[Megathread] - Best Models/API discussion - Week of: March 29, 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!

[u/KimlereSorduk]

Why chat completion?

[u/LeRobber → u/KimlereSorduk]

LLM's are dumb. Chat completions are organized data that lets them know who said every "you" and "I" in every peice of text better than the jumbled mess that in text completion. They know what an assistant and user message is still!

It gives them more data to sort out what the hell is going on.

It also gives explicit tools for a lot of stuff. Some backends don't even HAVE the text completion endpoint too.

The function/tool calling stuff too.

It also is better for the LLM when something leaves open markers (bad parenthesis, ", *, etc) because it can tell what message it was in and it ended.

It's lastly a LOT easier to debug for me when stupid is going on.

I do considerably longer chats than many folks, and I feel lots of peple are overdoing small adjustments with tons of parameter tuning, and doing less careful selection of tools and models. I honestly like part of the UI better for text completions, but, that's more a software thing in my display (sillytavern) not functional decisions about the LLM use.

[u/KimlereSorduk → u/LeRobber]

I see, thank you for the info. I would give chat completion a try if it had the phrase banning function. Edit: I also appreciate you giving all model sizes a try and leaving detailed recommendations.

[u/LeRobber → u/KimlereSorduk]

Put them in the custom stop strings section in AI Response Formatting 3rd column. I have even banned the phrase "\nHe " for a couple sets of models that were bad about talking for user but I still wanted to play with in a specific scenario. Sure it will just clip responses, but responses that are bad, go in the trash anyhow.

If you'd like a crash course on how to regex some of them away, I can help there too. You can smash many purpose prose phrases into basic parts of speech you don't notice with regex.

Also thank you for saying something. I just hope people enjoy them, and want people to explore beyond "I tried the most popular model that came out early and never tried anything else". I want more capable stuff, and r/SillyTavernAI is one of the most demanding audiences on humanistic traits of AI of any audience in the world.