Qwen · vision language

Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct

Qwen/Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct

Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct at Q4_K_M is exactly 1,107,409,952 bytes (1.03 GiB / 1.11 GB) — an effective 4.164 bits per weight, not the nominal 4. Its KV cache at 32K is 3.50 GiB.

From the file· summed from 1 file(s)From the file· KV per layer
Parameters
2.1B
Architecture
qwen3vl
28 layers
Context
262,144
native (config.json)
License
apache-2.0

Shipped quantizations

● exact bytes, summed from published files
QuantSize●Exact bytes●Effective bpw●Tensors●Publisher
UD-IQ1_S0.50 GiB537,831,1042.022—unsloth
UD-IQ1_M0.52 GiB561,948,3522.113—unsloth
UD-IQ2_XXS0.56 GiB605,791,9362.278—unsloth
IQ2_M0.65 GiB695,182,6562.614—bartowski
UD-IQ2_M0.66 GiB708,716,2242.665—unsloth
IQ3_XXS0.70 GiB754,361,6642.837—bartowski
UD-IQ3_XXS0.71 GiB765,175,4882.877—unsloth
Q2_K0.72 GiB777,796,9282.925—bartowski
Q2_K_L0.72 GiB777,797,3122.925—unsloth
Q2_K0.72 GiB777,797,3122.925—unsloth
IQ3_XS0.78 GiB834,223,4243.137—bartowski
Q2_K_L0.79 GiB853,157,1843.208—bartowski
Q3_K_S0.81 GiB867,253,5683.261—bartowski
Q3_K_S0.81 GiB867,253,9523.261—unsloth
IQ3_M0.83 GiB895,663,4243.368—bartowski
Q3_K_M0.88 GiB939,539,7763.533310bartowski
Q3_K_M0.88 GiB939,540,1603.533—unsloth
Q3_K_L0.93 GiB1,003,502,9123.773—bartowski
IQ4_XS0.94 GiB1,010,384,1923.799310bartowski
IQ4_XS0.94 GiB1,010,384,5763.799310unsloth
IQ4_NL0.98 GiB1,054,424,3843.965—bartowski
IQ4_NL0.98 GiB1,054,424,7683.965—unsloth
Q4_00.98 GiB1,056,783,6803.974310bartowski
Q4_00.98 GiB1,056,784,0643.974—unsloth
Q4_K_S0.99 GiB1,060,191,5523.987—bartowski
Q4_K_S0.99 GiB1,060,191,9363.987—unsloth
Q4_K_M1.03 GiB1,107,409,9524.164310Qwen
Q4_K_M1.03 GiB1,107,410,2404.164310bartowski
Q4_K_M1.03 GiB1,107,410,6244.164—unsloth
Q4_11.06 GiB1,142,504,7684.296—bartowski
Q4_11.06 GiB1,142,505,1524.296—unsloth
Q4_K_L1.10 GiB1,182,770,4964.447—bartowski
Q5_K_S1.15 GiB1,230,585,1524.627—bartowski
Q5_K_S1.15 GiB1,230,585,5364.627—unsloth
Q5_K_M1.17 GiB1,257,880,8964.730310bartowski
Q5_K_M1.17 GiB1,257,881,2804.730310unsloth
Q5_K_L1.24 GiB1,333,241,1525.013—bartowski
Q6_K1.32 GiB1,417,755,9685.331310bartowski
Q6_K1.32 GiB1,417,756,3525.331310unsloth
Q6_K_L1.39 GiB1,493,116,2245.614—bartowski

KV cache by context

computed per layer
ContextKV cache (f16)●Flat formulaOverstated byFull / windowed / recurrent
4,0960.44 GiB0.44 GiB—28 / 0 / 0
8,1920.88 GiB0.88 GiB—28 / 0 / 0
16,3841.75 GiB1.75 GiB—28 / 0 / 0
32,7683.50 GiB3.50 GiB—28 / 0 / 0
65,5367.00 GiB7.00 GiB—28 / 0 / 0
131,07214.00 GiB14.00 GiB—28 / 0 / 0

Compare with

same modality, comparable size
vs Qwen3.5-0.8Bvs Qwen3-VL-4B-Instructvs Qwen3.5-2Bvs LFM2.5-VL-1.6Bvs Unlimited-OCRvs MiniCPM-V-4.6All alternatives →Will it fit on my card? →

Will it run on your card?

full quant x context sweep
By VRAM:8GB12GB16GB24GB32GB48GB
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 Q4_K_M at roughly 1.11 GiB. The real file is 1.03 GiB, because a quantization is a mixture and some tensors are always kept at higher precision.

Architecture

from config.json
Layers
28
Attention heads
16
KV heads
8
Head dim
128
Hidden size
2048
Vocab
151,936
Sliding window
none
SWA period
—
MLA
no
Experts
—
Experts per token
—
use_sliding_window
—

Questions people ask

How much VRAM does Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct need?
Q4_K_M is exactly 1,107,409,952 bytes (1.03 GiB) in weights. Add the KV cache, which depends on your context length, plus roughly half a gigabyte of runtime overhead.
How large is Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct's KV cache?
3.50 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.
Which quantization of Qwen3-VL-2B-Instruct 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.