Best Open Source LLMs (2026)
Top open-source and open-weight large language models that can be self-hosted or accessed through third-party providers at competitive prices.
Why Llama 4 Maverick is Best for Open Source LLMs
Llama 4 Maverick leads our open-source rankings by combining near-frontier performance with fully open weights. It can be self-hosted for data privacy or accessed through third-party providers at a fraction of proprietary model costs. The open ecosystem means fine-tuning, quantization, and custom deployments are all possible, making it the most versatile option for teams that need control over their AI infrastructure.
Cost Estimate
For a typical open-source deployment (~100M tokens/month via API, 60% input / 40% output), the cheapest qualifying model (Phi-4) costs approximately $9.80/month. The most capable model may cost more but delivers higher quality results.
Price vs Quality for Open Source LLMs
Top 5 Models Compared
| Rank | Model | Provider | Input $/M | Output $/M | Arena ELO | Speed (tok/s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Llama 4 Maverick | Meta | $0.200 | $0.696 | 1290 | 90 |
| #2 | Llama 4 Scout | Meta | $0.100 | $0.300 | 1250 | 110 |
| #3 | DeepSeek V3 | DeepSeek | $0.269 | $0.400 | 1358 | 85 |
| #4 | DeepSeek R1 | DeepSeek | $0.500 | $2.15 | 1398 | 45 |
| #5 | Qwen 2.5 Max | Alibaba | $0.160 | $0.640 | 1374 | 80 |