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Best open source LLM (2026)
Open weights you can actually pull: Qwen, Llama 3.1, DeepSeek, MiniMax, Gemma-class models on Hugging Face, then run them in Ollama, llama.cpp, or LM Studio. Hub download counts from 2026-09-16.
## what it does
tl;dr: there is no single “best” open-weight model. On huggingface.co/models this session the Hub’s trending/popular strip is dominated by Qwen 3.8 27B (and GGUF re-quantizations), Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, and MiniMax H3. Pick a family, then a runtime: Ollama, llama.cpp, or LM Studio.
What “open source LLM” means here
Weights you can download and run. Licenses differ (Apache-2.0, Llama Community, model-card custom). We do not rank closed APIs. We do not invent leaderboard scores — only Hub download counts shown on the models index this fetch.
Shortlist (Hugging Face models index, 2026-09-16)
| Model | Why it showed up | Hub downloads (index card) | Run it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen 3.8 27B | Hottest Qwen card on the index | 7.67M (official); Unsloth GGUF 8.86M | Qwen 3 on Ollama |
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct | Default “small Llama that fits a GPU” | 5.86M | Llama 3.1 |
| MiniMax H3 | Multimodal, high Hub volume | 4.69M | Hub → llama.cpp / transformers |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash | Huge MoE, image-text-to-text | 366k on the official card (763B listed) | DeepSeek R1 cluster / V3.1 |
| Gemma-class / Gemma 4 | Google open weights on Ollama | see Ollama library page | Gemma 4 |
The same index still lists old workhorses (gpt2 15.6M, bert-base-uncased 47.7M). Those are embeddings/legacy checkpoints, not “best LLM.” Ignore them for a chat/coding pick.
How to choose
| You have | Start with |
|---|---|
| 8–12GB VRAM / 16GB unified | Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, Qwen 3 8B |
| 24GB GPU | Qwen 3.8 27B GGUF (Unsloth card on the Hub this fetch) |
| Multi-GPU / don’t care | DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, Qwen 235B-class via Ollama Qwen 3 |
| Want a catalog, not a guess | Hugging Face Hub then hf download |
Runtime
| Runtime | Use when |
|---|---|
| Ollama | ollama run + HTTP on :11434 |
| llama.cpp | GGUF, every backend |
| LM Studio | Desktop GUI |
| Open WebUI | Chat UI in front of Ollama |
Gotchas
- Hub “downloads” mix training checkpoints, GGUF mirrors, and official repos. Two Qwen 3.8 27B cards can both be “the” model.
- Llama weights need the Meta license click-through on Hugging Face before
huggingface_hubwill give you files. - DeepSeek V4.1 Flash’s index card lists 763B — that is not a laptop model.
- We did not run a private eval this session. If you need a scored arena, use the upstream eval the model card cites, not this page.
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