Checked 6 November 2026. US dollars. No affiliate links.
The questions people ask most, each answered in one line here and in full, with sources, on its own page.
- Ollama or LM Studio?
LM Studio for buttons, Ollama to build on; many people use both.
- What is the best local coding model?
Qwen3.8 27B or Devstral Small 2 on 24GB; Qwen3-Coder-Next on 64GB+.
- What runs on an 8GB or 16GB computer?
Gemma 4 E4B on 8GB; Gemma 4 12B or Qwen3.5 9B on 16GB.
- Local AI or ChatGPT?
Hosted for the hardest work; local for privacy, control and offline. Most people use both.
- Open-weight or proprietary AI?
Open weights let you run and keep the model; the license decides what else you may do.
- Which models have fewer restrictions?
Community retunes follow your instructions more; you give up some quality and take on the responsibility.
- What is the best open model right now?
Updated monthly, with links to the independent leaderboards.
- Which model fits my computer?
The model finder: pick your memory, see what fits.