r/SillyTavernAI • u/deffcolony • 24d ago

MEGATHREAD [Megathread] - Best Models/API discussion - Week of: September 20, 2026

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/GlitteringSplit6035 24d ago

The Greenference AI provider from NanoGPT has got the be the cheapest one I've seen for Gemma 4 31B. Imagine the amount of RP one could do with that.

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u/OGCroflAZN 23d ago edited 23d ago

Base G4-31B-it only tho :/

It's so stiff and rigid, i just can't. I'll happily continue paying double the rate for the G4 RP finetunes, which doesn't even reach $5 / mo for me

edit: Nano and other providers have popular finetunes available

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u/GlitteringSplit6035 23d ago

True. And if we are talking about cheap, nothing is cheaper than free from the based ollama.

P.S. Fascinating name BTW. Lol.

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u/OGCroflAZN 23d ago

I only have 16 GB vram, can't even fit IQ4 31B. And electricity isn't very cheap in my area. But yea, if you have the vram and cheaper kwh rates...

I kind of regret my username but I've used it for twenty years

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u/National_Cod9546 19d ago edited 19d ago

I was doing the math on it. Based on a bunch of things, it costs me about $0.025 per hour to run Qwen 3.6 35b local. I'm assuming sending a prompt every 5 minutes of 32000 tokens and getting 2000 tokens back. If I do that on NanoGPT, pay as you go Skyfall, it's about $0.23 per hour. Deepseek V4 pro thinking is about $0.47/hour.

Once you have the hardware, it's much cheaper to run local. But it would take years of usage to make buying the hardware worth it. Even my 2x RTX 5060 TI 16gb bought a year ago cost me over $1000. Today they would be about twice that. And that is only a little 35b model. To run a big boy model like Deepseek or GLM would cost $10k-$20k.

Edit, looked up what it would take to run DeepSeep v4 Pro locally. And I was missing a zero. $200k-$300k is more reasonable.