Google DeepMind57.6$0.751.0M
14DeepSeek logoDeepSeek V4.1 Flash🇨🇳 DeepSeek56.2$0.151.0M
15Google DeepMind logoGemini 3 Pro🇺🇸 Google DeepMind56.1N/A0K
16Google DeepMind logoGemini 3.5 Flash🇺🇸 Google DeepMind54.6$1.501.0M
17Mistral AI logoMixtral 8x7B🇫🇷 Mistral AIOpen54.3N/A0K
18Microsoft logophi-3-mini 3.8B🇺🇸 MicrosoftOpen54.3N/A0K
19Google DeepMind logoGemini 3.6 Flash🇺🇸 Google DeepMind53.7$0.751.0M
20Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.0 Pro🇺🇸 Google DeepMind53.7N/A0K
21xAI logoGrok-3 mini🇺🇸 xAI53.6N/A0K
22Alibaba Qwen logoQwen2.5-Coder-3B🇨🇳 Alibaba QwenOpen52.2N/A0K
23OpenAI logoGPT-5 Mini🇺🇸 OpenAI51.4$0.25400K
24Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.5 Pro Preview 06-05🇺🇸 Google DeepMind50.9$1.251.0M
25Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.5 Pro🇺🇸 Google DeepMind50.8$1.251.0M
26DeepSeek logoDeepSeek-Coder-V2-Lite-Base🇨🇳 DeepSeekOpen50.8N/A0K
27Alibaba logoQwen2 7B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen50.5N/A0K
28minimax logoMiniMax M2.7🇨🇳 minimaxOpen50.5$0.30205K
29minimax logoMiniMax M3🇨🇳 minimaxOpen49.9$0.301.0M
30Google DeepMind logoGemini 3 Flash Preview🇺🇸 Google DeepMind49.6$0.501.0M
31minimax logoMiniMax M2.5🇨🇳 minimaxOpen48.6$0.27205K
32Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.5 Flash Lite🇺🇸 Google DeepMind48.6$0.101.0M
33OpenAI logoo4 Mini🇺🇸 OpenAI48.5$1.10200K
34Google DeepMind logoGemini 3.1 Pro Preview🇺🇸 Google DeepMind48.2$2.001.0M
35Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.0 Flash🇺🇸 Google DeepMind48.0$0.101.0M
36Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.0 Flash (Dec 2024)🇺🇸 Google DeepMind47.6N/A0K
37Alibaba logoQwen2 VL 7B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen47.3N/A0K
38Alibaba logoQwen3 4B Instruct 2507🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen47.2N/A0K
39Google DeepMind logoGemini 1.5 Flash (May 2024)🇺🇸 Google DeepMind45.7N/A0K
40Alibaba Qwen logoQwen3 8B🇨🇳 Alibaba QwenOpen45.3$0.12131K
41Meta logoMeta Llama 3 8B Instruct🇺🇸 MetaOpen45.2N/A0K
42Google DeepMind logoGemini 3.1 Flash Lite🇺🇸 Google DeepMind44.5$0.251.0M
43Alibaba logoQwen2.5 Coder 7B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen44.4N/A0K
44Alibaba Qwen logoQwen2.5 Coder 7B Instruct🇨🇳 Alibaba QwenOpen44.4$0.0333K
45Meta logoMeta Llama 3 8B🇺🇸 MetaOpen44.2N/A0K
46OpenAI logoGPT-4o-mini (2024-07-18)🇺🇸 OpenAI43.2$0.15128K
47DeepSeek logoDeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B🇨🇳 DeepSeekOpen41.6N/A0K
48Mistral AI logoMistral 7B V0.1🇫🇷 Mistral AIOpen41.6N/A0K
49Google DeepMind logoGemini 1.5 Pro (Feb 2024)🇺🇸 Google DeepMind41.3N/A0K
50Baichuan 2-7B Unknown40.3N/A0K
51Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.5 Flash🇺🇸 Google DeepMind39.3$0.301.0M
52OpenAI logoGPT-5 Nano🇺🇸 OpenAI39.0$0.05400K
53Alibaba logoQwen2.5 Coder 1.5B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen38.8N/A0K
54Alibaba Qwen logoQwen3.5-9B🇨🇳 Alibaba QwenOpen38.5$0.10262K
55Google DeepMind logoGemini 1.5 Pro (May 2024)🇺🇸 Google DeepMind38.4N/A0K
56Google DeepMind logoGemini 2.0 Flash Thinking (Jan 2025)🇺🇸 Google DeepMind37.7N/A0K
57OpenAI logoGPT-5.4 Mini🇺🇸 OpenAI37.5$0.75400K
58OpenAI logoGPT-4.1 Mini🇺🇸 OpenAI36.5$0.401.0M
59Google DeepMind logoGemma 2 2b It🇺🇸 Google DeepMindOpen36.4N/A0K
60Google DeepMind logoGemma 2 9B🇺🇸 Google DeepMindOpen36.0$0.038K
61Google DeepMind logoGemini 3.5 Flash Lite🇺🇸 Google DeepMind35.7$0.301.0M
62OpenAI logoo1-mini🇺🇸 OpenAI35.0N/A0K
63XGen-7B Unknown33.9N/A0K
64OpenAI logoGPT-5.4 Nano🇺🇸 OpenAI33.3$0.20400K
65DeepSeek logoDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B🇨🇳 DeepSeekOpen32.7N/A0K
66OpenAI logoo3 Mini🇺🇸 OpenAI32.4$1.10200K
67Meta logoopen_llama_7b🇺🇸 MetaOpen32.0N/A0K
68Meta logoLlama 3 8B Instruct🇺🇸 MetaOpen30.8$0.148K
69Microsoft logoPhi 4 Mini Instruct🇺🇸 MicrosoftOpen29.4N/A0K
70Microsoft logoPhi 4 Mini Instruct🇺🇸 MicrosoftOpen29.4$0.08131K
71OpenAI logoGPT-4.1 Nano🇺🇸 OpenAI29.2$0.101.0M
72OpenAI logoGPT-4o-mini🇺🇸 OpenAI29.2$0.15128K
73Yi 6B UnknownOpen29.2N/A0K
74Google DeepMind logoGemma 2B🇺🇸 Google DeepMindOpen29.1N/A0K
75Alibaba Qwen logoQwen-1_8B🇨🇳 Alibaba QwenOpen28.7N/A0K
76Microsoft logoPhi 3.5 Mini Instruct🇺🇸 MicrosoftOpen28.2N/A0K
77Microsoft logoPhi 3 Mini 4k Instruct🇺🇸 MicrosoftOpen27.6N/A0K
78Meta logoLlama 2 7b Chat Hf🇺🇸 MetaOpen27.3N/A0K
79Alibaba logoQwen2.5 3B Instruct🇨🇳 Alibaba27.2N/A0K
80Alibaba Qwen logoQwen2.5 7B Instruct🇨🇳 Alibaba QwenOpen24.6$0.1033K
81Meta logoLlama 3.2 3B Instruct🇺🇸 MetaOpen24.2$0.05131K
82Meta logoLlama 3.1 8B Instruct🇺🇸 MetaOpen24.2$0.05131K
83Baichuan1-7B Unknown23.7N/A0K
84Meta logoLlama 2 7b Hf🇺🇸 MetaOpen23.6N/A0K
85Alibaba Qwen logoCodeQwen1.5-7B🇨🇳 Alibaba QwenOpen23.1N/A0K
86nousresearch logoHermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B🇺🇸 nousresearchOpen22.1$0.148K
87Alibaba logoQwen2.5 Coder 0.5B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen20.8N/A0K
88Google DeepMind logoGemini 1.0 Pro🇺🇸 Google DeepMind18.8N/A0K
89Mistral AI logoMistral 7B Instruct V0.2🇫🇷 Mistral AIOpen18.5N/A0K
90Alibaba logoQwen2.5 1.5B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen18.4N/A0K
91RedPajama-INCITE-7B-Base Unknown18.0N/A0K
92DeepSeek logoDeepSeek Coder 6.7B🇨🇳 DeepSeekOpen16.7N/A0K
93Magistral Small 1.1 Unknown16.5N/A0K
94Alibaba logoQwen2 1.5B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen14.1N/A0K
95stablelm-tuned-alpha-7b Unknown13.6N/A0K
96Mistral AI logoMistral 7B Instruct v0.1🇫🇷 Mistral AIOpen12.8$0.113K
97Vicuna 7b V1.5 LMSYSOpen10.9N/A0K
98Google DeepMind logoGemma 2 2b🇺🇸 Google DeepMindOpen10.4N/A0K
99DeepSeek logoDeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 1.5B🇨🇳 DeepSeekOpen10.4N/A0K
100Alibaba logoQwen2.5 0.5B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen10.1N/A0K
101Meta logoLlama 3.2 1B Instruct🇺🇸 MetaOpen9.4$0.0360K
102Meta logoLlama 3.2 3B Instruct (free)🇺🇸 MetaOpen8.7Free131K
103Alibaba logoQwen2 0.5B🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen7.2N/A0K
104Alibaba logoQwen2 0.5B Instruct🇨🇳 AlibabaOpen6.6N/A0K
105Google DeepMind logoGemma 3 4B🇺🇸 Google DeepMindOpen5.8$0.05131K
106DeepSeek logoDeepSeek Coder 1.3B🇨🇳 DeepSeekOpen3.2N/A0K
107TinyLlama 1.1B Chat V1.0 TinyLlamaOpen2.8N/A0K

Small AI models under 10 billion parameters, ranked by benchmark score. These lightweight models can run on consumer hardware and edge devices while delivering surprisingly strong performance.

What are the best small AI models?

Small models under 10B parameters have improved dramatically. The leaderboard above ranks them by benchmark performance across coding, reasoning, and knowledge tasks.

Can small AI models run on my laptop?

Yes. Models under 10B parameters can run on modern laptops with 16GB+ RAM using tools like Ollama, llama.cpp, or LM Studio.

How do small models compare to large ones?

Small models trade some capability for speed and efficiency. The best small models now match or exceed what large models achieved just one year ago.