# LFM3-Audio-2B vs SmolLM3-3B (slim)

> LFM3-Audio-2B and SmolLM3-3B score within a point of each other for open-weight models you run yourself, 61 and 61 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lfm3-audio-2b-vs-smollm3-3b.md (~9,500 tokens) · this version ~780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lfm3-audio-2b-vs-smollm3-3b.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lfm3-audio-2b-vs-smollm3-3b
- 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-Audio-2B and SmolLM3-3B score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). SmolLM3-3B leads on reach, risk and documentation and upkeep. Both do open-weight models you run yourself.

- LFM3-Audio-2B: C 61, rank #70 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/lfm3-audio-2b.min.md
- SmolLM3-3B: C 61, rank #55 of 160 open-weight models · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smollm3-3b.min.md
- LFM3-Audio-2B, good for Voice agents on a laptop or phone that need speech in, speech out and tool calls from one small model Ahead on Agent interface, 85 against 80.
- SmolLM3-3B, good for Agents that want a small, fully transparent tool-calling cousin on a laptop, CPU or edge device Ahead on Reach, 85 against 80; Risk, 65 against 40; Documentation and upkeep, 74 against 52.

| Category | LFM3-Audio-2B | SmolLM3-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Capability (35%) | pending | pending |
| Reach (25%) | 80 | 85 |
| Risk (20%) | 40 | 65 |
| Agent interface (10%) | 85 | 80 |
| Documentation and upkeep (10%) | 52 | 74 |

| Fact (where they differ) | LFM3-Audio-2B | SmolLM3-3B |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Liquid AI | Hugging Face |
| Licence | LFM Open License v1.0 (free commercial use below $10M annual revenue) | Apache-2.0 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-03 | 2025-09-10 |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Risk, SmolLM3-3B +25: LFM3-Audio-2B 40 (File safety 15, safetensors only, no .bin, .pt or .pth files (25).); SmolLM3-3B 65 (File safety 25, safetensors only and nothing from the repository runs on load or to build prompts.)
- Documentation and upkeep, SmolLM3-3B +22: 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…); SmolLM3-3B 74 (Model card 14, it covers limitations, architecture, parameters, context and languages but has no intended-use section and leaves the June 2025 cut-off to the ch…)
- Reach, SmolLM3-3B +5: 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.); SmolLM3-3B 85 (Memory 30, the smallest 4-bit build Hugging Face publishes is its own ONNX q4f16 at 2.1 GB, about 2.5 GB with the fifth added, and the full BF16 files that the…)
- Agent interface, LFM3-Audio-2B +5: 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.); SmolLM3-3B 80 (Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository.)