Fara-7B: An efficient agentic small language model for computer use

Pushing the frontiers of computer-use agents with an open-weight, ultra-compact model, optimized for real-world web tasks

In 2024, Microsoft introduced small language models (SLMs) to customers, starting with the release of Phi (opens in new tab) models on Microsoft Foundry (opens in new tab), as well as deploying Phi Silica (opens in new tab) on Copilot+ PCs powered by Windows 11. Today, we are pleased to announce Fara-7B, our first agentic SLM designed specifically for computer use.

Unlike traditional chat models that generate text-based responses, Computer Use Agent (CUA) models like Fara-7B leverage computer interfaces, such as a mouse and keyboard, to complete tasks on behalf of users. With only 7 billion parameters, Fara-7B achieves state-of-the-art performance within its size class and is competitive with larger, more resource-intensive agentic systems that depend on prompting multiple large models. Fara-7B’s small size now makes it…