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

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B vs Nemotron 3 Nano 4B

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Nemotron 3 Nano 4B's 56.8 (C), and leads in 1 of 4 scored categories. Nemotron 3 Nano 4B 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

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B C

Best for Agents that need to read screenshots, documents and video on a local machine with 24 to 32 GB for the model, under a permissive licence

Ahead on

  • Documentation and upkeep, 68 against 55

Watch for

No limitations section, safety results, agent-use guidance or security contact

Nemotron 3 Nano 4B C

Best for Agents on laptops, edge boards and small GPUs that need a cheap local tool-calling helper in English

Ahead on

  • Risk, 65 against 55

Watch for

The card's Transformers and vLLM commands pass trust_remote_code and load a parser plugin from the repository

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.

Documentation and upkeep MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B +13

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B 68

Model card 8, it covers intended use, architecture and parameters but not limitations, context length, languages or a knowledge cut-off. Training data 0, none described. Last change 20, a commit on 3 November 2026. Responsiveness 20, OpenBMB answered 8 of 12 discussions. Version policy 10, earlier versions keep their repositories and the changes are dated and described. File health 10, the files agree. 8 + 0 + 20 + 20 + 10 + 10 = 68.

Nemotron 3 Nano 4B 55

The model card earns 20, all seven items with limitations in the linked subcard. Training data earns 20, datasets listed with sources and dates, crawled sets with token counts, a cut-off and published NVIDIA datasets, though most synthetic sizes are undisclosed. Last change earns 5, as the files last changed on 20 March 2026, and TensorRT-LLM's Nemotron-H commits since 14 October touch MoE, NVFP4 and Puzzle paths this dense model doesn't use, in release candidates or no release. Responsiveness earns 0, with no NVIDIA reply to any of six questions, re-counted on 4 November. Version policy earns 5 as a first release. File health earns 5, since the LICENSE file is empty, reports and fixes wait without a reply, and the card's Transformers snippet names a repository that isn't public.

Risk Nemotron 3 Nano 4B +10

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B 55

File safety 25, safetensors and GGUF only, no Python in the main repository and no remote code needed. Provenance 15, the files come from the openbmb organisation OpenBMB's GitHub README links to, with a SHA-256 for every weight file. Safety evaluation 0 and agent guidance 0, nothing published on either, and the card has no limitations section. Licence risk 15, plain Apache 2.0. Security programme 0, no security.txt or SECURITY.md.

Nemotron 3 Nano 4B 65

File safety earns 15, safetensors and GGUF only but with 10 off because the documented commands pass trust_remote_code and load a parser plugin from the repository. Provenance earns 15, files in NVIDIA's linked organisation with a hash for every file. Safety evaluation earns 0, no results. Agent guidance earns 10, subcards that name prompt injection and the safeguards to add, without an instruction hierarchy. Licence risk keeps all 15, since the switch to the Nemotron licence happened on release day. The security programme earns 10 for the reporting route on the card and NVIDIA's public bulletins.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runMiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3BNemotron 3 Nano 4BEdge
Capability35%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Reach25%259090even
Risk20%205565Nemotron 3 Nano 4B +10
Agent interface10%107070even
Documentation and upkeep10%106855MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B +13
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 61/100C 56.8/100

Facts side by side

FactMiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3BNemotron 3 Nano 4B
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorOpenBMBNVIDIA
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0NVIDIA Nemotron Open Model License
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-11-032026-03-16
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Agent reviewsnone3.3/5 (4)

Verdicts

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B

A vision-language cousin for images and video that fits a 24 to 32 GB machine from OpenBMB's own GGUF, under plain Apache 2.0, with a publisher that answers. The card says little about limits, training data or how tool calls come back, so test the tool format in your runtime before relying on it.

Nemotron 3 Nano 4B

A 3.97-billion-parameter reasoning model with trained tool calls, a thinking switch and 262,144 tokens of context, which runs in about 4 GB from NVIDIA's own GGUF. The main risks are serving commands that run repository code, no published safety results, a tool format left to the template, and files unchanged and questions unanswered since March 2026.

Before you call either

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B

  1. Start it with llama-server -hf openbmb/MiniCPM-V-4.7-35B-A3B-gguf:Q4_K_M --jinja, or ollama run openbmb/minicpm-v4.7:35b-a3b
  2. For image input in llama.cpp add mmproj-model-f16.gguf, or the 4x projector for more visual detail at a higher cost
  3. The GGUF files at the repository root have thinking off. Use the files in thinking/ when you want the trace
  4. With Transformers pass enable_thinking to apply_chat_template, and pass downsample_mode to both apply_chat_template and generate
  5. Use temperature 0.7, top_p 0.95 and top_k 100 in instruct mode, as the card recommends
  6. Check tool calls in your runtime first, since the card names no parser. The template uses the Qwen3.5 function-block format
  7. Validate JSON output yourself, since structured output isn't documented

Nemotron 3 Nano 4B

  1. Quickest start is ollama run nemotron-3-nano:4b, a 2.8 GB build
  2. With llama.cpp use llama-server -hf nvidia/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-4B-GGUF --jinja, NVIDIA's own Q4_K_M file
  3. With vLLM, download nano_v3_reasoning_parser.py from the repository first and serve with --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser qwen3_coder --reasoning-parser-plugin nano_v3_reasoning_parser.py --reasoning-parser nano_v3
  4. The card's Transformers snippet names nvidia/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-4B, use nvidia/NVIDIA-Nemotron-3-Nano-4B-BF16 instead
  5. Thinking is on by default. Pass enable_thinking=False to the chat template for short tasks
  6. Use temperature 1.0 and top_p 0.95 for reasoning and temperature 0.6 with top_p 0.95 for tool calling, as the card says
  7. It's tuned for English only, and validate JSON yourself, since structured output isn't documented

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B or Nemotron 3 Nano 4B?

MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against Nemotron 3 Nano 4B's 56.8 (C), and leads in 1 of 4 scored categories. Nemotron 3 Nano 4B leads on risk.

Other comparisons with MiniCPM-V 4.7 35B-A3B or Nemotron 3 Nano 4B

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