Twelve models worth knowing in 2026, each with one standout strength. 1. Llama 4 Scout: Meta's first natively multimodal open-weight model. 2. DeepSeek V4: A Mi... (opens in new tab)

Twelve models worth knowing in 2026, each with one standout strength. 1. Llama 4 Scout: Meta's first natively multimodal open-weight model.2. DeepSeek V4: A Mixture-of-Experts model under MIT license with a native million-token context window. Near-frontier performance at a fraction of the cost per token.3. Qwen3: Alibaba's flagship open-weight model with switchable thinking and non-thinking modes, all under Apache 2.0.4. Gemma 4: Google's open-weight family released under Apache 2.0, with th...