Open weights

Open weights means the model’s weights are published and anyone can download and run them — locally or on their own servers.

It’s the model-world’s version of open source, with one asterisk:

• Open weights ≠ open license. Some “open” models ban commercial use or resale. Always check the license.
• Open weights ≠ open data. The training data is usually not published.

You’ll meet this as you explore local models — Llama, Mistral, and Qwen all ship open weights.