Open source alternatives to Falcon H1R 7B

Gemma 4 is listed first. Choose Gemma 4 when you want a hosted API as well as local weights; Google serves it free on the Gemini API, though those prompts help improve Google's products.

Yes. The code of all 3 is public under Apache 2.0, so you can use them with no licence fee. Running one yourself costs the server and your time to look after it, and some makers also sell a hosted plan.

Start from the job you use Falcon H1R 7B for. Choose Qwen3.5 Small when you need image or video input or thinking you can switch off; the 9B model has the same 256K context under Apache 2.0. Choose Olmo 3 when you want a 7B reasoning model under plain Apache 2.0 with its training data and code published, and can accept lower maths scores (64.6% on AIME 2025 by Ai2's count).

All 3: Gemma 4, Olmo 3 and Qwen3.5 Small. Each tool's page says what it needs to run.

Apache 2.0 (3). MIT, BSD and Apache let you change and reuse the code freely.

The hosting. Falcon H1R 7B's maker runs the servers for you; with an open source tool the updates, backups, security fixes and support are yours, unless you take the maker's hosted plan. Features differ too, so check what each one imports and exports before you move your data.