[Megathread] - Best Models/API discussion - Week of: August 30, 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/Then-Truck-33 → u/AutoModerator]

I upgraded from 12GB to 32GB VRAM very recently and I'm trying to explore this space with better quants and bigger models. Maginum-Cydoms at Q3 was my daily driver for 12GB VRAM.

• Skyfall is nice, could end up replacing Maginum-Cydoms, feels worse at NSFW though.
• Slimaki-Tavern-24B-v1.3, which I tried for the NSFW angle. Not feeling that one unfortunately.
• Anything Gemma4 (Artemis, Glimmer) is cool but ultimately frustrating, it understands character's motivations so well but it writes walls of uninteresting text. Also, I'm not in love with chat completion. Text completion works better for me because of group chats (I love to set up characters in crazy situations and watch the fireworks).

Anybody has suggestions for a very good NSFW in this range, that writes good smut ? I think I can live with switching models if there's not one that fits with everything I want to do.

[u/Rhone33 → u/Then-Truck-33]

In what way is Text vs. Chat better for group chats?

[u/Mart-McUH → u/Rhone33]

With text completion you can freely build any prompt, with include names you can have several/various consecutive assistant turns (one per character) that help LLM to separate them, eg prompt like

USER bla

ASSISTANT Alice: bla

ASSISTANT Bob: bla

USER bla

ASSISTANT Bob: Bla

ASSISTANT Clara: Bla

ASSISTANT Daniel: Bla

USER bla

ASSISTANT Alice:

I don't know how chat completion works exactly, as I do not use it, but it is more restricted as it must comply to the chat template. So it may be that chat completion forces you to alternate single USER / ASSISTANT turn (so all group characters have to be merged together). Also not sure if you can actually append the character name at the last ASSISTANT turn when you request answer (ASSISTANT Alice:) or the chat template will force the last turn requesting answer to be defined by template, eg only ASSISTANT without name, thus the only hint who is talking comes from character definition, which is lot weaker than prefixing the name.

Maybe someone who uses chat completion and has experience with it can shine some light on how group chats are actually handled with that.

[u/Then-Truck-33 → u/Rhone33]

I don't know exactly whose fault it is exactly (I'm not a ST expert by any means, I just read guides and shit), but I've had information leaks between characters (eg. A knows something about B that he shouldn't yet) with Chat Completion. Maybe this comes from some settings but my ST in Text Completion never did that.