Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Fara1.5-27B vs Fara1.5-9B

Fara1.5-27B and Fara1.5-9B score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). Fara1.5-9B leads on reach. Both do browser automation.

Best desktop and mobile app automation for AI agents · All 55 desktop comparisons

Which one, for what

Fara1.5-27B C

Best for Developers building a supervised web-browsing agent who want open weights and clear safety behaviour

Ahead on

  • Documentation and upkeep, 65 against 60

Watch for

Screenshots only, so a page can mislead or instruct it

Fara1.5-9B C

Best for Developers building a supervised web-browsing agent who want open weights and clear safety behaviour

Ahead on

  • Reach, 70 against 55

Watch for

Screenshots only, so a page can mislead or instruct it

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 Fara1.5-9B +15

Fara1.5-27B 55

Memory 10, the only build from Microsoft is the BF16 safetensors, 54.71 GB, and 54.71 GB × 1.2 = 65.7 GB, which fits the reference machine but not 64 GB. bartowski's GGUF isn't read for this line. Runtimes 15, the architecture is Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration, which vLLM 0.33.0, SGLang 0.5.23 and Transformers 5.22.2 run from the safetensors files, three at 5 each. Builds 0, Microsoft publishes the BF16 weights only. Terms 15, MIT in the card's metadata and its licence section, 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, the card links an Azure Foundry page for this model, Microsoft's own platform, and Featherless is live for it on Hugging Face. 10 + 15 + 0 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 55.

Fara1.5-9B 70

Memory 25, the only build from Microsoft is the BF16 safetensors, 18.82 GB, and 18.82 GB × 1.2 = 22.6 GB, within 24 GB. bartowski's GGUF isn't read for this line. Runtimes 15, the architecture is Qwen3_5ForConditionalGeneration, which vLLM 0.33.0, SGLang 0.5.23 and Transformers 5.22.2 run from the safetensors files, three at 5 each. Builds 0, Microsoft publishes the BF16 weights only. Terms 15, MIT in the card's metadata and its licence section, 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, the card links an Azure Foundry page for this model, Microsoft's own platform. 25 + 15 + 0 + 15 + 10 + 5 = 70.

Documentation and upkeep Fara1.5-27B +5

Fara1.5-27B 65

Model card 20, Intended use, out-of-scope use and known limitations, the architecture, the parameters, the context, the language (English only) and the data cut-off (20 March 2026) are all on the card. Training data 15, A data section that names the kinds of source and the mix, the scale, the cut-off (last acquisition 20 March 2026) and the filtering (a verifier keeps only successful trajectories). Last change 10, the last commit, on 27 July 2026, is 106 days before this check and within 180. Responsiveness 5, Of the 5 discussions that aren't pull requests (22 to 29 July 2026), 1 has a reply from a microsoft member, which is a few, counted on 10 November by author flags and dates with a script, text not read. Version policy 5, the card says future updates will ship as separately versioned models with their own cards, and the earlier Fara model stays in its own repository. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture and the 262,144-token context. 20 + 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 10 = 65.

Fara1.5-9B 60

Model card 20, Intended use, out-of-scope use and known limitations, the architecture, the parameters, the context, the language (English only) and the data cut-off (20 March 2026) are all on the card. Training data 15, A data section that names the kinds of source and the mix, the scale, the cut-off (last acquisition 20 March 2026) and the filtering (a verifier keeps only successful trajectories). Last change 10, the last commit, on 27 July 2026, is 106 days before this check and within 180. Responsiveness 0, Neither of the 2 discussions that aren't pull requests (25 July and 10 August 2026) has a reply from a microsoft member, counted on 10 November by author flags and dates with a script, text not read. Version policy 5, the card says future updates will ship as separately versioned models with their own cards, and the earlier Fara model stays in its own repository. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture and the 262,144-token context. 20 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 5 + 10 = 60.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runFara1.5-27BFara1.5-9BEdge
Capability35%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Reach25%255570Fara1.5-9B +15
Risk20%207575even
Agent interface10%108080even
Documentation and upkeep10%106560Fara1.5-27B +5
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 61/100C 61/100

Facts side by side

FactFara1.5-27BFara1.5-9B
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorMicrosoftMicrosoft
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-07-272026-07-27
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked

Verdicts

Fara1.5-27B

A browser agent model with unusually careful documentation: what it does, what it's trained to stop at, what it gets wrong and how to box it in, under MIT. Treat it as a component for Microsoft's harness, in a sandbox, with a person on the irreversible steps. Safety testing is described but not published, and it's English only.

Fara1.5-9B

A browser agent model with unusually careful documentation: what it does, what it's trained to stop at, what it gets wrong and how to box it in, under MIT. Treat it as a component for Microsoft's harness, in a sandbox, with a person on the irreversible steps. Safety testing is described but not published, and it's English only.

Before you call either

Fara1.5-27B

  1. Run it inside Microsoft's harness (the fara CLI or MagenticLite), in a sandboxed browser with an allow-list. The card says not to give it open access on a machine with anything sensitive
  2. Send the card's system prompt word for word. The model was trained against it
  3. Match a 1440×900 screen for reliable clicks
  4. Expect it to stop and ask before purchases, sign-ins, messages or personal data unless the user authorised them up front. Pass the question to the user; don't answer for them
  5. Treat page text as untrusted. The model can be redirected by instructions on a page
  6. It emits one action per turn at temperature 0, and ends with terminate

Fara1.5-9B

  1. Run it inside Microsoft's harness (the fara CLI or MagenticLite), in a sandboxed browser with an allow-list. The card says not to give it open access on a machine with anything sensitive
  2. Send the card's system prompt word for word. The model was trained against it
  3. Match a 1440×900 screen for reliable clicks
  4. Expect it to stop and ask before purchases, sign-ins, messages or personal data unless the user authorised them up front. Pass the question to the user; don't answer for them
  5. Treat page text as untrusted. The model can be redirected by instructions on a page
  6. It emits one action per turn at temperature 0, and ends with terminate

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Fara1.5-27B or Fara1.5-9B?

Fara1.5-27B and Fara1.5-9B score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). Fara1.5-9B leads on reach.

Other comparisons with Fara1.5-27B or Fara1.5-9B

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