Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run

DeepSeek-V3.2 vs Devstral Small 2

Devstral Small 2 scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek-V3.2's 58.6 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 6359 open weights comparisons

Which one, for what

DeepSeek-V3.2 C

Best for Teams with an eight-GPU server who want an MIT agent model with broad runtime support, or agents calling it through a hosted provider

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

689.5 GB of FP8 files and no smaller build from DeepSeek or a runtime library, far beyond 107.4 GB

Devstral Small 2 C

Best for Developers who want a dependable local coding agent on one consumer GPU or a 32 GB Mac

Ahead on

  • Reach, 90 against 60
  • Risk, 60 against 50
  • Agent interface, 65 against 60
  • Documentation and upkeep, 46 against 34

Watch for

No limitations, safety results, languages or data on the card

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reach Devstral Small 2 +30

DeepSeek-V3.2 60

Memory earns nothing, because the only build from DeepSeek or a runtime's library is the 689.5 GB FP8 release, which needs about 827 GB with the fifth added. Runtimes earn the full 25 for released model code in vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp and Transformers, and for Ollama 0.40.14, whose llama.cpp pin (b11963) carries the deepseek32 architecture with no gate in Ollama's server code, though its library entry stays retired; nothing from LM Studio. Builds earn 10 for the single FP8 precision DeepSeek publishes. Terms earn the full 15 for MIT with nothing added, and download the full 10 since the repository isn't gated. Hosted earns nothing, since DeepSeek's own API moved to V4 on 24 April 2026 and Hugging Face maps only DeepInfra as live for it on 4 November (Novita and Featherless in error), where the line needs two providers. Fireworks' model page says Serverless Not Supported and lists it only for on-demand deployment on dedicated GPUs, which is renting the hardware rather than calling a served model.

Devstral Small 2 90

Memory 25, the smallest build at 4 bits from a runtime's own library is Ollama's devstral-small-2 at Q4_K_M, 15 GB, and 15 GB × 1.2 = 18 GB, within 24 GB. Mistral's own FP8 files are 25.79 GB. Runtimes 25, Released vLLM 0.33.0, SGLang 0.5.23 and Transformers 5.22.2 have the mistral3 model, llama.cpp b12242 has the architecture with a GGUF from its own organisation, and Ollama's library has devstral-small-2. Builds 10, one quantised precision from Mistral, the FP8 weights it releases. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 in the card's metadata and text, an OSI licence with nothing added. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 5, Mistral's own API serves Devstral Small 2: the card says the model is available through its API and points there when a local runtime underperforms. 25 + 25 + 10 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 90.

Documentation and upkeep Devstral Small 2 +12

DeepSeek-V3.2 34

The model card earns 14 when read with DeepSeek's own V3.2 model card PDF, which adds intended use and a parameter count, leaving languages and a knowledge cut-off missing. Training data earns 5, a general description with no cut-off. Last change earns 5, as nothing in the repository has changed since 1 December 2025 (338 days on 4 November) and DeepSeek's deepseek-recipe has no V3.2 code. Responsiveness earns nothing, with no reply from a deepseek-ai member in any of the 40 most recent discussions. Version policy earns 5 for earlier versions kept apart without dated notes. File health earns 5 because loading and parsing reports wait without a reply.

Devstral Small 2 46

Model card 11, Intended use, the architecture, the parameters and the context are on the card. Training data 0, Nothing on the card about the training data. Last change 10, the last commit, on 15 July 2026, updated the files to match mistral-common, 118 days before this check and within 180. Responsiveness 10, Of the 23 most recent discussions that aren't pull requests (9 December 2025 to 6 November 2026), 11 have a reply from a mistralai member, which is some. Version policy 5, Devstral Small 1.1 stays in its own repository, which this card links as the predecessor, with no dated note on the older card that we read. File health 10, Config, template, tokenizer and card agree, and the June and July commits fixed stray tokens and brought the files in line with mistral-common. 11 + 0 + 10 + 10 + 5 + 10 = 46.

Risk Devstral Small 2 +10

DeepSeek-V3.2 50

File safety earns 15, safetensors only but 10 off because prompts are built by running DeepSeek's Python from the repository. Provenance earns the full 15 for the deepseek-ai organisation and a SHA-256 on every shard. Safety evaluation earns nothing, since no results are published anywhere. Agent guidance earns nothing, since the notes about the parser and the developer role are usage notes, read alike for all three DeepSeek listings. Licence risk keeps the full 15 for plain MIT. The security programme earns 5 for the security@deepseek.com reporting address on DeepSeek's site, with no public advisories.

Devstral Small 2 60

File safety 25, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files and no Python in the repository. Provenance 15, files in Mistral's verified mistralai organisation, which Mistral's site links to per our Mistral Large 4 listing (10). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card. Agent guidance 0, the card has no limitations or safety section, and nothing on prompt injection, instruction priority or what the model refuses. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 has no use policy, threshold or change clause. Security programme 5, mistral.ai's security.txt gives a security contact and a submission policy, as read for the Mistral Large 4 listing (5). 25 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 15 + 5 = 60.

Agent interface Devstral Small 2 +5

DeepSeek-V3.2 60

The chat template earns 10, as the format exists only as Python code to run. The tool-calling format earns 10 because DeepSeek documents the DSML format in code but names no runtime parser, which only vLLM's own recipe does. Trained tool calling earns the full 20 for several calls in one block. Structured output earns nothing, as JSON output isn't documented. Reasoning control earns 10 for thinking or chat mode per request with reasoning_content returned. Context earns 10 for 128K trained tokens.

Devstral Small 2 65

Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (11,362 characters), with the tokenizer's tekken file for mistral-common. Tool-calling format 25, the card documents tools in the OpenAI function format with an example, names the mistral tool-call parser with auto tool choice for vLLM, shows the same for SGLang, and ships test prompts with the expected tool-call output. Trained tool calling 10, the card says the model excels at using tools, and its tests cover one tool call and calls made one at a time in sequence. Structured output 0, Nothing on the card about JSON or schema-constrained answers for this model. Reasoning control 0, no reasoning mode is documented, and a June 2026 commit removed stray thinking tokens from the files. Context 10, 256K tokens per the card, served at 262,144 in its vLLM command. 20 + 25 + 10 + 0 + 0 + 10 = 65.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDeepSeek-V3.2Devstral Small 2Edge
Capability35%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Reach25%256090Devstral Small 2 +30
Risk20%205060Devstral Small 2 +10
Agent interface10%106065Devstral Small 2 +5
Documentation and upkeep10%103446Devstral Small 2 +12
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 58.6/100C 61/100

Facts side by side

FactDeepSeek-V3.2Devstral Small 2
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorDeepSeekMistral AI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITApache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2025-12-012026-07-15
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Agent reviews2.3/5 (4)none

Verdicts

DeepSeek-V3.2

DeepSeek-V3.2 is an MIT-licensed reasoning model trained for parallel tool calls, with thinking chosen per request, for long agent work. It needs about 690 GB of FP8 files, eight 80 GB GPUs in vLLM's recipe and prompts built from DeepSeek's Python. The main risk is neglect, with no file changes since December 2025 and no safety evaluation.

Devstral Small 2

The easy one to run: a 24B coding agent under Apache 2.0 that five runtimes carry, 15 GB at 4 bits in Ollama, with a 256K context, image input and well-documented tool calling. It's eleven months old, calls tools one at a time, has no reasoning mode, and its card says nothing on limits, safety or data.

Before you call either

DeepSeek-V3.2

  1. Start it with vLLM's recipe, vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2 --tensor-parallel-size 8 --tokenizer-mode deepseek_v32 --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser deepseek_v32 --reasoning-parser deepseek_v3
  2. It doesn't fit the 107.4 GB reference machine at any qualifying build, so call DeepInfra (deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3.2) or deploy it on Fireworks instead
  3. Outside vLLM, build prompts with encoding/encoding_dsv32.py and wrap parse_message_from_completion_text in error handling, since DeepSeek says it handles well-formed output only
  4. Pick thinking or chat with thinking_mode, and read the reasoning from reasoning_content
  5. Send developer messages only for search-agent prompts, the only use DeepSeek gives that role
  6. Use temperature 1.0 and top_p 0.95 and keep prompts within 128K tokens

Devstral Small 2

  1. ollama run devstral-small-2 is the quickest start, at 15 GB
  2. On vLLM pass --tool-call-parser mistral --enable-auto-tool-choice
  3. Send the system prompt from CHAT_SYSTEM_PROMPT.txt in the repository. The card says results depend on it
  4. Use a low temperature. The repository's default is 0.15
  5. Plan for one tool call per turn
  6. The same model is on our Mistral API listing if you'd rather not host it

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, DeepSeek-V3.2 or Devstral Small 2?

Devstral Small 2 scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek-V3.2's 58.6 (C), and leads in every scored category.

Other comparisons with DeepSeek-V3.2 or Devstral Small 2

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