# Darwin-36B-Opus vs LongCat-2.5 (slim)

> Darwin-36B-Opus scores 61 (C) to LongCat-2.5's 50.5 (D) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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Darwin-36B-Opus scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against LongCat-2.5's 50.5 (D), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. LongCat-2.5 leads on risk and agent interface. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- Darwin-36B-Opus: C 61, rank #43 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/darwin-36b-opus.min.md
- LongCat-2.5: D 50.5, rank #145 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/longcat-2-5.min.md
- Darwin-36B-Opus, good for Reasoning-heavy text tasks on a 32 GB machine or a single 80 GB GPU, where a disclosed training method isn't required Ahead on Reach, 80 against 35; Documentation and upkeep, 61 against 46.
- LongCat-2.5, good for Operators with NPU clusters, and anyone tracking what the open flagships can do Ahead on Risk, 60 against 55; Agent interface, 75 against 70.

| Category | Darwin-36B-Opus | LongCat-2.5 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 80 | 35 |
| Risk (20%) | 55 | 60 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 70 | 75 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 61 | 46 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Darwin-36B-Opus | LongCat-2.5 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | FINAL-Bench (VIDRAFT) | Meituan (LongCat) |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Last release | 2026-04-23 | 2026-11-10 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | not read yet |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reach, Darwin-36B-Opus +45: Darwin-36B-Opus 80 (Memory 20, the publisher's Q4_K_M GGUF is 21.2 GB and needs about 25.4 GB with the fifth added, so 32 GB.); LongCat-2.5 35 (Memory 0, the smallest build is Meituan's W4A4 repository, 1,336 GB, and 1,336 GB × 1.2 = 1,603 GB, far above 256 GB.)
- Documentation and upkeep, Darwin-36B-Opus +15: Darwin-36B-Opus 61 (Model card 11, it covers architecture, parameters, context and languages but not intended use, limitations or a knowledge cut-off.); LongCat-2.5 46 (Model card 11, Intended use, limitations (the usage considerations), the architecture and the parameter counts are on the card.)
- Risk, LongCat-2.5 +5: Darwin-36B-Opus 55 (File safety 25, safetensors and GGUF only with no code in the repository, so the card's trust_remote_code flag loads nothing extra.); LongCat-2.5 60 (File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository.)
- Agent interface, LongCat-2.5 +5: Darwin-36B-Opus 70 (Chat template 20, Qwen3.6's Jinja template in the repository.); LongCat-2.5 75 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (11,823 characters), with a copy in tokenizer_config.json.)