# Needle 26M

6 Hacker News commenters recommended Needle 26M and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a small model for agentic tool calling on on-device systems. Critics report inconsistent results, CPU errors, and invented details.

## Why people recommend it

- Praised as excellent, needed work (2 comments): "Smaller tool calling models are absolutely needed when we are trying to apply agentic workflow to on-device, small systems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48131437)) "This is some excellent work Henry!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48115334))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Needle2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/needle2.md): 51 recommend
- [FunctionGemma](https://hackerapproved.com/p/functiongemma-270m.md): 11 recommend
- [Cactus Needle 3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cactus-needle-3.md): 10 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Needle 26M", https://hackerapproved.com/p/needle-26m-tool-calling-model/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).