Llama vs Qwen
The two default local models. Llama has the largest open ecosystem — more tooling, quantisations and fine-tunes than anything else — while Qwen tends to punch above its parameter count on code. Ecosystem versus raw quality per gigabyte.
| Llama | Qwen | |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Meta | Alibaba |
| Current release | Llama | Qwen |
| Tier | Open weights | Open weights |
| Context | 128K | 128K |
| Cost | Free tier | Free tier |
| Modalities | text, vision | text, vision |
| Open weights | Yes | Yes |
Cost is a tier, not a quote — providers change prices often. Check Meta and Alibaba before you commit. Last updated 2026-08-14.
Which one to pick
LlamaMeta
Running locally or self-hosting — private, free to run, no vendor lock-in
Reach for it when- Maximum tooling and community support
- Existing fine-tunes you want to build on
QwenAlibaba
A strong open model for local use, especially good at coding for its size
Reach for it when- Better coding for the same model size
- Multilingual output