Starcoder2 15B vs Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct
Side-by-side comparison of VRAM requirements, quantization, context length, and hardware compatibility.
Specifications
| Starcoder2 15B | Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct | |
|---|---|---|
| Parameters | 16.0B | 16.0B |
| Context | 16K | 8K |
| Architecture | Starcoder2ForCausalLM | DeepseekV3ForCausalLM |
| License | bigcode-openrail-m | MIT |
| Downloads | 8.4K | 109.0K |
| Released | Jun 2024 | Jan 2026 |
VRAM by Quantization: Starcoder2 15B vs Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct
| Quantization | Bits | Starcoder2 15B VRAM | Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct VRAM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K | 3.40 | — | 7.5 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 3.90 | — | 8.5 GB |
| Q3_K_S | 3.50 | — | 7.7 GB |
| Q4_0 | 4.00 | — | 8.7 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 4.80 | — | 10.3 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 5.70 | — | 12.1 GB |
| Q6_K | 6.60 | — | 13.9 GB |
| Q8_0 | 8.00 | — | 16.7 GB |
Verdict
Starcoder2 15B supports a longer context window (16K tokens). Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct is the more widely downloaded of the two.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Which has a longer context window, Starcoder2 15B or Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct?
Starcoder2 15B supports 16,384 tokens and Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct supports 8,192 tokens.
- What is the difference between Starcoder2 15B and Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct?
Starcoder2 15B is a 16.0B model from BigCode (StarCoder family), while Moonlight 16B A3B Instruct is a 16.0B model from Moonshot AI (Moonlight family). Compare their VRAM requirements above to see which fits your GPU or Mac.