# Apertus v1.5 8B vs Arete-27B (slim)

> Apertus v1.5 8B scores 61 (C) to Arete-27B's 55.1 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apertus-v1-5-8b-vs-arete-27b.md (~8,950 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apertus-v1-5-8b-vs-arete-27b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apertus-v1-5-8b-vs-arete-27b
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-10
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Apertus v1.5 8B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Arete-27B's 55.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. Arete-27B leads on reach. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Apertus v1.5 8B: C 61, rank #40 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apertus-v1-5-8b.min.md
- Arete-27B: C 55.1, rank #123 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/arete-27b.min.md
- Apertus v1.5 8B, good for Agents that want a fully open, multilingual 8B with image and audio input on one 24 GB GPU, and can run a publisher fork of vLLM. Ahead on Risk, 75 against 55; Agent interface, 85 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 84 against 63.
- Arete-27B, good for Agents that want Qwen3.8-27B's coding and tool use without its handling of politically sensitive topics, on a 24 GB card or a 128 GB machine Ahead on Reach, 50 against 40.

| Category | Apertus v1.5 8B | Arete-27B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 40 | 50 |
| Risk (20%) | 75 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 84 | 63 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Apertus v1.5 8B | Arete-27B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Swiss AI Initiative (EPFL and ETH Zurich) | Nous Research |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, with the Apertus Acceptable Use Policy (v1.5, 14 July 2026) accepted at the download gate | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | not read yet | no document linked |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Agent interface, Apertus v1.5 8B +25: Apertus v1.5 8B 85 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.); Arete-27B 60 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)
- Documentation and upkeep, Apertus v1.5 8B +21: Apertus v1.5 8B 84 (Model card 14 of 20, languages and a knowledge cut-off are missing.); Arete-27B 63 (Model card 8, no limitations, context length, languages or cut-off.)
- Risk, Apertus v1.5 8B +20: Apertus v1.5 8B 75 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no code in the repository.); Arete-27B 55 (File safety 25, safetensors only and no remote code.)
- Reach, Arete-27B +10: Apertus v1.5 8B 40 (Memory 25 of 30, the BF16 files are 18.4 GB, or 22.1 GB with a fifth added, which fits 24 GB.); Arete-27B 50 (Memory 10, the only build from Nous Research is the 54.7 GB BF16 release, which needs about 66 GB and fits the reference machine.)