Fine-Tuning Open-Source LLMs for Text-to-SQL: Results and Key Takeaways (article 3 of 3)
Last Updated on August 28, 2025 by Editorial Team
Author(s): Lorentz Yeung
Originally published on Towards AI.
Fine-Tuning Open-Source LLMs for Text-to-SQL: Results and Key Takeaways (article 3 of 3)
In my text-to-SQL fine-tuning project, I tried to push open-source LLMs like Llama 3.1 8B Instruct and Qwen 2.5 series to their limits using GRPO.
The article details the author’s extensive testing of open-source language models for text-to-SQL tasks, highlighting a significant focus on executing complex SQL queries while documenting successes and failures over a rigorous three-month period. It emphasizes the need for better training methodologies and additional resources to improve model performance, particularly on hard queries. The author aspires to provide insights that will aid others in successfully fine-tuning these models while avoiding common pitfalls.
Read the full blog for free on Medium.
Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming a sponsor.
Published via Towards AI
Take our 90+ lesson From Beginner to Advanced LLM Developer Certification: From choosing a project to deploying a working product this is the most comprehensive and practical LLM course out there!
Towards AI has published Building LLMs for Production—our 470+ page guide to mastering LLMs with practical projects and expert insights!

Discover Your Dream AI Career at Towards AI Jobs
Towards AI has built a jobs board tailored specifically to Machine Learning and Data Science Jobs and Skills. Our software searches for live AI jobs each hour, labels and categorises them and makes them easily searchable. Explore over 40,000 live jobs today with Towards AI Jobs!
Note: Content contains the views of the contributing authors and not Towards AI.