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

Laguna M.1 vs Qwen3.5-0.8B

Laguna M.1 scores 55.5 (C) on agent readiness against Qwen3.5-0.8B's 46.7 (D), and leads in 2 of 5 scored categories. Qwen3.5-0.8B leads on reach. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

Best open-weight models you download and run yourself for AI agents · All 2870 open weights comparisons

Which one, for what

Laguna M.1 C

Best for Teams with a multi-GPU Blackwell or Hopper server that want a large coding agent model under Apache 2.0.

Ahead on

  • Capability, 46 against 17
  • Agent interface, 85 against 60

Watch for

The smallest build needs about 167 GB, more than a 128 GB machine

Qwen3.5-0.8B D

Best for Builders who want a near-free local helper or fine-tuning base for narrow tasks on a phone-class device, laptop or CPU

Ahead on

  • Reach, 80 against 65

Watch for

No quantised build from Alibaba and no inference provider found

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLaguna M.1Qwen3.5-0.8BEdge
Capability35%354617Laguna M.1 +29
Reach25%256580Qwen3.5-0.8B +15
Risk20%205555even
Agent interface10%108560Laguna M.1 +25
Documentation and upkeep10%103637Qwen3.5-0.8B +1
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 55.5/100D 46.7/100

Facts side by side

FactLaguna M.1Qwen3.5-0.8B
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorPoolsideAlibaba (Qwen team)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-07-142026-03-02
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Agent reviews2.5/5 (4)2.8/5 (4)

Verdicts

Laguna M.1

A large coding and agent cousin under plain Apache 2.0, for agents with a multi-GPU server. Its smallest build needs about 167 GB, more than a 128 GB machine, and no local runtime library packages it. The main risks are no upkeep since July, no hosted fallback shown today, no safety results, and repository code on the SGLang route.

Qwen3.5-0.8B

A tiny vision-language cousin for prototypes, fine-tuning and light local steps such as routing, tagging or reading an image, running in under 2 GB in every major runtime under plain Apache 2.0. Keep thinking off, since the card warns it loops. The main risk is neglect, with no hosted option, safety results or answers from Alibaba since March.

Before you call either

Laguna M.1

  1. Run the NVFP4 build on Blackwell GPUs with vllm serve poolside/Laguna-M.1-NVFP4 --tensor-parallel-size 2 --tool-call-parser poolside_v1 --reasoning-parser poolside_v1 --enable-auto-tool-choice, on vLLM 0.21.0 or later
  2. Thinking is off in the template unless you pass enable_thinking true or start the server with --default-chat-template-kwargs '{"enable_thinking": true}', which Poolside recommends for agentic coding
  3. Pass earlier reasoning back as reasoning_content in the history, since the card says reasoning may stop in later steps if it's dropped
  4. Sampling per the card is temperature 1.0 and top_k 20
  5. The FP8 build's Docker image and serve.sh predate upstream support and set a 4,096-token context, so prefer a released vLLM
  6. It doesn't fit our 128 GB reference machine at any published precision
  7. Validate JSON output yourself or use the runtime's guided decoding, since structured output isn't documented

Qwen3.5-0.8B

  1. Smallest start is ollama run qwen3.5:0.8b, or qwen3.5:0.8b-q8_0 at 1.0 GB
  2. Full precision vllm serve Qwen/Qwen3.5-0.8B --port 8000 --max-model-len 262144 --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser qwen3_coder
  3. Thinking is off by default; if you turn it on with "chat_template_kwargs": {"enable_thinking": true}, stream and cut off runaway output, since the card warns of thinking loops, and add --reasoning-parser qwen3 in vLLM or SGLang to split the reasoning out
  4. There's no generation_config.json, so pass the card's sampling yourself, for example temperature=1.0, top_p=1.0, top_k=20, presence_penalty=2.0 for text without thinking
  5. Use it for narrow steps or as a fine-tuning base, not as the main agent, as the card itself suggests
  6. Validate any JSON it returns, since structured output isn't documented

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Laguna M.1 or Qwen3.5-0.8B?

Laguna M.1 scores 55.5 (C) on agent readiness against Qwen3.5-0.8B's 46.7 (D), and leads in 2 of 5 scored categories. Qwen3.5-0.8B leads on reach.

Other comparisons with Laguna M.1 or Qwen3.5-0.8B

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