Monthly Competition — Open To Everyone

Model Golf

Build the best language model under 100 million parameters. Minimum 1028-token context. Winner receives $50 in RunPod credits. Open source only. Monthly rounds.

<100M
Parameter Limit
Strict upper bound
1028+
Context Window
Minimum tokens
$50
RunPod Credits
Monthly prize
30d
Competition Cycle
Monthly rounds

What It Is

What Model Golf Is

  • A monthly parameter-efficiency competition
  • Open to anyone, anywhere
  • Fully custom architectures allowed
  • Novel tokenization & training schemes welcome
  • Open source by design
  • $50 RunPod credits to the winner

What It Is Not

  • Not a Kaggle-style dataset contest
  • Not restricted to existing architectures
  • Not limited by llama.cpp compatibility
  • Not a fixed-benchmark leaderboard
  • Not for closed-source submissions

The Rules

Simple and clear. Complexity discourages participation.

License MIT, GPL, Apache, or AGPL (any version)
Parameters Must be smaller than 100 million
Context Minimum 1028 tokens
Platform No requirement for llama.cpp compatibility
AI Assistance Up to 45% of work can be AI-generated
Submission Open source repository with documentation
# Simple. Clear. Enforceable.

How To Join

The first competition launches soon. Here is how it will work.

1

Build

Create a language model under 100M parameters with at least 1028-token context. Any architecture. Any approach.

2

Document

Open source your repository with full documentation. Include parameter count, context window, and approach summary.

3

Submit

Submit your repo link when the competition opens. Submissions are evaluated monthly. Winner gets $50 in RunPod credits.

Why Small Models?

Parameter efficiency is the path to democratized AI.

Small models run on consumer hardware. They deploy at the edge. Individuals can fine-tune them on a single GPU. Model Golf rewards architectural creativity within tight constraints, making efficiency competitive.

The $50 prize is symbolic — enough to cover GPU time, enough to motivate enthusiasts, not enough to attract mercenaries. Enthusiasts build interesting things. Interesting things advance the field.

Ready To Compete?

The first Model Golf competition launches soon. Join the Discord for updates.