Can you run Kimi K3 locally?
Kimi family · Jun 2026 · 2.78T parameters · Hugging Face model card
Kimi K3 is a mixture-of-experts model released with open weights on Hugging Face: 2779.93B total parameters, a 1,048,576-token context window, other license. Running it locally needs roughly 2,048 GB of memory at Q4-class quantization (calculated) — multi-GPU server or large-unified-memory territory. Measured local speeds: not yet published here; we list unknowns as unknowns.
Minimum: 2,048 GB+ memory (Q4-class, calculated) · Recommended: 2,048 GB+ for comfortable context headroom (Q4-class, calculated)
How much VRAM does Kimi K3 need at each quantization?
Kimi K3 needs 1,834.8 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M. The table below lists weights-only size and total VRAM including overhead for each common quantization level with 4k and 32k token contexts.
| Quantization | Bits / weight | Weights only | Total + KV @4k ctx | Total + KV @32k ctx |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 4.8 | 1,668.0 GB | 1,834.8 GB | 1,834.8 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 5.7 | 1,980.7 GB | 2,178.8 GB | 2,178.8 GB |
| Q6_K | 6.6 | 2,293.4 GB | 2,522.8 GB | 2,522.8 GB |
| Q8_0 | 8.5 | 2,953.7 GB | 3,249.1 GB | 3,249.1 GB |
| FP16 | 16 | 5,559.9 GB | 6,115.9 GB | 6,115.9 GB |
Method: weights = parameters × bits-per-weight (Q4_K_M ≈ 4.8, Q5_K_M ≈ 5.7, Q6_K ≈ 6.6, Q8_0 ≈ 8.5, FP16 = 16), plus 10% loading overhead, plus KV cache from the verified architecture config (not applicable to this architecture). Source: HF-verified 2026-09-12 via api (repo safetensors + config.json); VRAM figures are documented calculations, not measurements
Which GPUs can run Kimi K3 locally?
At Q4_K_M with a 4k context, Kimi K3 needs 1,834.8 GB of VRAM. The lists below are computed live from our GPU database and grouped by how much headroom the card has. Disclosure: CompareAIHardware.com participates in the Amazon Associates program and earns from qualifying purchases through links on this page. Affiliate relationships do not influence our recommendations.
No single consumer GPU in our database runs Kimi K3 at Q4_K_M. The 1,834.8 GB requirement exceeds every listed consumer card; see the Mac and data center options above and below.