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

MiniCPM5-2B vs ZAYA1-8B

ZAYA1-8B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against MiniCPM5-2B's 59.7 (C), and leads in 0 of 4 scored categories. MiniCPM5-2B leads on reach, agent interface and documentation and upkeep. 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

MiniCPM5-2B C

Best for On-device and laptop agents that want a 2 GB tool-calling helper with long context and open training data

Ahead on

  • Reach, 90 against 80
  • Agent interface, 75 against 60
  • Documentation and upkeep, 92 against 50

Watch for

OpenBMB documents only a Think mode for the 2B, so every answer starts with reasoning

ZAYA1-8B C

Best for People who want a small, fast reasoning model for maths and code and can live without tool calling

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Tool calling needs a parser that only Zyphra's vLLM fork has

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 MiniCPM5-2B +42

MiniCPM5-2B 92

Model card 17, everything but a knowledge cut-off. Training data 20, all eight training datasets are published on Hugging Face and named per stage with sizes. Last change 15, a template fix on 29 September 2026, 36 days ago, with nothing newer in OpenBMB's MiniCPM5 repositories on Hugging Face (builds last changed 12 September) or its GitHub repository (21 September). Responsiveness 20, OpenBMB members answered 16 of the 23 questions in the discussions, the newest reply on 29 September. Version policy 10, earlier models and checkpoints sit in their own repositories and the GitHub changelog dates each release. File health 10, config, tokenizer, template and card agree and no broken-file report waited on 21 October, though OpenBMB's GGUF, MLX and GPTQ repositories still carry the template from before the 29 September fix.

ZAYA1-8B 50

Model card 5, Intended use and the parameter counts are on the card. Training data 0, Nothing on the card about the training data. Last change 10, the main repository last changed on 26 June 2026 (the checkpoint reshaped for Transformers), 137 days before this check, and the quantised repositories on 2 July, 131 days. Responsiveness 20, Of the 16 most recent discussions that aren't pull requests (7 May to 14 August 2026), 10 have a reply from a Zyphra member, which is most. Version policy 5, the original checkpoint is kept as ZAYA1-8B-legacy and the card says so at the top, without a date. File health 10, Config, template and card agree on the architecture after the reshape. 5 + 0 + 10 + 20 + 5 + 10 = 50.

Agent interface MiniCPM5-2B +15

MiniCPM5-2B 75

Chat template 20, a Jinja file in the repository. Tool-calling format 25, the card and OpenBMB's cookbooks document the XML call format, the tools request and the minicpm5 parser in SGLang and vLLM. Trained tool calling 20, agent SFT on 500K samples and a template that renders several calls in one turn. Structured output 0, nothing documents asking for JSON. Reasoning control 0, a judgement call, because OpenBMB's own cookbooks call Think the only supported mode for the 2B even though the template accepts enable_thinking false. Context 10, 131,072 tokens native with no rope scaling.

ZAYA1-8B 60

Chat template 20, chat_template.jinja in the repository (10,700 characters). Tool-calling format 10, only the template and a fork say it. Trained tool calling 10, the template takes tools and renders calls, and the card recommends settings for agent use, but it doesn't say the model was trained for tool calling or for several calls in a turn, so the lower band. Structured output 0, Nothing on the card about JSON or schema-constrained output. Reasoning control 10, the template has an enable_thinking switch, and the card names the qwen3 reasoning parser, which returns the reasoning apart from the answer. Context 10, 131,072 positions in config.json, for an architecture Zyphra trained end to end, so the config is the model's own. 20 + 10 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 10 = 60.

Reach MiniCPM5-2B +10

MiniCPM5-2B 90

Memory 30, OpenBMB's own MLX 4-bit build is 1.42 GB and its Q4_K_M GGUF 1.56 GB, about 2 GB with the fifth added. Runtimes 25, the cap, since the model is a stock Llama and vLLM, SGLang, released Transformers, a released llama.cpp and Ollama all run it. Builds 15, OpenBMB ships GGUF at three precisions plus MLX and GPTQ 4-bit. Terms 10, the LICENSE is plain Apache 2.0 but the card prohibits jailbreaking and injection testing and limits use to ethical purposes, which reads as a use policy on top (dated 21 October 2026). Download 10, nothing is gated. Hosted 0, OpenBMB has no API for it, no inference provider is listed on its Hugging Face page and OpenRouter doesn't carry it.

ZAYA1-8B 80

Memory 30, the smallest build from Zyphra is the MXFP4-Experts repository, 5.85 GB, and 5.85 GB × 1.2 = 7.0 GB, within 16 GB. Runtimes 10, Released Transformers 5.22.2 has the zaya model and SGLang 0.5.23 has srt/models/zaya.py. Builds 15, Quantised builds from Zyphra at two precisions, FP8 and MXFP4 for the experts, each in its own repository. Terms 15, Apache 2.0 in the card's metadata, an OSI licence with nothing added. Download 10, the Hub API reports gated false for the model and its builds on 10 November 2026, so the files download with no account and nothing to accept. Hosted 0, Hugging Face maps no inference provider to it, and the card names no API. Zyphra's site lists a cloud product for its open models, which wasn't checked for this model. 30 + 10 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 0 = 80.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runMiniCPM5-2BZAYA1-8BEdge
Capability35%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Reach25%259080MiniCPM5-2B +10
Risk20%205555even
Agent interface10%107560MiniCPM5-2B +15
Documentation and upkeep10%109250MiniCPM5-2B +42
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 59.7/100C 61/100

Facts side by side

FactMiniCPM5-2BZAYA1-8B
KindOpen-weight modelOpen-weight model
VendorOpenBMBZyphra
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-09-292026-07-02
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Agent reviews3/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

MiniCPM5-2B

ZAYA1-8B

No score change since it was listed.

Verdicts

MiniCPM5-2B

A 2B dense model for local tool calling and long context, with published training data. OpenBMB's own 4-bit builds are under 1.6 GB, and the model loads in vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp, Ollama and Transformers. The main risks are always-on thinking, no safety results and use conditions beyond Apache 2.0.

ZAYA1-8B

A small reasoning model trained from scratch by one lab, with a clean licence, 4-bit and FP8 builds and a team that answers questions. It's the hardest of the small models to run: its own architecture, a card that points at forks, and tool calling that needs a parser no release has. Little on limits, data or safety.

Before you call either

MiniCPM5-2B

  1. Smallest start is ollama run openbmb/minicpm5-2b (1.6 GB, q4_k_m)
  2. On vLLM 0.29.0 or later run vllm serve openbmb/MiniCPM5-2B --max-model-len 131072 --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser minicpm5, or tool calls come back as XML text
  3. On SGLang 0.5.16 or later add --tool-call-parser minicpm5 --reasoning-parser qwen3; SGLang is OpenBMB's recommended backend for tool calls
  4. Tool calls are XML, <function name=...><param name=...>, not Hermes JSON
  5. Sample with temperature 1.0, top_p 0.95 and min_p 0.0; llama.cpp's default min_p 0.05 can loop, and repetition_penalty 1.05 helps if it does
  6. Expect a <think> block before every answer and leave room in max_tokens; enable_thinking false is accepted by the template but OpenBMB doesn't support it for the 2B
  7. Validate JSON yourself or use the runtime's guided decoding, since structured output isn't documented
  8. Use the main repository's template; the GGUF, MLX and GPTQ copies predate the 29 September fix

ZAYA1-8B

  1. Use it for reasoning, maths and code. Don't count on tool calling outside Zyphra's vLLM fork
  2. Run it with Transformers 5.22.2 or SGLang 0.5.23, which have the model built in
  3. Use temperature 1.0 and top_p 0.95 in general, and temperature 0.6 for agent and code work
  4. Download Zyphra/ZAYA1-8B, not the legacy repository, for the released runtimes
  5. The quantised repositories have no licence tag. The main one is Apache 2.0

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, MiniCPM5-2B or ZAYA1-8B?

ZAYA1-8B scores 61 (C) on agent readiness against MiniCPM5-2B's 59.7 (C), and leads in 0 of 4 scored categories. MiniCPM5-2B leads on reach, agent interface and documentation and upkeep.

Other comparisons with MiniCPM5-2B or ZAYA1-8B

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