Small language model (SLM)

A compact language model, often a few billion parameters, that is cheap and fast enough to run on a laptop, phone or modest server.

Small models like Ministral 3 3B trade some capability for speed, low cost and privacy. They are well suited to classification, extraction and on-device features.

All terms

In other languages

Petit modèle de langage (SLM) Français
النموذج اللغوي الصغير العربية

Related terms

Large language model (LLM)A neural network trained on very large amounts of text to predict the next token, which lets it write, answer questions, summarise, translate and code.
On-device (edge) AIRunning models directly on phones, laptops or other devices rather than in the cloud.
DistillationTraining a smaller 'student' model to imitate a larger 'teacher' model, keeping much of its ability at a fraction of the cost.

Frequently asked questions

What does Small language model (SLM) mean?

A compact language model, often a few billion parameters, that is cheap and fast enough to run on a laptop, phone or modest server. Small models like Ministral 3 3B trade some capability for speed, low cost and privacy. They are well suited to classification, extraction and on-device features.