Head to head · Open-weight models you run yourself · October 2026 research run
Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B and ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) leads on 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 2870 open weights comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Agents on a 24 to 32 GB GPU or Mac that want Qwen3.8-27B's skills with shorter thinking, for teams under US$1M revenue or research.
Ahead on
- Reach, 80 against 75
- Risk, 50 against 45
Watch for
Commercial use above US$1M gross annual revenue needs a separate licence
Best for Small teams and individuals running Qwen3.8-27B for agent or reasoning work who want shorter thinking traces on one 24 GB GPU or Mac.
Ahead on
- Agent interface, 70 against 60
- Documentation and upkeep, 53 against 43
Watch for
PolyForm Small Business licence, free commercially only below 100 people and 1,000,000 USD (2019) revenue
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B | ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capability | 35%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Reach | 25%25 | 80 | 75 | Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B +5 |
| Risk | 20%20 | 50 | 45 | Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B +5 |
| Agent interface | 10%10 | 60 | 70 | ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) +10 |
| Documentation and upkeep | 10%10 | 43 | 53 | ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 61/100 | C 61/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B | ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Open-weight model | Open-weight model |
| Vendor | UkisAI | BottleCap AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Swift Open License v1.0 (custom, not an OSI licence) on UkisAI's changes, free for commercial use below US$1M gross annual revenue with a separate Swift Enterprise License above it. Built on Qwen3.8-27B, whose Apache 2.0 still governs the base | PolyForm-Small-Business-1.0.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-24 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | |
| Privacy policy last updated | no 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 reviews | 2.3/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (4) |
Verdicts
Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
A Qwen3.8-27B cousin post-trained to think in fewer tokens, for coding and agent work with images in, that fits a 24 GB machine with UkisAI's own 4-bit builds. Commercial use is free only below US$1M revenue. The main risks are that nobody at UkisAI answers its discussions, and that the shorter thinking rests on UkisAI's own benchmarks.
ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
A Qwen3.8-27B with shorter reasoning, for agent work where thinking tokens cost time, and BottleCap's 4-bit GGUF runs in about 19 GB. The main limits are the licence, which needs a paid licence above 100 people or 1,000,000 USD revenue, a gated main repository, and no safety results or training-data description.
Before you call either
Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Quickest start is
llama-server -hf ukisai/Swift-1.5-Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:Q4_K_M --jinja, about 18.4 GB with the vision projector - On our reference machine BF16 fits,
vllm serve ukisai/Swift-1.5-Qwen3.8-27b --max-model-len 262144 --reasoning-parser qwen3 --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser qwen3_coder - The template is Qwen3.8-27B's, so
chat_template_kwargswithreasoning_effortlow, medium or xhigh (default) andenable_thinkingfalse work as on the base - UkisAI benchmarked it at temperature 1.0, top_p 0.95, top_k 20 and presence_penalty 0, which is a reasonable starting point
- The MLX 4-bit build needs UkisAI's patched MLX-LM and has no image or video chat
- Check the licence before commercial use, it stops at US$1M gross annual revenue including affiliates
- MTP self-speculative decoding is available with the base's head, flags on the card
ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Check the licence first, an organisation with 100 or more people or 1,000,000 USD (2019) revenue needs a commercial licence from BottleCap
- For files without the gate use
llama-server -hf bottlecapai/ThinkingCap-Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:Q4_K_M --jinja, about 17.4 GB - On vLLM use
--reasoning-parser qwen3 --enable-auto-tool-choice --tool-call-parser qwen3_xml, and on SGLang--tool-call-parser qwen3_coder - Set
reasoning_effort(xhigh, medium or low) in chat_template_kwargs, any other value makes the template raise an error - Keep the base's sampling (temperature 1.0, top_p 0.95, top_k 20), the GGUF card says greedy decoding can loop
- The GGUFs carry an MTP head, and llama.cpp builds without MTP support for this architecture may refuse to load them with a missing blk.64 tensor
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B or ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)?
Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B and ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 61 (C) and 61 (C). ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B) leads on agent interface and documentation and upkeep.
Other comparisons with Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B or ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Agents-A1-4B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Agents-A1-4B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Apertus v1.5 8B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Apertus v1.5 8B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Apodex-1.1-mini vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Apodex-1.1-mini vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- BigBang-v1 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- BigBang-v1 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Cosmos-Reason2-2B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Cosmos-Reason2-2B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Darwin-36B-Opus vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Darwin-36B-Opus vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- DeepSeek-V3.2 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- DeepSeek-V3.2 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- DeepSeek V4.1 Flash vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- DeepSeek-V4-Flash-0731 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- DiffusionGemma 26B A4B IT vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- DiffusionGemma 26B A4B IT vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Gemma 4 12B IT vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Gemma 4 12B IT vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Gemma 4 26B A4B IT vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Gemma 4 31B IT vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Gemma 4 31B IT vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Gemma 4 E2B IT vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Gemma 4 E2B IT vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Gemma 4 E4B IT vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Gemma 4 E4B IT vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- GLM-4.5-Air vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- GLM-4.5-Air vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- GLM-4.7-Flash vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- GLM-4.7-Flash vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- GLM-5.3-Flash vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- GLM-5.3-Flash vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- GLM-5.3 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- GLM-5.3 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- gpt-oss-120b vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- gpt-oss-120b vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- gpt-oss-20b vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- gpt-oss-20b vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Granite 4.2 3B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Granite 4.2 3B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Hy3 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Hy3 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Inkling-Small vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Inkling-Small vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Inkling vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Inkling vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- InternVL3.5-GPT-OSS-20B-A4B-Preview vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Kimi K3 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Kimi K3 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Kolibri-1 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Kolibri-1 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Laguna M.1 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Laguna M.1 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Laguna S 2.1 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Laguna S 2.1 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Laguna XS 2.1 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Laguna XS 2.1 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- LFM2.5-2.6B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- LFM2.5-2.6B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Ling-3.0-tiny vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Ling-3.0-tiny vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- MiMo-V2.6 Distill Qwen 9B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- MiMo-V2.6 Distill Qwen 9B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- MiniCPM-o 4.5 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- MiniCPM-o 4.5 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- MiniCPM5-2B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- MiniCPM5-2B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- MiniMax-M2.5 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- MiniMax-M2.5 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- MiniMax-M2.7 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- MiniMax-M2.7 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Muse Glimmer 30B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Muse Glimmer 30B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Nemotron 3 Nano 30B A3B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Nemotron 3 Nano 4B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Nemotron 3 Nano 4B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Nemotron 3 Nano Omni 30B A3B Reasoning vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Nemotron 3 Super 120B A12B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Nemotron 3 Ultra 550B A55B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- occamy-1.0 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- occamy-1.0 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Olmo 3 7B Think vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Olmo 3 7B Think vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Ornith-1.5-397B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Ornith-1.5-397B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Ornith-1.5-9B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Ornith-1.5-9B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-4B-Instruct-2507 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.5-0.8B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.5-0.8B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.5-122B-A10B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.5-122B-A10B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.5-2B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.5-2B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.5-397B-A17B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.5-4B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.5-4B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.5-9B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.5-9B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.6-27B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.6-27B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.6-35B-A3B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.6-35B-A3B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.8-27B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.8-27B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-Coder-30B-A3B-Instruct vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-Coder-Next vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-Coder-Next vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-Omni-30B-A3B-Instruct vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-VL-30B-A3B-Instruct vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-VL-32B-Instruct vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-VL-32B-Instruct vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-VL-4B-Instruct vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-VL-4B-Instruct vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwen3-VL-8B-Instruct vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Qwopus3.8-27B-Flash-V2 vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- SmolLM3-3B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- SmolLM3-3B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Spark-X2.6-4B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B
- Spark-X2.6-4B vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
- Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-27B vs Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next
- Swift 1.5 Qwen3.8-Flash-Next vs ThinkingCap (Qwen3.8 27B)
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/swift-1-5-qwen3-8-27b-vs-thinkingcap-qwen3-8-27b.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/swift-1-5-qwen3-8-27b.json·/api/v1/tools/thinkingcap-qwen3-8-27b.json - From a terminal
anchor compare swift-1-5-qwen3-8-27b thinkingcap-qwen3-8-27b(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "swift-1-5-qwen3-8-27b", "b": "thinkingcap-qwen3-8-27b"}at/mcp, no key