mixedbread-ai · embedding
mxbai-embed-xsmall-v1
mixedbread-ai/mxbai-embed-xsmall-v1mxbai-embed-xsmall-v1 at Q8_0 is exactly 30,784,160 bytes (0.03 GiB / 0.03 GB) — an effective 10.223 bits per weight, not the nominal 8.
From the file· summed from 1 file(s)From the file· KV per layer
Parameters
24M
Architecture
bert
6 layers
Context
4,096
native (config.json)
License
apache-2.0
Shipped quantizations
● exact bytes, summed from published files
| Quant | Size● | Exact bytes● | Effective bpw● | Tensors● | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q8_0 | 0.03 GiB | 30,784,160 | 10.223 | — | mixedbread-ai |
| BF16 | 0.05 GiB | 51,725,344 | 17.178 | — | mixedbread-ai |
| F16 | 0.05 GiB | 51,725,344 | 17.178 | — | mixedbread-ai |
| F32 | 0.09 GiB | 96,399,904 | 32.014 | — | mixedbread-ai |
No KV cache
architectural, not a gap in our data
This architecture allocates no KV cache. Encoder and embedding models process their input in one pass rather than generating token by token, so there is nothing to carry forward between steps and memory does not grow with context. Its footprint is the weights plus a working buffer, and that is the whole story.
Compare with
same modality, comparable size
Will it run on your card?
full quant x context sweep
Radeon RX 6500 XT 4GBGeForce RTX 3050 6GBGeForce RTX 5050 8GBGeForce RTX 3080 10GBGeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GBGeForce RTX 5070 12GBGeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GBApple M3 Pro 18GBGeForce RTX 3080 Ti 20GBGeForce RTX 5090 D V2 24GBGeForce RTX 5090 D 32GBApple M5 Max 36GBApple M5 Pro 48GBApple M5 Max 64GBApple M3 Ultra 96GBApple M5 Max 128GBApple M2 Ultra 192GBApple M3 Ultra 256GBApple M3 Ultra 512GB
Why other calculators give a different number
A parameters × bits ÷ 8 estimate puts Q8_0 at roughly 0.01 GiB. The real file is 0.03 GiB, because a quantization is a mixture and some tensors are always kept at higher precision.
Architecture
from config.json
Layers
6
Attention heads
12
KV heads
12
Head dim
32
Hidden size
384
Vocab
30,522
Sliding window
none
SWA period
—
MLA
no
Experts
—
Experts per token
—
use_sliding_window
—
Questions people ask
- How much VRAM does mxbai-embed-xsmall-v1 need?
- Q8_0 is exactly 30,784,160 bytes (0.03 GiB) in weights. Add the KV cache, which depends on your context length, plus roughly half a gigabyte of runtime overhead.
- Which quantization of mxbai-embed-xsmall-v1 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.