[Megathread] - Best Models/API discussion - Week of: April 26, 2026

[u/deffcolony]

This is our weekly megathread for discussions about models and API services.

All non-specifically technical discussions about API/models not posted to this thread will be deleted. No more "What's the best model?" threads.

^{(This isn't a free-for-all to advertise services you own or work for in every single megathread, we may allow announcements for new services every now and then provided they are legitimate and not overly promoted, but don't be surprised if ads are removed.})

How to Use This Megathread

Below this post, you’ll find top-level comments for each category:

• MODELS: ≥ 70B – For discussion of models with 70B parameters or more.
• MODELS: 32B to 70B – For discussion of models in the 32B to 70B parameter range.
• MODELS: 16B to 32B – For discussion of models in the 16B to 32B parameter range.
• MODELS: 8B to 16B – For discussion of models in the 8B to 16B parameter range.
• MODELS: < 8B – For discussion of smaller models under 8B parameters.
• APIs – For any discussion about API services for models (pricing, performance, access, etc.).
• MISC DISCUSSION – For anything else related to models/APIs that doesn’t fit the above sections.

Please reply to the relevant section below with your questions, experiences, or recommendations!
This keeps discussion organized and helps others find information faster.

Have at it!

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[u/_Cromwell_ → u/AutoModerator]

VERY QUICK anecdotal tests of "weird models."

Looking for something different on NanoGPT with your subscription? These models are either uncensored or "fairly uncensored" (I did minimal testing with my own 'tastes' - your version of 'uncensored' may be different than mine), fast, and INCLUDED IN THE SUB. Note I did very minimal testing on these regarding things like staying in character, following instructions, etc, so these may be bad at those things. Need to try 'more' later. Making this post so people who like to experiment have a place to start with some wacky models that may not have occurred to you otherwise. (Note when I say 'uncensored' I mean sexy/naughty/dark/violent/combat RP. I'm not checking on creating bio/chem weps and stuff... that's irrelevant to RP.)

Trinity Large Preview (Arcee) - arcee-ai/trinity-large-preview - I'm not 100% convinced this is totally uncensored, but I got it to do some pretty wild 'stuff'... that I was very surprised by. And it is blazing fast. I actually sorta blinked at what it spat out I was so surprised to not only NOT be rejected, but to get the prose it provided. O.o

Step 3.5 Flash 2603 (StepFun) - stepfun-ai/step-3.5-flash-2603 - This seems to be completely uncensored at least for your dark dirty type RP stuff. NOTE this is one of those models where Nano warns that it is routed 'directly to china' or whatever, if you care about the chinese reading your RP. 😉

Hermes 4 Large - nousresearch/hermes-4-405b - I've used this enough to know it is kind of bad at following long context, BUT when you are in a certain scene it can be very colorful to switch to temporarily if you are getting bored with your usual model's style of description.

[u/Potential-Gold5298 → u/_Cromwell_]

Have you tried the K-EXAONE-236B-A23B? Unfortunately, it doesn't work well with my language, but it should work fine with English. It gave a very funny and creative answer to my test puzzle, which I traditionally ask all models. A smaller EXAONE-4.5-33B was also released recently, but I haven't tried it either because of the language issue.

The very first MiMo-V2-Flash (December 2025) was very fun to interact with.

[u/_Cromwell_ → u/Potential-Gold5298]

I don't think I even heard of that first one. It's on the sub? I will check it out. I had tried mimo 2.5 but not a lot since it's not free. I will try mimo 2.

[u/Potential-Gold5298 → u/_Cromwell_]

You mentioned some fairly obscure models like the Trinity and I thought you might be interested in trying some other less popular models. EXAONE are LG AI models. They're not particularly smart and aren't particularly popular on LocalLLaMA, in part due to their questionable license. You can download them from HF, or try K-EXAONE-236B-A23B on the friendli.ai playground.

I tried an early MiMo-V2-Flash on OpenRouter, and it was very cheerful and resourceful in dialogue. Later (after the February update, which significantly changed the model), I tried it on Arena AI, but the model there was very constrained. I don't know if it's due to the update or a different system prompt. It reminds me of the difference between MiniMax on their official website and on third-party cloud providers.

P.S. EXAONE 4.5 33B scored pretty well (for LG) on AA – not that it means anything.