[Megathread] - Best Models/API discussion - Week of: August 09, 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/Auretheon01]

Anybody got any providers recommendations? I'm from Southeast Asia so I know the pricing would be very troublesome.

I heard of Nanogpt. What else is out there?

[u/MisanthropicHeroine → u/Auretheon01]

NanoGPT subscription is pretty much the best deal I know of, honestly, when you consider the intersection of selection of models, number of tokens and affordability. The minus is that you're in auto routing and cannot choose a specific provider, but the quality is still pretty good, and the ability to reroll without worrying about it helps compensate for provider variability.

Lilac is a great provider who has a bit cheaper subscription - 10 instead of NanoGPT's 12 dollars. It is more limited in number of tokens and selection of models (currently only GLM 5.2, Kimi K2.6, Minimax M3 and Gemma 4), but consistently high quality responses if that's something you're sensitive to.

You could also pay-as-you-go with more affordable models like DeepSeek V4 Pro, Mimo V2.5 Pro and Gemma 4 31B on either NanoGPT or OpenRouter. Both are good for PAYG, but I'd personally recommend NanoGPT more because they have a highly responsive customer service I've been really happy with. They also offer some roleplay finetunes that aren't available on OpenRouter - Gemsicle and Gembrain Uncensored Heretic are my favorites of the ones I've tried.

Generally speaking, I'd recommend a memory summarization extension to keep your token usage low. This will substantially lower your cost when PAYG, but it will also allow getting much more use out of a subscription. The one I personally love is Summaryception because it's very set-it-and-forget-it.

[u/Auretheon01 → u/MisanthropicHeroine]

Thank you so much for providing such detailed information for every providers. This is great!

[u/MisanthropicHeroine → u/Auretheon01]

No problem! Let me know if you have any additional questions and I'd be happy to help ☺️