Shortlist
What is the best open source LLM in 2026?
GLM-5.3 Flash is our pick, scoring 89.6 out of 100 across craft, speed, control and value, with Xiaomi MiMo V2.6 Pro behind it on 89.4. These are the five best open-weights models you can host yourself, chosen from 26 that qualify and ranked on the same rubric as the rest of the index.
Index updated
Chosen from 26 that qualify, out of 73 tracked
The shortlist
- 01
GLM-5.3 Flash
A fast, MIT-licensed open model that human voters rank beside the big flagships.
Open weightsFree tierBest for
Fast, cheap agent and coding work on weights you control
- 02
Xiaomi MiMo V2.6 Pro
The strongest large open-weights model on the independent index, under MIT, for under a dollar out.
Open weightsFree tierBest for
Agentic work at the top of the open field, on weights you can modify
- 03
DeepSeek V4.1 Flash
Frontier-adjacent answers for thirty cents per million input tokens, with the weights under MIT.
Open weightsFree tierBest for
High-volume work where the token bill is the constraint
- 04
GLM-5.3
The same base as GLM-5.2, re-trained into one of the strongest open models available.
Open weightsFree tierBest for
Frontier-class coding and agent work on weights you can hold
- 05
GLM-5.2
Still the GLM to choose when the licence matters most: MIT, a million tokens, no conditions.
Open weightsFree tierBest for
Capable open work where the licence has to be MIT
