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

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview vs LFM3-Audio-2B

LFM3-Audio-2B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview's 53.2 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview leads on risk. 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

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview D

Best for Agents with 64 GB to spare that want an Apache-licensed image and video reader with optional thinking and can live with a stale preview.

Ahead on

  • Risk, 55 against 40

Watch for

No quantised build from OpenGVLab, so about 51 GB at BF16

LFM3-Audio-2B C

Best for Voice agents on a laptop or phone that need speech in, speech out and tool calls from one small model

Ahead on

  • Reach, 80 against 65
  • Agent interface, 85 against 45
  • Documentation and upkeep, 52 against 28

Watch for

Only llama.cpp and Ollama run it in a release, though the card lists vLLM and SGLang

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.

Agent interface LFM3-Audio-2B +40

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview 45

Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository, though it doesn't match the tokenizer. Tool-calling format 10 of 25, only the twin's inherited harmony template mentions tools. Trained tool calling 0, no evidence it was trained to call tools. Structured output 0. Reasoning control 10, a system prompt turns thinking on and the card says the reasoning comes back in think tags. Context 5, trained at 32K tokens.

LFM3-Audio-2B 85

Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (9,328 characters), with roles, audio, tools, deferred tools and tool results. Tool-calling format 25, the card and Liquid's tool-use page document tools passed through tools= in apply_chat_template, calls returned as XML and results sent back as tool messages. Trained tool calling 20, the template loops over every entry in an assistant turn's tool_calls, so several calls fit in one turn, and the card names turning spoken requests into tool calls as one of its four uses. Structured output 5, the card says the model is designed for structured outputs without saying how to ask for JSON. Liquid's API guide documents response_format with lfm3-1.7b as its example. Reasoning control 10, the card documents reasoning per request for text replies: the caller prefills the assistant turn with an open think tag to let the model reason, or a closed one for a direct answer, with a use_thinking example. Context 5, 32K tokens of input and output per the card. 20 + 25 + 20 + 5 + 10 + 5 = 85.

Documentation and upkeep LFM3-Audio-2B +24

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview 28

Model card 8 of 20, the family card misses limitations, context, languages and a cut-off. Training data 5, described without a cut-off. Last change 0, the last commit to either repository is 8 September 2025 and to OpenGVLab's reference code 22 September 2025, over a year before 4 November 2026. Responsiveness 10, OpenGVLab answered 3 of 8 questions across the two repositories, none since September 2025. Version policy 5, a first release. File health 0, the template uses markers the tokenizer doesn't have and contradicts the twin's template, and the card names the wrong language model in its licence line.

LFM3-Audio-2B 52

Model card 17, Intended use (local agents, tool calling, structured outputs, fine-tuning), limitations (not recommended for agentic coding or complex multi-step reasoning, voice chat in English only), an architecture section, parameters (2B), context (32K) and 19 speech languages and locales. Training data 5, the card has no training section. Last change 20, the last commit, on 3 November 2026, changed the card's navigation icons, seven days before this check, and the one before it, on 31 October, edited the card. Responsiveness 0, Neither of the 2 discussions that aren't pull requests (27 and 31 October 2026) has a reply from a LiquidAI member. Version policy 5, LFM3 came out in new repositories and the LFM2.5 models stay in theirs. File health 5, the card gives a 32K context while config.json gives the language model 128,000 positions and Liquid's API lists 128,000 for the hosted model, so the card and the files don't agree on context. 17 + 5 + 20 + 0 + 5 + 5 = 52.

Reach LFM3-Audio-2B +15

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview 65

Memory 15 of 30, the only builds are BF16 at 42.5 GB by the repository's safetensors index, or 51 GB with a fifth added, which fits 64 GB. Runtimes 25, Transformers and vLLM load this repository, and SGLang, llama.cpp and Ollama (through llama.cpp b11963, which Ollama v0.40.14 pins) run the same weights in their GitHub format. Builds 0, OpenGVLab publishes no quantised build. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 with nothing added by the bases. Download 10, not gated. Hosted 0, no provider serves it.

LFM3-Audio-2B 80

Memory 30, Liquid's Q4_K_M GGUF is 1.10 GB with its 0.17 GB projector file, and 1.27 GB × 1.2 = 1.5 GB, which fits 8 GB, well inside the 16 GB line. Runtimes 10, Released llama.cpp has the lfm3 architecture with the LFM3 audio projector and speech output (src/models/lfm3.cpp and tools/mtmd at b12242, with a realtime client example that starts this model), and Ollama's library has an lfm3-audio entry. Builds 15, Liquid's GGUF repository holds Q4_0, Q4_K_M, Q8_0, F16 and BF16 files, and Liquid publishes 4-bit and 8-bit MLX builds and an ONNX repository, all in the LiquidAI organisation. Terms 10, the LFM Open License v1.0, a custom licence that lets anyone use it commercially for free below a threshold of $10M annual revenue. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false for the model and its GGUF, MLX and ONNX repositories on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 5, Liquid's own API lists lfm3-audio-2b among its models, so the publisher hosts it. 30 + 10 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 5 = 80.

Risk InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview +15

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview 55

File safety 25, safetensors only and no code in the repository. Provenance 15, the files are in the OpenGVLab organisation its GitHub links, with a checksum on every file. Safety evaluation 0 and agent guidance 0, nothing published. Licence risk 15, Apache 2.0 over Apache and MIT bases, with gpt-oss's usage policy asking only for lawful use. Security programme 0, no policy, security.txt or advisories.

LFM3-Audio-2B 40

File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25). Provenance 15, files in the LiquidAI organisation, which Liquid's docs page for the model and its blog post link to (10). Safety evaluation 0, no safety results on the card or in Liquid's blog post for the LFM3 family, neither of which mentions safety testing. Agent guidance 0, Nothing on prompt injection, an instruction hierarchy, what refusals cover or safeguards to add. Licence risk 10, 15 less 5 for the $10M annual revenue threshold on commercial use. Security programme 0, no way to report a flaw found. 15 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 10 + 0 = 40.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runInternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-PreviewLFM3-Audio-2BEdge
Capability35%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Reach25%256580LFM3-Audio-2B +15
Risk20%205540InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview +15
Agent interface10%104585LFM3-Audio-2B +40
Documentation and upkeep10%102852LFM3-Audio-2B +24
Negative events≤1500
TotalD 53.2/100C 61/100

Facts side by side

FactInternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-PreviewLFM3-Audio-2B
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorOpenGVLab (Shanghai AI Laboratory)Liquid AI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0; a merge of openai/gpt-oss-20b (Apache 2.0 with OpenAI's usage policy) and OpenGVLab/InternViT-300M-448px-V2_5 (MIT)LFM Open License v1.0 (free commercial use below $10M annual revenue)
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2025-09-082026-11-03
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Agent reviews1.8/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview

An image and video reader on gpt-oss-20b with an optional thinking mode, a preview untouched for over a year. It needs about 51 GB in BF16, since OpenGVLab publishes no quantised build, and runs in Transformers and vLLM. The main risk is a chat template in the Transformers-format repository that doesn't match its tokenizer, with no safety results.

LFM3-Audio-2B

A 2B model that listens and speaks on an 8 GB machine, transcribes and translates 19 languages and turns spoken requests into tool calls. Only llama.cpp and Ollama run it in a release. The context is 32K, voice chat is English only, Liquid hasn't answered the repository's questions, and there are no safety results or data sources.

Before you call either

InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview

  1. Serve with vllm serve OpenGVLab/InternVL3_5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview-HF --max-model-len 32768, which is our command; the card gives none for vLLM
  2. Check the rendered prompt before relying on it, since the shipped template's <|im_start|> markers aren't tokens in the gpt-oss tokenizer; the GitHub-format repository's harmony template is the alternative
  3. Use Transformers 4.55.0 or later, as the card requires for this size
  4. For thinking, send the card's thinking system prompt and parse the reasoning out of the <think> tags, with temperature 0.6 and sampling on as the card advises
  5. Keep inputs within 32K tokens, the length it was trained at, whatever the config says

LFM3-Audio-2B

  1. Start it with llama-server -hf LiquidAI/LFM3-Audio-2B-GGUF:Q4_K_M --jinja or ollama run lfm3-audio
  2. llama.cpp ships examples/realtime_client.py for live speech with this model
  3. Prefill the assistant turn with an open think tag to let it reason before a text reply
  4. The context is 32K
  5. Voice chat is English only, while transcription, synthesis and translation cover 19 languages and locales
  6. Liquid doesn't recommend it for agentic coding or complex multi-step reasoning

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview or LFM3-Audio-2B?

LFM3-Audio-2B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview's 53.2 (D), and leads in 3 of 4 scored categories. InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview leads on risk.

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