LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking vs LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

Side-by-side benchmark comparison across agentic, coding, multimodal, knowledge, reasoning, and math workflows.

Sibling matchup inside the LFM2.5 1.2B family.

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking and LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct sit in the same LFM2.5 1.2B family. This page is less about two unrelated model lineages and more about how the siblings trade off on benchmark shape, token costs, and practical limits like context window.

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking has the cleaner overall profile here, landing at 33 versus 30. It is a real lead, but still close enough that category-level strengths matter more than the headline number.

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking's sharpest advantage is in agentic, where it averages 34.1 against 25.7. The single biggest benchmark swing on the page is Terminal-Bench 2.0, 34 to 22. LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct does hit back in instruction following, so the answer changes if that is the part of the workload you care about most.

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking is the reasoning model in the pair, while LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct is not. That usually helps on harder chain-of-thought-heavy tests, but it can also mean more latency and more token spend in real use.

Quick Verdict

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking makes more sense if agentic is the priority or you want the stronger reasoning-first profile, while LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct is the cleaner fit if instruction following is the priority or you would rather avoid the extra latency and token burn of a reasoning model.

Agentic

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

34.1

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

25.7

34
Terminal-Bench 2.0
22
37
BrowseComp
31
32
OSWorld-Verified
26

Coding

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

8.2

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

7.2

17
HumanEval
14
10
SWE-bench Verified
9
9
LiveCodeBench
8
7
SWE-bench Pro
6

Multimodal & Grounded

Tie

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

32.4

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

32.4

27
MMMU-Pro
27
39
OfficeQA Pro
39

Reasoning

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

38.4

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

32.1

29
SimpleQA
24
31
MuSR
22
67
BBH
59
39
LongBench v2
34
42
MRCRv2
37

Knowledge

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

27

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

26

27
MMLU
26
26
GPQA
25
24
SuperGPQA
23
22
OpenBookQA
21
51
MMLU-Pro
50
2
HLE
1
31
FrontierScience
30

Instruction Following

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

72

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

80

72
IFEval
80

Multilingual

Tie

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

60.7

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

60.7

62
MGSM
62
60
MMLU-ProX
60

Mathematics

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking

42.3

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct

37

28
AIME 2023
24
30
AIME 2024
26
29
AIME 2025
25
24
HMMT Feb 2023
20
26
HMMT Feb 2024
22
25
HMMT Feb 2025
21
27
BRUMO 2025
23
61
MATH-500
54

Frequently Asked Questions

Which is better, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking and LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct are sibling variants in the LFM2.5 1.2B family, so the right pick depends on whether you value the better benchmark line, cheaper tokens, or the larger context window. LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking is ahead overall 33 to 30.

Which is better for knowledge tasks, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking has the edge for knowledge tasks in this comparison, averaging 27 versus 26. Inside this category, MMLU is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for coding, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking has the edge for coding in this comparison, averaging 8.2 versus 7.2. Inside this category, HumanEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for math, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking has the edge for math in this comparison, averaging 42.3 versus 37. Inside this category, MATH-500 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for reasoning, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking has the edge for reasoning in this comparison, averaging 38.4 versus 32.1. Inside this category, MuSR is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for agentic tasks, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking has the edge for agentic tasks in this comparison, averaging 34.1 versus 25.7. Inside this category, Terminal-Bench 2.0 is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multimodal and grounded tasks, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking and LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct are effectively tied for multimodal and grounded tasks here, both landing at 32.4 on average.

Which is better for instruction following, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct has the edge for instruction following in this comparison, averaging 80 versus 72. Inside this category, IFEval is the benchmark that creates the most daylight between them.

Which is better for multilingual tasks, LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking or LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct?

LFM2.5-1.2B-Thinking and LFM2.5-1.2B-Instruct are effectively tied for multilingual tasks here, both landing at 60.7 on average.

Last updated: March 12, 2026

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