What GPU do I need to run meta-llama/Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct?
3.2B parameters, published in BF16. View on Hugging FaceGated
Set up Llama-3.2-3B-InstructLlama-3.2-3B-Instruct is published by meta-llama on Hugging Face, with 1,420,819 downloads and 2,491 likes to date. It's a LlamaForCausalLM 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.
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 Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct at its published (BF16) precision: 1× RTX 3070 on simplepod, at $0.050/hr per GPU ($0.050/hr total). Quantizing to FP8 or INT4 (rows above) can cost less, but requires a compatible quantized checkpoint to exist for this model.
Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct: common questions
Does Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct fit on a 8 GB GPU?
Yes. At BF16 it needs 7.2 GB of VRAM, so an 8 GB card holds it with 0.8 GB to spare. A 6 GB card is not enough for it at BF16.
Do I need approval to download Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct?
Yes. meta-llama 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 7.2 GB the model needs once you have them.
What is the least VRAM Llama-3.2-3B-Instruct can run in?
1.8 GB, at INT4 (quantized), which fits a 6 GB card, against 7.2 GB at BF16. That row assumes an INT4 checkpoint has actually been published for this model, so check its Hugging Face page before planning around it.
Weight-to-VRAM math, the fit rules, and how live prices are normalized: full methodology.
More meta-llama models
- Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct (1.2B, BF16)
- Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (8.0B, BF16)
- Meta-Llama-3-8B-Instruct (8.0B, BF16)
- Llama-3.2-1B (1.2B, BF16)
- Llama-2-7b-hf (6.7B, F16)
- Meta-Llama-3-8B (8.0B, BF16)
