What GPU do I need to run google/gemma-3-270m?
268M parameters, published in BF16. View on Hugging FaceGated
Set up gemma-3-270mgemma-3-270m is published by google on Hugging Face, with 1,413,415 downloads and 1,080 likes to date. It's a Gemma3ForCausalLM model built for text-generation, published natively in BF16, and gated: you'll need to accept the model's terms on Hugging Face before downloading weights.
VRAM required & cheapest live GPU fit
Required VRAM = weight size at each precision, plus a fixed overhead for KV-cache, activations, and fragmentation. Full formula and assumptions: methodology.
| Precision | Weight size | Required VRAM | Cheapest live fit | GPUs needed | Est. $/hr (full fit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BF16 | 0.5 GB | 0.6 GB | RTX 5060 Ti | 1 | $0.110/hr |
| FP8 (quantized) | 0.2 GB | 0.3 GB | RTX 5060 Ti | 1 | $0.110/hr |
| INT4 (quantized) | 0.1 GB | 0.1 GB | RTX 5060 Ti | 1 | $0.110/hr |
A GPU is only matched to a row if its hardware supports that precision, and the primary recommendation is always a single-GPU fit when one exists.
INT4 requires a quantized checkpoint actually published for this model, check its Hugging Face page before relying on this row.
Cheapest way to run gemma-3-270m at its published (BF16) precision: 1× RTX 5060 Ti, at $0.110/hr per GPU ($0.110/hr total). Quantizing to FP8 or INT4 (rows above) can cost less, but requires a compatible quantized checkpoint to exist for this model.
gemma-3-270m: common questions
How much VRAM does gemma-3-270m need?
0.6 GB at BF16, 0.3 GB at FP8 (quantized), 0.1 GB at INT4 (quantized). All of those sit under 6 GB, the smallest capacity this page reasons about, so VRAM is not what limits where this model runs. The 0.5 GB of weights plus inference overhead is the whole requirement.
Do I need approval to download gemma-3-270m?
Yes. google gates this repository on Hugging Face, so you have to accept its terms with a signed-in account before the weights will download. It does not change the 0.6 GB the model needs once you have them.
How many copies of gemma-3-270m fit on one RTX 5060 Ti?
26, by VRAM alone. That card carries 16.0 GB and one copy needs 0.6 GB at BF16, on a live rate of $0.110/hr for the whole card. Throughput is not modelled here, so 26 copies is not 26 times the requests served.
Weight-to-VRAM math, the fit rules, and how live prices are normalized: full methodology.
More Gemma 3 models
- gemma-3-270m-it (268M, BF16)
- gemma-3-270m-it (268M, BF16)
- gemma-3-1b-it (1000M, BF16)
- gemma-3-1b-it (1000M, BF16)
- gemma-3-1b-pt (1000M, BF16)
Related reading: H100 pricing and specs, The best GPUs for AI, ranked, and Best GPU for LLM inference.
