--- title: I tested every tiny local LLM worth running, and only... description: A hands-on comparison of sub-4B local LLMs that actually deliver practical value on modest hardware. Three models made the cut: Google's Gemma 4 E2B (warm... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-every-tiny-local-llm-worth-running-and-only-three-survived-the-cut-ldlh8vwq9 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: I tested every tiny local LLM worth running, and only three survived the cut | daily.dev og:description: A hands-on comparison of sub-4B local LLMs that actually deliver practical value on modest hardware. Three models made the cut: Google's Gemma 4 E2B (warm... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-every-tiny-local-llm-worth-running-and-only-three-survived-the-cut-ldlh8vwq9 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/LDLh8VwQ9.png og:image:alt: I tested every tiny local LLM worth running, and only three survived the cut og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # I tested every tiny local LLM worth running, and only three survived the cut **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on comparison of sub-4B local LLMs that actually deliver practical value on modest hardware. Three models made the cut: Google's Gemma 4 E2B (warm personality, great for phones and Chromebooks), Qwen 3.5 2B/4B (natively multimodal, 201 languages, sharper on reasoning and structured tasks), and Qwen 2.5 Coder 3B Instruct (older but uniquely useful for code-adjacent formats like YAML, JSON, and Docker configs even for non-coders). The key takeaway is that small models have genuinely caught up and no longer require high-end hardware to be useful. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [I tested 3 tiny local LLMs for everyday work, and only one of them impressed me](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-3-tiny-local-llms-for-everyday-work-and-only-one-of-them-impressed-me-nr7umin3k) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Top 7 Small Language Models You Can Run on a Laptop](https://daily.dev/posts/top-7-small-language-models-you-can-run-on-a-laptop-uggt1hdi5) · Machine Learning Mastery · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [I stopped running the biggest local LLM that could fit, and a 2B model handles 90% of what I need](https://daily.dev/posts/i-stopped-running-the-biggest-local-llm-that-could-fit-and-a-2b-model-handles-90-of-what-i-need-1gilr9fq4) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Running local models on an M4 with 24GB memory](https://daily.dev/posts/running-local-models-on-an-m4-with-24gb-memory-iezpeho6j) · Hacker News · 4 upvotes · 0 comments - [Experiences with local models for coding](https://daily.dev/posts/experiences-with-local-models-for-coding-jggvqgz1l) · Martin Fowler · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#local-ai](https://daily.dev/tags/local-ai), [#gemma](https://daily.dev/tags/gemma), [#qwen](https://daily.dev/tags/qwen) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-every-tiny-local-llm-worth-running-and-only-three-survived-the-cut-ldlh8vwq9) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"I tested every tiny local LLM worth running, and only three survived the cut","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-every-tiny-local-llm-worth-running-and-only-three-survived-the-cut-ldlh8vwq9","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-every-tiny-local-llm-worth-running-and-only-three-survived-the-cut-ldlh8vwq9"},"datePublished":"2026-07-20T11:32:53.475Z","dateModified":"2026-07-20T11:33:23.494Z","description":"A hands-on comparison of sub-4B local LLMs that actually deliver practical value on modest hardware. Three models made the cut: Google's Gemma 4 E2B (warm...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/09dc2d3eed98cdb4d81bc07e584e5b2e?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/09dc2d3eed98cdb4d81bc07e584e5b2e?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"XDA Developers","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"XDA Developers","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kCg6yyAP--/f_auto,q_auto/v1774964407/logos/xda-developers?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/i-tested-every-tiny-local-llm-worth-running-and-only-three-survived-the-cut-ldlh8vwq9","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"local-ai,gemma,qwen","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"XDA Developers","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"I tested every tiny local LLM worth running, and only three survived the cut"}]} ```