---
author: "Umesh Malik"
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description: "Explore articles tagged with Reinforcement Learning by Umesh Malik — AI Engineer, LLM & GenAI Developer. Learn Reinforcement Learning best practices, practical tips, and in-depth guides."
title: "Umesh Malik's Blog - Reinforcement Learning Articles | Reinforcement Learning Tutorials"
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# Reinforcement Learning

1 article

 [![Reinforcement fine-tuning: a 4B open model matching a frontier LLM on retrieval at a fraction of the cost](https://umesh-malik.com/blog/reinforcement-fine-tuning-small-models-retrieval-cover.png)

LLM Engineering • Aug 6, 2026

### Reinforcement Fine-Tuning: When a 4B Model Beats GPT-5.6

Reinforcement fine-tuning let a 4B open model match GPT-5.6 Sol on retrieval at 100x lower cost. How RFT works, and when it beats prompting a frontier LLM.

10 min read

Read more →](https://umesh-malik.com/blog/reinforcement-fine-tuning-small-models-retrieval)