Pick Muse Glimmer for runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit or open weights (apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine. Pick North Mini Code for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks or efficient sparse moe — 3b active of 30b, runs on a single h100.
Muse Glimmer (Meta) and North Mini Code (Cohere) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Muse Glimmer is meta's open ~30B agentic model - runs tool-using AI agents locally on a single consumer GPU, offline and free, though it trails frontier cloud models. North Mini Code is cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100. Their biggest split is context window, and the breakdown below shows exactly how that plays out for your workload.
Key differences
Context window: North Mini Code holds 2× more — 256K (~384 pages) vs 128K (~197 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
Recency: Muse Glimmer is the newer model by about 2 months (released August 10, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Specifications
Spec
Muse Glimmer
North Mini Code
Provider
Meta (US)
Cohere (Global)
Released
August 10, 2026
June 9, 2026
Context window
128K (~197 pages)
256K (~384 pages)
Price (in/out)
Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text, image, code
text, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
67.6%
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer GPU - fits 24GB of VRAM in 4-bit: Muse Glimmer — Meta's open ~30B agentic model - runs tool-using AI agents locally on a single consumer GPU, offline and free, though it trails frontier cloud models — and it is the newer of the two.
Open weights (Apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine: Muse Glimmer — Muse Glimmer lists open weights (Apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine among its strengths; North Mini Code does not.
Agentic by design: tool use, coding, file and screenshot reading, multi-step failure recovery: Muse Glimmer — North Mini Code is comparatively weak here — text-only and coding-specialized — not multimodal or general-purpose
Agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks: North Mini Code — Cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100 — and it carries the larger 256K context.
Efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100: North Mini Code — North Mini Code lists efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100 among its strengths; Muse Glimmer does not.
High throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency: North Mini Code — North Mini Code lists high throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency among its strengths; Muse Glimmer does not.
Largest single-prompt input: North Mini Code — Its 256K window is about 2× larger than Muse Glimmer's 128K, fitting roughly 384 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases: North Mini Code — Larger 256K window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit: Muse Glimmer — It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks: North Mini Code — That is its strongest area.
Muse Glimmer: where it fits
Meta's open ~30B agentic model - runs tool-using AI agents locally on a single consumer GPU, offline and free, though it trails frontier cloud models. Released August 10, 2026 by Meta, it is built for runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer GPU - fits 24GB of VRAM in 4-bit, open weights (Apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine, agentic by design: tool use, coding, file and screenshot reading, multi-step failure recovery, and 128K context, text and image input, trained on 100+ languages.
Its trade-offs are real: a distilled ~30B model - ceiling below its closed teacher (Muse Spark) and cloud flagships, no independent Artificial Analysis intelligence score published yet, published benchmarks (e.g. SWE-Bench Verified 76.0) are Meta's own, and 4-bit quantization to fit consumer GPUs trades away some accuracy. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
North Mini Code: where it fits
Cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100. Released June 9, 2026 by Cohere, it is built for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks, efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100, high throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency, and fully open weights under Apache 2.0 with fp8 and 4-bit builds.
Its trade-offs: text-only and coding-specialized — not multimodal or general-purpose, and 256K context and modest general-intelligence index trail frontier models. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
The bottom line for this matchup
Muse Glimmer and North Mini Code overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. North Mini Code holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — Muse Glimmer for runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit, North Mini Code for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Frequently asked questions
Is Muse Glimmer or North Mini Code better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for Muse Glimmer, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Muse Glimmer leans toward runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit while North Mini Code leans toward agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Muse Glimmer or North Mini Code?
They are priced almost identically, so cost will not decide between them.
Which has the bigger context window?
North Mini Code — 256K vs 128K, about 2× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Muse Glimmer and North Mini Code together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Muse Glimmer, North Mini Code and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Muse Glimmer or North Mini Code?
Muse Glimmer — released August 10, 2026, about 2 months after North Mini Code.
Muse Glimmer vs North Mini Code
Meta · US | Cohere · Global · Updated June 2026
Quick verdict
Pick Muse Glimmer for runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit or open weights (apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine. Pick North Mini Code for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks or efficient sparse moe — 3b active of 30b, runs on a single h100.
Muse Glimmer (Meta) and North Mini Code (Cohere) are two of the models people most often weigh against each other in 2026. Muse Glimmer is meta's open ~30B agentic model - runs tool-using AI agents locally on a single consumer GPU, offline and free, though it trails frontier cloud models. North Mini Code is cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100. Their biggest split is context window, and the breakdown below shows exactly how that plays out for your workload.
Key differences at a glance
▸Context window: North Mini Code holds 2× more — 256K (~384 pages) vs 128K (~197 pages). But effective recall usually fades long before the advertised ceiling, so the bigger number only helps if the model reasons over it.
▸Recency: Muse Glimmer is the newer model by about 2 months (released August 10, 2026), usually meaning fresher training data and capabilities.
Side-by-side specs
Spec
Muse Glimmer
North Mini Code
Provider
Meta (US)
Cohere (Global)
Released
August 10, 2026
June 9, 2026
Context window
128K (~197 pages)
256K (~384 pages)
Price (in/out)
Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight (self-host / free)
Open weight?
Yes — self-hostable
Yes — self-hostable
Modalities
text, image, code
text, code
SWE-Bench Verified
Not published
67.6%
MRCR v2 @ 1M
Not published
Not published
Who wins what
Runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer GPU - fits 24GB of VRAM in 4-bit
Muse Glimmer
Meta's open ~30B agentic model - runs tool-using AI agents locally on a single consumer GPU, offline and free, though it trails frontier cloud models — and it is the newer of the two.
Open weights (Apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine
Muse Glimmer
Muse Glimmer lists open weights (Apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine among its strengths; North Mini Code does not.
Agentic by design: tool use, coding, file and screenshot reading, multi-step failure recovery
Muse Glimmer
North Mini Code is comparatively weak here — text-only and coding-specialized — not multimodal or general-purpose
Agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks
North Mini Code
Cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100 — and it carries the larger 256K context.
Efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100
North Mini Code
North Mini Code lists efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100 among its strengths; Muse Glimmer does not.
High throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency
North Mini Code
North Mini Code lists high throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency among its strengths; Muse Glimmer does not.
Largest single-prompt input
North Mini Code
Its 256K window is about 2× larger than Muse Glimmer's 128K, fitting roughly 384 pages in one prompt.
Which should you pick?
Someone analysing very long documents or codebases
→ North Mini Code
Larger 256K window fits more in one prompt.
Anyone whose priority is runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit
→ Muse Glimmer
It is specifically built for that.
Anyone whose priority is agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks
→ North Mini Code
That is its strongest area.
Muse Glimmer: where it fits
Meta's open ~30B agentic model - runs tool-using AI agents locally on a single consumer GPU, offline and free, though it trails frontier cloud models. Released August 10, 2026 by Meta, it is built for runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer GPU - fits 24GB of VRAM in 4-bit, open weights (Apache 2.0), free to self-host and offline-capable - data never leaves your machine, agentic by design: tool use, coding, file and screenshot reading, multi-step failure recovery, and 128K context, text and image input, trained on 100+ languages.
Its trade-offs are real: a distilled ~30B model - ceiling below its closed teacher (Muse Spark) and cloud flagships, no independent Artificial Analysis intelligence score published yet, published benchmarks (e.g. SWE-Bench Verified 76.0) are Meta's own, and 4-bit quantization to fit consumer GPUs trades away some accuracy. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
North Mini Code: where it fits
Cohere's first agentic coding model: an open-weight 30B/3B-active MoE built for real software-engineering and terminal tasks that runs on a single H100. Released June 9, 2026 by Cohere, it is built for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks, efficient sparse MoE — 3B active of 30B, runs on a single H100, high throughput (up to 2.8x Devstral Small 2) at low latency, and fully open weights under Apache 2.0 with fp8 and 4-bit builds.
Its trade-offs: text-only and coding-specialized — not multimodal or general-purpose, and 256K context and modest general-intelligence index trail frontier models. As an open-weight model, its running cost is your own hardware rather than a per-token fee.
The bottom line for this matchup
Muse Glimmer and North Mini Code overlap enough that the right pick depends on your specific job. North Mini Code holds the larger context; and each leads in its own area — Muse Glimmer for runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit, North Mini Code for agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks. Rather than crowning one, run the same hard task through both once and let the results decide.
Want both Muse Glimmer and North Mini Code without two subscriptions? LumiChats gives you these plus 40+ models under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day) — draft with one, cross-check with the other.
Is Muse Glimmer or North Mini Code better for coding?
Public SWE-Bench figures are not available for Muse Glimmer, so the honest test is your own repository — run an identical real bug through both. By design, Muse Glimmer leans toward runs real agentic tasks locally on one consumer gpu - fits 24gb of vram in 4-bit while North Mini Code leans toward agentic software engineering, code generation, and terminal tasks, and that positioning usually predicts which feels better on your codebase.
Which is cheaper, Muse Glimmer or North Mini Code?
They are priced almost identically, so cost will not decide between them.
Which has the bigger context window?
North Mini Code — 256K vs 128K, about 2× larger. Useful only if the model actually reasons over the full window, which not all do.
Can I use both Muse Glimmer and North Mini Code together?
Yes — a multi-model platform like LumiChats gives you Muse Glimmer, North Mini Code and 40+ others under one ₹69/day pass (about $1/day), so you can draft with one and cross-check with the other instead of buying two subscriptions.
Which is newer, Muse Glimmer or North Mini Code?
Muse Glimmer — released August 10, 2026, about 2 months after North Mini Code.
Specifications and benchmarks reflect publicly reported figures as of June 2026 and may change as providers release updates. Always verify on your own workload.