MiniMax-M3 VRAM & Memory Requirements

Specific checkpoints with sourced architecture and weight files. GGUF Q4_K_M (bartowski): 244.40 GiB–249.71 GiB at 8,192 tokens, 1 sequence, FP16 KV, llama.cpp.

This result is an estimate, not a measured trace.Not verifiedFile-backed weights

Publisher and provenance

PublisherMiniMax
Hugging FaceMiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M3
Revisionf0e1c1e04d40177e4673a22097036854f536e9c0
Total parameters427,040,140,160
Active parametersUnknown / not independently sourced
Layers60
Query heads64
KV heads4 (gqa)
Head dimension128
Recorded context capability1,048,576
Completenesspartial · partial

Active parameters describe tokens' routed compute, not the full resident model weight footprint. Full-resident weight estimates use total parameters.

Memory layers in this estimate

Artifact bytes, raw KV, engine extras, and total demand are separate. This is not a runtime trace.

Weight artifact: 243.34 GiB (261,282,110,272 bytes)
Raw KV cache: 0.94 GiB (1,006,632,960 bytes)
Engine extras / workspace: 0.13 GiB–5.43 GiB
Total estimated demand: 244.40 GiB–249.71 GiB

Published artifacts

Quantization	Selected files	Bytes	Engine	Evidence
BF16 safetensors bf16 Calculator: BF16 safetensors	59 safetensors shards Total selected bytes: 869,157,697,024 (809.47 GiB / 869.16 GB) First shard: model-00001-of-00059.safetensors Last shard: model-00059-of-00059.safetensors View all 59 shard files `model-00001-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00002-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00003-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00004-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00005-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00006-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00007-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00008-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00009-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00010-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00011-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00012-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00013-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00014-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00015-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00016-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00017-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00018-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00019-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00020-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00021-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00022-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00023-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00024-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00025-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00026-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00027-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00028-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00029-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00030-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00031-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00032-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00033-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00034-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00035-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00036-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00037-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00038-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00039-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00040-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00041-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00042-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00043-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00044-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00045-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00046-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00047-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00048-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00049-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00050-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00051-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00052-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00053-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00054-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00055-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00056-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00057-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00058-of-00059.safetensors` `model-00059-of-00059.safetensors`	869,157,697,024 (809.47 GiB / 869.16 GB)	`vllm, sglang, unspecified`	`file-metadata`
GGUF Q8_0 (Unsloth) gguf-q8_0 Calculator: GGUF Q8_0 (Unsloth)	11 safetensors shards Total selected bytes: 452,714,559,392 (421.62 GiB / 452.71 GB) First shard: Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00001-of-00011.gguf Last shard: Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00011-of-00011.gguf View all 11 shard files `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00001-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00002-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00003-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00004-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00005-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00006-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00007-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00008-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00009-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00010-of-00011.gguf` `Q8_0/MiniMax-M3-Q8_0-00011-of-00011.gguf`	452,714,559,392 (421.62 GiB / 452.71 GB)	`llama.cpp, ollama, unspecified`	`file-metadata`
GGUF Q4_K_M (bartowski) gguf-q4_k_m Calculator: GGUF Q4_K_M (bartowski)	7 safetensors shards Total selected bytes: 261,282,110,272 (243.34 GiB / 261.28 GB) First shard: MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00001-of-00007.gguf Last shard: MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00007-of-00007.gguf View all 7 shard files `MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00001-of-00007.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00002-of-00007.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00003-of-00007.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00004-of-00007.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00005-of-00007.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00006-of-00007.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q4_K_M-00007-of-00007.gguf`	261,282,110,272 (243.34 GiB / 261.28 GB)	`llama.cpp, ollama, unspecified`	`file-metadata`
GGUF Q5_K_M (bartowski) gguf-q5_k_m Calculator: GGUF Q5_K_M (bartowski)	8 safetensors shards Total selected bytes: 305,348,746,176 (284.38 GiB / 305.35 GB) First shard: MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00001-of-00008.gguf Last shard: MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00008-of-00008.gguf View all 8 shard files `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00001-of-00008.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00002-of-00008.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00003-of-00008.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00004-of-00008.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00005-of-00008.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00006-of-00008.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00007-of-00008.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M/MiniMax-M3-Q5_K_M-00008-of-00008.gguf`	305,348,746,176 (284.38 GiB / 305.35 GB)	`llama.cpp, ollama, unspecified`	`file-metadata`
GGUF Q6_K (bartowski) gguf-q6_k Calculator: GGUF Q6_K (bartowski)	10 safetensors shards Total selected bytes: 369,400,554,688 (344.03 GiB / 369.40 GB) First shard: MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00001-of-00010.gguf Last shard: MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00010-of-00010.gguf View all 10 shard files `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00001-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00002-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00003-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00004-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00005-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00006-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00007-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00008-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00009-of-00010.gguf` `MiniMax-M3-Q6_K/MiniMax-M3-Q6_K-00010-of-00010.gguf`	369,400,554,688 (344.03 GiB / 369.40 GB)	`llama.cpp, ollama, unspecified`	`file-metadata`
INT4 theoretical	No published file	213,520,070,080 (theoretical)	—	theoretical

Memory by quantization and context

Concurrent sequences = 1. KV defaults to FP16. The range includes documented runtime extras for the listed engine. These figures use the same core as the interactive calculator.

Quantization	2,048 tokens	8,192 tokens	32,768 tokens
BF16 safetensors	810.33 GiB–812.21 GiB	811.03 GiB–812.93 GiB	813.84 GiB–815.83 GiB
GGUF Q8_0 (Unsloth)	421.98 GiB–430.79 GiB	422.69 GiB–431.56 GiB	425.50 GiB–434.57 GiB
GGUF Q4_K_M (bartowski)	243.70 GiB–248.94 GiB	244.40 GiB–249.71 GiB	247.21 GiB–252.72 GiB
GGUF Q5_K_M (bartowski)	284.74 GiB–290.80 GiB	285.44 GiB–291.57 GiB	288.25 GiB–294.58 GiB
GGUF Q6_K (bartowski)	344.39 GiB–351.65 GiB	345.09 GiB–352.41 GiB	347.91 GiB–355.42 GiB
INT4 theoretical Theoretical rows are not downloadable artifacts.	199.22 GiB–256.98 GiB	199.92 GiB–257.86 GiB	202.73 GiB–261.32 GiB

Raw KV contribution

Standard GQA/MHA raw KV is 2 × layers × kvHeads × headDim × tokens × sequences × bytes per element. This page uses KV heads (4), not query heads (64). Using query heads would overstate this cache by 16×.

8,192 tokens, 1 sequence, FP16: 1,006,632,960 bytes (0.9375 GiB)
32,768 tokens: 4,026,531,840 bytes (3.7500 GiB)

Open the calculator with this model

Sources

MiniMax-M3 model card
config.json — revision f0e1c1e04d40177e4673a22097036854f536e9c0
safetensors index — metadata.total_size=869157697024
Artifact repo unsloth/MiniMax-M3-GGUF
Artifact repo bartowski/MiniMax-M3-GGUF

Assumptions that affect this result

Requested context is within the recorded native window of 1048576 tokens.
Full-resident weight estimates use total parameters, including inactive MoE experts.
Activated parameter count is unknown / not independently sourced. Active parameters describe routed compute, not the full resident model weight footprint.
Weight bytes come from the selected weight files only, not from every file in the repository.
Download file size is not peak GPU memory. Runtime layout, allocator padding, and KV are extra.
Weight bytes come from 7 published safetensors shards totaling 261282110272 bytes.
This checkpoint has a vision component. Text-only inference does not include vision encoder or projector bytes.
Multi-token prediction / draft weights exist and are not included unless enabled.

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Quantization

Device type

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Workload

Context length primarily affects KV cache memory.

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Runtime

Engine and KV cache type for this estimate.

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Workload

Overhead scenario and the prefill workspace.

Overhead scenario Include heavier prefill workspace

Topology

How the model is split across devices. Memory is not added together.

DeploymentIntra-replica splitDevice count

Replica count is an advanced deployment option. Quantity is nodes or GPUs, not replicas.

Replica groupsDevices per replica

Budget

System reserve and safety margin. An empty number keeps the previous value.

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Public Hugging Face repoRevision

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MiniMax-M3 VRAM & Memory Requirements

Publisher and provenance

Memory layers in this estimate

Published artifacts

Memory by quantization and context

Raw KV contribution

Related pages

Sources

Assumptions that affect this result

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