google · vision language · mixture of experts

gemma-4-26B-A4B-it

google/gemma-4-26B-A4B-it

gemma-4-26B-A4B-it at Q4_K_M is exactly 17,035,039,872 bytes (15.87 GiB / 17.04 GB) — an effective 5.134 bits per weight, not the nominal 4. Its KV cache at 32K is 1.54 GiB, not the 7.50 GiB a flat formula predicts.

From the file· summed from 1 file(s)From the file· KV per layer
Parameters
26.5B
total, not active
Architecture
gemma4
30 layers
Context
262,144
native (config.json)
License
apache-2.0

Shipped quantizations

exact bytes, summed from published files
QuantSizeExact bytesEffective bpwTensorsPublisher
IQ2_XXS8.99 GiB9,656,496,1282.910bartowski
UD-IQ2_XXS9.24 GiB9,922,480,6082.990unsloth
UD-IQ2_M9.33 GiB10,014,755,2963.018unsloth
IQ2_XS9.43 GiB10,126,649,8563.052bartowski
IQ2_S9.53 GiB10,230,468,7363.083bartowski
IQ2_M9.97 GiB10,700,622,4643.225bartowski
Q2_K10.20 GiB10,951,927,9363.301bartowski
Q2_K_L10.37 GiB11,130,710,1443.355bartowski
UD-IQ3_S10.51 GiB11,289,671,1363.402unsloth
UD-IQ3_XXS10.63 GiB11,416,548,8323.441unsloth
IQ3_XXS11.33 GiB12,160,200,3203.665bartowski
IQ3_XS11.58 GiB12,437,322,8803.748bartowski
Q3_K_S11.69 GiB12,553,235,0723.783bartowski
UD-Q3_K_M11.85 GiB12,728,497,8883.836unsloth
Q3_K_M12.13 GiB13,019,981,4403.924658bartowski
Q3_K_L12.29 GiB13,199,180,4163.978bartowski
IQ3_M12.37 GiB13,280,213,6324.003bartowski
UD-IQ4_XS12.66 GiB13,597,177,5684.098unsloth
UD-IQ4_NL12.68 GiB13,613,037,2804.103unsloth
IQ4_XS13.23 GiB14,205,004,9284.281658bartowski
IQ4_NL13.69 GiB14,697,714,8164.430bartowski
Q4_02 shards13.85 GiB14,870,085,3444.482ggml-org
Q4_02 shards14.04 GiB15,080,530,5604.545bartowski
Q4_K_S14.76 GiB15,844,288,6404.775bartowski
Q4_115.04 GiB16,144,845,9524.866bartowski
UD-Q4_K_S15.36 GiB16,487,610,0804.969unsloth
UD-Q4_K_M15.78 GiB16,947,541,7285.108unsloth
Q4_K_M15.87 GiB17,035,039,8725.134658bartowski
Q4_K_L16.03 GiB17,213,822,0805.188bartowski
Q5_K_S16.88 GiB18,129,382,5285.464bartowski
UD-Q5_K_S17.56 GiB18,850,707,1685.681unsloth
Q5_K_M17.99 GiB19,319,198,8485.822658bartowski
Q5_K_L18.16 GiB19,497,981,0565.876bartowski
UD-Q5_K_M19.70 GiB21,150,365,4086.374unsloth
Q6_K21.29 GiB22,862,577,2806.890658bartowski
Q6_K_L21.46 GiB23,041,359,4886.944bartowski
UD-Q6_K21.58 GiB23,172,478,6886.984unsloth
Q8_025.02 GiB26,859,861,7288.095658unsloth
Q8_02 shards25.45 GiB27,321,646,7208.234bartowski
Q8_03 shards25.89 GiB27,794,061,6008.377ggml-org

KV cache by context

computed per layer — this model uses sliding-window attention
ContextKV cache (f16)Flat formulaOverstated byFull / windowed / recurrent
4,0960.45 GiB0.94 GiB2.09×5 / 25 / 0
8,1920.61 GiB1.88 GiB3.10×5 / 25 / 0
16,3840.92 GiB3.75 GiB4.09×5 / 25 / 0
32,7681.54 GiB7.50 GiB4.86×5 / 25 / 0
65,5362.79 GiB15.00 GiB5.37×5 / 25 / 0
131,0725.29 GiB30.00 GiB5.67×5 / 25 / 0

25 of 30 layers cache only a 1,024-token window rather than the full context, on a period of . Figures assume the default configuration; --swa-full disables the saving entirely.

Compare with

same modality, comparable size

Will it run on your card?

full quant x context sweep

Why other calculators give a different number

A parameters × bits ÷ 8 estimate puts Q4_K_M at roughly 13.91 GiB. The real file is 15.87 GiB, because a quantization is a mixture and some tensors are always kept at higher precision. The larger discrepancy is the cache: a flat formula gives 7.50 GiB at 32K context where the real figure is 1.54 GiB, because most of this model's layers cache a fixed window rather than the whole context.

Architecture

from config.json
Layers
30
Attention heads
16
KV heads
8
Head dim
256
Hidden size
2816
Vocab
262,144
Sliding window
1024
SWA period
MLA
no
Experts
128
Experts per token
use_sliding_window

Questions people ask

How much VRAM does gemma-4-26B-A4B-it need?
Q4_K_M is exactly 17,035,039,872 bytes (15.87 GiB) in weights. Add the KV cache, which depends on your context length, plus roughly half a gigabyte of runtime overhead.
How large is gemma-4-26B-A4B-it's KV cache?
1.54 GiB at 32K context with an f16 cache, computed per layer. Quantizing the cache to q8_0 roughly halves it, which is often the difference between a context length fitting and not.
Is gemma-4-26B-A4B-it a mixture-of-experts model?
Yes — 128 experts, null routed per token. Every expert must be resident, but only the routed ones are read per token, which is why its memory requirement and its speed behave very differently.
Which quantization of gemma-4-26B-A4B-it should I use?
Q4_K_M is the usual default. Pick the largest quantization that fits your card at the context you actually need — the table above gives exact sizes for every one published.