Files
command-center/omp-docs/agentic-web-research/open-models.md
T
Frank a9b3c495da docs(research): fact-check web-research and chezmoi docs against sources
- open-models.md: Qwen2.5-VL 'best open vision model' superseded by
  Qwen3-VL (Apache 2.0 dense sizes; repo QwenLM/Qwen3-VL, arXiv
  2511.21631, verified via web search); decision table + mermaid +
  citations updated
- chezmoi-evaluation.md: fleet facts were fabricated — servers run
  Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (probed via ssh, both boxes), not 'Arch/FreeToken'
  (distro does not exist); dev workstation is AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U,
  not Intel Ultra 7; frank-default-* endpoints retired 2026-10-18
- agentic-web-research/index.md: pi-era topology blurb replaced with
  current fleet endpoints
- self-hosted-web-agents.md: sample model frank-default-small ->
  frank-archon (endpoint/IP already correct: dankserver)
- mcp.md reference-server table verified against upstream
  modelcontextprotocol/servers README (exact match, no change)
- 'peer-reviewed BrowseComp' claim from scout ledger: does not exist
  in any file — rejected, not applied

Refs #29
2026-10-19 04:17:49 -07:00

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Markdown

---
type: concept
title: Open Models for Web Use
description: Self-hostable, open-weight models that are strong at tool use, API calling, and internet-assisted tasks.
tags:
- open-models
- tool-use
- function-calling
- llm
- unverified
verified: 2026-08-28
timestamp: 2026-08-11
resource: https://qwenlm.github.io/blog/qwen3/
---
# Open Models for Web Use
The model is the brain behind the agent. For web research the model must call tools, follow instructions, and sometimes understand a page image. This page ranks the best self-hostable open-weight options.
> **Your setup:** Pi already serves local models through llama.cpp. See [Llama.cpp Server](../tools/llama-cpp/index.md) and [Pi Models Configuration](../pi/models.md). You can run any of the picks below on those hosts.
## The Front-Runner: Qwen3 (Alibaba, Apache 2.0)
Qwen3 is the current state of the art for open function calling and tool use. It has a thinking / non-thinking hybrid mode and strong tool-calling. Release date: April 2025.
| Model | Type | Active params | Context | Q4 VRAM |
|-------|------|---------------|---------|---------|
| Qwen3-8B | Dense | 8B | 128K | ~5 GB |
| Qwen3-14B | Dense | 14B | 128K | ~9 GB |
| Qwen3-32B | Dense | 32B | 128K | ~18 GB |
| Qwen3-30B-A3B | MoE | 3B | 128K | ~15 GB |
The 8B and 14B models run on one consumer GPU. The 30B-A3B MoE runs on a single A100-class card or equivalent.
## Best Vision Model: Qwen3-VL (Apache 2.0)
Many web tasks need a model that can read a page image, not just text.
**Qwen3-VL** supersedes Qwen2.5-VL as the strongest open-weights vision family
(4B/8B dense through 30B-A3B/235B-A22B MoE): text, chart, icon, and layout
reading in screenshots, plus computer-use agent support. Small dense sizes
ship Apache 2.0; a quantized 4B/8B runs on a single consumer GPU. On this
fleet, vision duty is carried by the mmproj vision towers on the endpoints
(dragoon, zealot) — see [System hosts](/system/index.md).
Llama 4 Scout is the larger multimodal option. Verify the claims before you trust them:
- "10 million token context" — true, but **Scout only**, not Maverick.
- "Fits on a single H100" — only true with INT4 quantization (about 48 GB).
- "Beats GPT-4o" — Meta's own release benchmarks, not independent runs.
## Choose by Hardware
```mermaid
graph TD
A[Consumer GPU 16-24GB] --> B[Qwen3-8B / 14B]
A --> C[Qwen3-VL-4B / 8B]
D[Single server GPU 80GB] --> E[Qwen3-30B-A3B]
D --> F[Llama 4 Scout INT4]
G[Multi-GPU cluster] --> H[Qwen3-235B-A22B]
```
## Serving Options
- **llama.cpp** — CPU/GPU inference with GGUF quantization. Best for one consumer GPU. This is what Pi uses.
- **Ollama** — Easy local serving. Does not run in the Pi setup today.
- **vLLM** — High-throughput serving. Best for server and multi-GPU MoE models.
- **SGLang** — Strong for MoE serving.
```bash
# On the Pi llama.cpp host
# Serve a downloaded GGUF with the OpenAI-compatible API
llama-server -m qwen3-8b-q4_k_m.gguf -c 131072 --port 7770
```
## The Trade-Off
| Need | Pick |
|------|------|
| Best tool calling, one consumer GPU | Qwen3-8B or 14B |
| Visually read a web page | Qwen3-VL-4B / 8B |
| Server-scale reliable agent | Qwen3-235B-A22B |
| Cheapest acceptable agent | Qwen3-8B on a mid GPU |
## Citations
- Qwen3 technical report: <https://qwenlm.github.io/blog/qwen3/>
- Qwen3 repository: <https://github.com/QwenLM/Qwen3>
- Qwen3-VL repository: <https://github.com/QwenLM/Qwen3-VL> (tech report: <https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.21631>)
- Qwen2.5-VL-7B model card (predecessor): <https://huggingface.co/Qwen/Qwen2.5-VL-7B-Instruct>
- Meta AI Llama 4 announcement: <https://ai.meta.com/blog/llama-4-multimodal-intelligence/>
- Ollama library: <https://ollama.com/library>
- Browser Use supported models: <https://docs.browser-use.com/open-source/supported-models>
## See Also
- [Self-Hosted Web Agents](self-hosted-web-agents.md) — The tools these models drive.
- [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](mcp.md) — Connect tools to the model.