# LFM3-1.7B vs Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct (slim)

> LFM3-1.7B scores 61 (C) to Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct's 54.9 (C) for open-weight models you run yourself. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lfm3-1-7b-vs-qwen3-vl-8b-instruct.md (~9,750 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lfm3-1-7b-vs-qwen3-vl-8b-instruct.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lfm3-1-7b-vs-qwen3-vl-8b-instruct
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-10
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

LFM3-1.7B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct's 54.9 (C), and leads in 2 of 4 scored categories. Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct leads on reach and risk. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- LFM3-1.7B: C 61, rank #69 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lfm3-1-7b.min.md
- Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct: C 54.9, rank #124 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen3-vl-8b-instruct.min.md
- LFM3-1.7B, good for Agents on a laptop, phone or small server that need tool calling and a long context from a model under 2 GB at 4 bits Ahead on Agent interface, 100 against 60; Documentation and upkeep, 67 against 31.
- Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct, good for An agent with 8 GB or more to spare that needs a local model to read images, documents and video Ahead on Reach, 100 against 85; Risk, 55 against 40.

| Category | LFM3-1.7B | Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 85 | 100 |
| Risk (20%) | 40 | 55 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 100 | 60 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 67 | 31 |

| Fact (where they differ) | LFM3-1.7B | Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Liquid AI | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Licence | LFM Open License v1.0 (free commercial use below $10M annual revenue) | Apache-2.0 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-09 | 2025-11-01 |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Agent interface, LFM3-1.7B +40: LFM3-1.7B 100 (Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (12,129 characters), with roles, tools, deferred tools, tool results and the thinking switch.); Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct 60 (A Jinja chat template in the repository (20).)
- Documentation and upkeep, LFM3-1.7B +36: LFM3-1.7B 67 (Model card 17, Intended use (local agents, tool calling, structured outputs, fine-tuning), a limitation (not recommended for agentic coding or complex multi-ste…); Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct 31 (The card misses limitations, languages and a cut-off (11).)
- Reach, Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct +15: LFM3-1.7B 85 (Memory 30, Liquid's Q4_K_M GGUF is 1.10 GB, and 1.10 GB × 1.2 = 1.3 GB, which fits 8 GB, well inside the 16 GB line.); Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct 100 (Alibaba's own Q4_K_M GGUF is 5.03 GB, so with a fifth added it needs about 6 GB and fits in 16 GB (30).)
- Risk, Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct +15: LFM3-1.7B 40 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).); Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct 55 (Safetensors and GGUF only and no code in the repositories, so the FP8 card's trust_remote_code flag runs nothing (25).)