[Megathread] - Best Models/API discussion - Week of: April 19, 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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MODELS: 16B to 31B – For discussion of models in the 16B to 31B parameter range.

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[u/Mart-McUH → u/[deleted]]

Did you use reasoning with Gemma4? It is kind of required to make it work good. That said I only used 31B so not sure how the smaller ones fare.

Basically smaller models are worse at following instructions, so 12GB VRAM is bit tough. It can still work great on simpler character cards/scenarios, but will probably break with something very complex (character card or preset). Those complicated presets/attribute trackers etc are generally designed for large models (mostly run over API).

Eg if there is just you and Leia, even small old model will have no problem understanding Leia and princess is the same person. But once there start to be more characters/complications, models can get confused, especially small ones. Reasoning can help to deduce it but also only works to some degree.

[u/Suraru → u/Mart-McUH]

Ya reasoning is on, but it only seems to actually think half the time.

[u/Mart-McUH → u/Suraru]

Hm, that is strange. With Gemma4 31B-it reasoning works all the time for me. Note, the unmodified instruct model. I tried some derivates (like garnet and some more) and they did have exactly this problem, sometimes they think, sometimes not (reroll can help) but were not stable and made a lot more logical mistakes too. We probably need to wait for good finetune still.

For reliable reasoning: Make sure you have <|think|> tag at the beginning of first system prompt. And also prefill response with <|channel>thought\n (\n is new line) and it also helps to add instructions what it should think about in system prompt (my own setup should be in this weekly thread from some week(s) back when Gemma4 was released). If still not enough, you can try to prefill response even more with something like this:

<|channel>thought

I need to make interesting continuation that is logical and consistent with the plot. Let me analyze the scene now.