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Curriculum › LM Studio course › lmstudio-01
Session 1 easy

Chat locally & compare models side by side

USE 0 - 20 min

Ask three models the same question and watch them disagree

One of LM Studio's most useful features is loading several models at the same time and sending the same prompt to all of them at once. For researchers this is genuinely powerful: you can test how different models handle a sensitive or technical question before committing to one. Everything stays offline — the comparison runs entirely on your machine.

  1. 1 Make sure you have at least two models downloaded (from lesson 00). If not, go to Discover and grab a second one now — a different family works best for comparison (e.g. Llama vs Qwen).
  2. 2 Open the Chat tab and click the model selector at the top. Look for a multi-model or side-by-side option (in LM Studio 0.3+ this is the 'Multi-model chat' or 'Compare' button next to the model dropdown). Enable it and add your second model.
  3. 3 Type a prompt relevant to your research — for example: I have 12 RNA-seq samples across 3 conditions. What statistical approach should I use to find differentially expressed genes, and what are the main pitfalls?
  4. 4 Send the prompt and read both responses side by side. Note where they agree, where they differ, and which is more precise.
  5. 5 Try a second prompt that involves private or unpublished data — for instance a summary of a draft methods section. Notice that nothing leaves your machine regardless of what you paste in.
✓

You have two model responses to the same prompt open side by side, and you can state one concrete difference between them.

BUILD 20 - 30 min

Build a two-model verdict for a real research question

Run a genuine question from your current work through both models and produce a short comparison note — the kind you might share with a lab-mate before choosing a tool.

Your task

Pick a real question from your research (a methods choice, a literature gap, an analysis approach). Ask both models. Write two sentences summarising which you would trust more and why.

  1. 1 Choose a question you actually need an answer to — not a toy example.
  2. 2 Send it to both models simultaneously.
  3. 3 For each response, mark one strength and one weakness.
  4. 4 Write your two-sentence verdict: model A vs model B, and which you would use for this task.
Deliverable

The prompt you used, both responses (screenshot or paste), and your two-sentence verdict.