Seed OSS 36B Instruct vs Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads llmrun Score 105.4 to 102.5 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is 5.9× faster on RTX 4090 (~171 vs ~29 tok/s).
Model A · ByteDance-Seed
Seed OSS 36B Instruct36.2B · 512K context · Apache 2.0 · Aug 2025
Model B · Google
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT25.8B · 4.4B active · 256K context · Apache 2.0 · Mar 2026
Choose Seed OSS 36B Instruct if you want…
Longer context window
512K vs 256K tokens
Also does chat
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT doesn't list it
Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B IT if you want…
Higher llmrun Score
105.4 vs 102.5, ranges overlap
Fits a 12 GB GPU
IQ3_S · 12 GB; Seed OSS 36B Instruct needs 12.4 GB at its smallest quant
5.9× faster on RTX 4090
~171 vs ~29 tok/s
Lighter on memory
16.1 vs 22.3 GB at Q4_K_M
Also does vision
Seed OSS 36B Instruct doesn't list it
Newer release
Mar 2026 vs Aug 2025
On your hardware
Each model at its default quant (Q4_K_M), a smaller one when it must. Estimates, ±20%.
8 GB
RTX 4060 · 8 GB tier
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 12.4 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 8.1 GB
12 GB
RTX 3060 12GB · 12 GB tier
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Doesn't fit
smallest quant needs 12.4 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
IQ3_S · ~99 tok/s
12 GB · up to 16Kfits
16 GB
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB · 16 GB tier
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
IQ2_M · ~23 tok/s
14.7 GB · up to 16K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Q4_1 · ~95 tok/s
15.5 GB · up to 16Kbetter quant
24 GBreference
RTX 4090 · 24 GB tier
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~29 tok/stight
24.1 GB · up to 8K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~171 tok/s
16.5 GB · up to 128Kmore headroom
32 GB
RTX 5090 · 32 GB tier
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~52 tok/s
24.1 GB · up to 64K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~250 tok/s
16.5 GB · up to 256Kfaster
48 GB
RTX A6000 · 48 GB tier
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~22 tok/s
24.1 GB · up to 128K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~140 tok/s
16.5 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Mac 32 GB
Mac Mini M4 · Macs
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~4 tok/s
24.1 GB · up to 32K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~26 tok/s
16.5 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Mac 64 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~17 tok/s
24.1 GB · up to 256K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~76 tok/s
16.5 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Mac 128 GB
Mac Studio M4 Max · Macs
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Q4_K_M · ~17 tok/s
24.1 GB · up to 512K
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Q4_K_M · ~76 tok/s
16.5 GB · up to 256Kfaster
Reference GPU: RTX 4090. Tinted cell = the better pick on that machine (fits, more headroom, or at least 10% faster).
Overall
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Coding
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
no data
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Science
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
no data
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Reasoning
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
no data
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
Seed OSS 36B Instruct · #42 of 92 open models · #8 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT · #37 of 92 open models · #6 of 34 that fit 24 GB
Benchmarks
3 shared boards: Seed OSS 36B Instruct leads 1, Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads 2 · Benchmarks imported Oct 2026
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
71.5%#30/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2025
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
73.2%#29/97 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2026
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
67.5%#29/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2025
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
82.2%#23/85 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2026
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
13.0%#18/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Aug 2025
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
6.0%#27/67 open
IndependentEpoch AI · Apr 2026
9 more boards (other shared and single-model boards)
Only Seed OSS 36B Instruct (1)
- MMLU-Pro82.7%
Only Gemma 4 26B A4B IT (8)
- LMArena Text1437.6
- LMArena WebDev1359.0
- SciCode40.1%
- WeirdML35.2%
- CritPt0.0%
- DTBench74.9%
- LMCA29.7%
- ALE-Bench927.2
VRAM by quantization
Memory to load the model and 2K context; below it, the total at 32K and 128K context. Lighter side in bold.
Q2_K
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
15.9 GB13.6 GB file
32K 20.0 GB · 128K 32.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
11.6 GB11.0 GB file
32K 12.5 GB · 128K 15.8 GB
Q3_K_S
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
16.4 GB15.9 GB file
32K 20.4 GB · 128K 33.3 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
11.9 GB12.6 GB file
32K 12.8 GB · 128K 16.2 GB
Q3_K_M
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
18.2 GB17.6 GB file
32K 22.2 GB · 128K 35.1 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
13.2 GB12.7 GB file
32K 14.1 GB · 128K 17.5 GB
Q4_0
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
18.6 GB20.6 GB file
32K 22.7 GB · 128K 35.6 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
13.6 GB~12.9 GB file
32K 14.5 GB · 128K 17.8 GB
Q4_K_M
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
22.3 GB21.8 GB file
32K 26.3 GB · 128K 39.2 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
16.1 GB16.9 GB file
32K 17.0 GB · 128K 20.4 GB
Q5_K_M
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
26.3 GB25.6 GB file
32K 30.4 GB · 128K 43.2 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
19.0 GB21.2 GB file
32K 19.9 GB · 128K 23.3 GB
Q6_K
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
30.4 GB29.7 GB file
32K 34.4 GB · 128K 47.3 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
21.9 GB23.2 GB file
32K 22.8 GB · 128K 26.2 GB
Q8_0
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
36.7 GB38.4 GB file
32K 40.8 GB · 128K 53.6 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
26.5 GB~25.8 GB file
32K 27.4 GB · 128K 30.7 GB
19 more quants
IQ2_XXS
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
10.5 GB10.2 GB file
32K 14.5 GB · 128K 27.4 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
7.7 GB9.9 GB file
32K 8.6 GB · 128K 12.0 GB
IQ2_XS
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
11.4 GB10.9 GB file
32K 15.4 GB · 128K 28.3 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
8.4 GB10.1 GB file
32K 9.3 GB · 128K 12.6 GB
IQ2_S
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
11.9 GB11.6 GB file
32K 15.9 GB · 128K 28.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
8.7 GB10.2 GB file
32K 9.6 GB · 128K 12.9 GB
IQ2_M
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
12.8 GB12.7 GB file
32K 16.8 GB · 128K 29.7 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
9.4 GB10.0 GB file
32K 10.3 GB · 128K 13.6 GB
IQ3_XXS
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
14.6 GB14.3 GB file
32K 18.6 GB · 128K 31.5 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
10.7 GB11.4 GB file
32K 11.6 GB · 128K 14.9 GB
Q2_K_S
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
15.0 GB12.6 GB file
32K 19.1 GB · 128K 31.9 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
11.0 GB10.6 GB file
32K 11.9 GB · 128K 15.2 GB
IQ3_XS
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
15.5 GB15.1 GB file
32K 19.5 GB · 128K 32.4 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
11.3 GB12.4 GB file
32K 12.2 GB · 128K 15.5 GB
IQ3_S
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
15.9 GB15.9 GB file
32K 20.0 GB · 128K 32.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
11.6 GB11.3 GB file
32K 12.5 GB · 128K 15.8 GB
IQ3_M
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
16.8 GB16.5 GB file
32K 20.9 GB · 128K 33.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
12.3 GB13.3 GB file
32K 13.2 GB · 128K 16.5 GB
Q3_K_L
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
19.1 GB19.1 GB file
32K 23.1 GB · 128K 36.0 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
13.9 GB13.2 GB file
32K 14.8 GB · 128K 18.1 GB
IQ4_XS
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
20.0 GB19.5 GB file
32K 24.0 GB · 128K 36.9 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
14.5 GB13.6 GB file
32K 15.4 GB · 128K 18.7 GB
IQ4_NL
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
20.9 GB20.6 GB file
32K 24.9 GB · 128K 37.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
15.2 GB13.6 GB file
32K 16.1 GB · 128K 19.4 GB
Q4_1
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
20.9 GB22.8 GB file
32K 24.9 GB · 128K 37.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
15.2 GB16.1 GB file
32K 16.1 GB · 128K 19.4 GB
Q4_K_S
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
20.9 GB20.7 GB file
32K 24.9 GB · 128K 37.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
15.2 GB16.5 GB file
32K 16.1 GB · 128K 19.4 GB
Q4_K_L
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
22.7 GB22.4 GB file
32K 26.7 GB · 128K 39.6 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
16.5 GB17.2 GB file
32K 17.4 GB · 128K 20.7 GB
Q5_0
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
23.2 GB25.0 GB file
32K 27.2 GB · 128K 40.1 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
16.8 GB17.5 GB file
32K 17.7 GB · 128K 21.0 GB
Q5_K_S
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
25.4 GB25.0 GB file
32K 29.5 GB · 128K 42.3 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
18.4 GB18.9 GB file
32K 19.3 GB · 128K 22.6 GB
Q5_K_L
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
26.8 GB26.1 GB file
32K 30.8 GB · 128K 43.7 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
19.4 GB19.5 GB file
32K 20.3 GB · 128K 23.6 GB
BF16
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
72.9 GB72.3 GB file
32K 76.9 GB · 128K 89.8 GB
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT
52.3 GB~51.6 GB file
32K 53.2 GB · 128K 56.5 GB
Seed OSS 36B Instruct
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Seed-OSS-36B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_MGemma 4 26B A4B IT
Ollama · Q4_K_M
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/gemma-4-26B-A4B-it-GGUF:Q4_K_M| Spec | Seed OSS 36B Instruct | Gemma 4 26B A4B IT |
|---|---|---|
| Publisher | ByteDance-Seed | |
| Parameters | 36.2B | 25.8B |
| Active parameters | — | 4.4B per token |
| Architecture | SeedOssForCausalLM | Gemma4ForConditionalGeneration |
| Context | 512K tokens | 256K tokens |
| Modalities | Chat, Function-calling | Vision, Function-calling |
| License | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
| Released | Aug 2025 | Mar 2026 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Seed OSS 36B Instruct or Gemma 4 26B A4B IT?
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT leads llmrun Score 105.4 to 102.5 (ranges overlap); both fit 24 GB at Q4_K_M; Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is 5.9× faster on RTX 4090 (~171 vs ~29 tok/s). Choose Seed OSS 36B Instruct for longer context window and also does chat; choose Gemma 4 26B A4B IT for higher llmrun Score and fits a 12 GB GPU.
Which needs less VRAM, Seed OSS 36B Instruct or Gemma 4 26B A4B IT?
At Q4_K_M, Seed OSS 36B Instruct requires 22.3 GB while Gemma 4 26B A4B IT needs 16.1 GB, making Gemma 4 26B A4B IT the easier model to run on your local setup.
Which is faster on RTX 4090?
Estimated decode speed on RTX 4090 is about 29 tok/s for Seed OSS 36B Instruct (Q4_K_M) and 171 tok/s for Gemma 4 26B A4B IT (Q4_K_M), so Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is faster. Estimates, ±20%.
Can I run Seed OSS 36B Instruct or Gemma 4 26B A4B IT on a 16 GB GPU?
Seed OSS 36B Instruct fits at IQ2_M; Gemma 4 26B A4B IT fits at Q4_1.
Which has a longer context window, Seed OSS 36B Instruct or Gemma 4 26B A4B IT?
Seed OSS 36B Instruct supports 524,288 tokens and Gemma 4 26B A4B IT supports 262,144 tokens.