MicrosoftPhi 3Phi3ForCausalLM

Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility

ChatCode

Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct is a 3.8B-parameter open language model from Microsoft in the Phi 3 family. It supports a context window of up to 131,072 tokens. At Q4_K_M it needs about 3.40 GB of VRAM — see which GPUs and Macs can run it below.

3.8B params · dense131K contextMITAug 2024368.4K downloads1.3K likes158.6K quant downloads

Your hardware

Verdicts below are for the reference RTX 4090. Set yours to personalise the page.

Detection reads your browser's GPU name with no data sent anywhere.

Runs great on a 24 GB GPU

Runs from 8 GB (Q4_K_M · 8K)Best on 24 GB (Q4_K_M · ~193 tok/s · 32K)Macs from 8 GB (Q4_K_M · ~21 tok/s)

MIT

Reference GPU · RTX 4090 24 GB

Estimates, ±20% · how we estimate

Run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct

One recommended way. Every other method, OS and quant is in the step-by-step guide.

Other ways

each opens step-by-step

Run in cloud

Fits on RTX 3060 12GB (3 GB headroom) · Q4_K_M

Generation speed: ~69 tok/s; generation speed
Cost per 1M output tokens: $0.33; per 1M output tokens

Deployon Vast.aiBest optionfrom $0.083/hr

Compare GPUs →

Run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct

9.0 GB VRAM at 16K context · fits the RTX 4090 (15.0 GB free)

Works on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Install Ollama (Linux)
$curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
Install Ollama (macOS / Windows)
Download and run the app; it installs the ollama command.
Download Ollama ↗
Run Q4_K_M
$ollama run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M
Raise the context window
Type it inside the chat. For the API server instead, start it with OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=16384 ollama serve.
$/set parameter num_ctx 16384
A larger context needs more memory than the weights alone.
Use the API
Ollama serves its API on http://localhost:11434.

Works on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Install LM Studio
Desktop app for macOS (Apple silicon), Windows and Linux.
lmstudio.ai ↗
Download the model
In the app press Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + M and paste https://huggingface.co/MaziyarPanahi/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF, then pick Q4_K_M. Or use the CLI (run LM Studio once first):
$lms get https://huggingface.co/MaziyarPanahi/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF@Q4_K_M
Open on Hugging Face ↗
Load and chat
Open the model loader, select the model and set Context Length to 16384. Leave GPU offload at maximum if it fits.
Start the local server (optional)
$lms server start

Works on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Install llama.cpp (macOS)
MacPorts, Nix and conda-forge also work.
$brew install llama.cpp
Install options ↗
Install llama.cpp (Windows)
$winget install llama.cpp
Install llama.cpp (Linux)
Download the prebuilt llama-*-bin-ubuntu-* archive for your GPU backend (CPU, Vulkan) from the releases page, unpack it and run the binaries from that folder. Homebrew (brew install llama.cpp) and conda-forge also work on Linux.
llama.cpp releases ↗
Start the server
Downloads the model on first run. The chat UI and an OpenAI-compatible API are at http://localhost:8080.
$llama-server -hf MaziyarPanahi/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M -c 16384 -ngl 99 --port 8080

Works on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Option A: Docker Model Runner
Docker Desktop: Settings > AI > Enable Docker Model Runner. Docker Engine on Linux: install the docker-model-plugin package.
$docker model run hf.co/MaziyarPanahi/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M
Model Runner docs ↗
The quant tag after the repo is how Hugging Face cards write it; if your Docker version rejects it, drop the tag and pick the quant by repo.
Option B: llama.cpp server image (NVIDIA)
Needs the NVIDIA Container Toolkit. Models are cached in the llama-cache volume. Open http://localhost:8080.
$docker run --gpus all -p 8080:8080 -v llama-cache:/root/.cache ghcr.io/ggml-org/llama.cpp:server-cuda -hf MaziyarPanahi/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M -c 16384 -ngl 99 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8080
Image tags (cuda13, vulkan, rocm) ↗
Cache path inside the image is not in the docs; remove the -v flag if the volume complains.

Linux only.

Install vLLM
Linux only; on Windows run it inside WSL2. NVIDIA GPU shown; AMD ROCm, Intel and CPU builds have their own install pages.
$uv venv --python 3.12 --seed
$source .venv/bin/activate
$uv pip install vllm --torch-backend=auto
vLLM installation ↗
Serve the model
OpenAI-compatible API at http://localhost:8000/v1.
$vllm serve microsoft/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct --max-model-len 16384
Runs the original weights, not the Q4_K_M GGUF; needs ~8 GB of GPU memory.

macOS only.

MLX supports only macOS, so follow these steps for that setup.

Install mlx-lm
$pip install mlx-lm
Chat in the terminal
$mlx_lm.chat --model Oscilla/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-mlx-4Bit
Downloads the model on first run. The MLX repo has its own quantisation; it may not match the quant selected above.
Or start a local server
Listens on http://localhost:8080.
$mlx_lm.server --model Oscilla/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-mlx-4Bit

Works on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Install Jan
jan.ai ↗
Find the model
Open the Hub tab, paste this model ID in Search, and choose Q4_K_M if offered.
$MaziyarPanahi/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF
Use the local API (optional)
Settings > Local API Server > Start Server. It listens on http://127.0.0.1:1337.

Rent GPUs hourly to run Q4_K_M right there. Pricing comes from partner marketplaces and varies.

Available GPU rentals for Q4_K_M, prioritized by value
GPU	Speed	$/1M tokens	Rent
RTX 3060 12GBCheapestCheapest3 GB free	~69 tok/s	$0.33	Deploy on Vast.aifrom $0.083/hr (opens in new tab)	3 GB free · ~69 tok/s · $0.33 / 1M tokens
RTX 5060 Ti 16GB7 GB free	~86 tok/s	$0.53	Deploy on Vast.aifrom $0.16/hr (opens in new tab)	7 GB free · ~86 tok/s · $0.53 / 1M tokens
RTX 3080 Ti (12 GB)3 GB free	~174 tok/s	$0.29	Deploy on RunPodfrom $0.18/hr (opens in new tab)	12 GB · 3 GB free · ~174 tok/s · $0.29 / 1M tokens
Tesla V100 PCIe 16GB7 GB free	~172 tok/s	$0.31	Deploy on RunPodfrom $0.19/hr (opens in new tab)	7 GB free · ~172 tok/s · $0.31 / 1M tokens
RTX 4060 Ti 16GB7 GB free	~55 tok/s	$1.03	Deploy on Vast.aifrom $0.20/hr (opens in new tab)	7 GB free · ~55 tok/s · $1.03 / 1M tokens
RTX 3090 (24 GB)15 GB free	~179 tok/s	$0.33	Deploy on Vast.aifrom $0.22/hr (opens in new tab)	24 GB · 15 GB free · ~179 tok/s · $0.33 / 1M tokens
RTX PRO 4500 (32 GB)23 GB free	~171 tok/s	$0.55	Deploy on RunPodfrom $0.34/hr (opens in new tab)	32 GB · 23 GB free · ~171 tok/s · $0.55 / 1M tokens
RTX 4090 (24 GB)15 GB free	~193 tok/s	$0.49	Deploy on RunPodfrom $0.34/hr (opens in new tab)	24 GB · 15 GB free · ~193 tok/s · $0.49 / 1M tokens

Compare GPUs →

How Much VRAM Does Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct Need?

Select a quantization level; the listed hardware adheres to it.

VRAM	+32K	+128K	File	Quality	On RTX 4090 (reference)
2.2 GB	14.2 GB	52.9 GB	1 GB	2-bit · i-quant extreme compression — Importance-weighted 2-bit, extreme compression — significant quality loss	Fits: 32K context · ~303 tok/s
2.3 GB	14.3 GB	53 GB	1.2 GB	2-bit · i-quant extra small — Importance-weighted 2-bit, extra small	Fits: 32K context · ~291 tok/s
2.3 GB	14.4 GB	53 GB	1.2 GB	2-bit · i-quant small — Importance-weighted 2-bit, small	Fits: 32K context · ~285 tok/s
2.4 GB	14.5 GB	53.1 GB	1.3 GB	2-bit · i-quant medium — Importance-weighted 2-bit, medium	Fits: 32K context · ~274 tok/s
2.6 GB	14.7 GB	53.3 GB	1.5 GB	3-bit · i-quant — Importance-weighted 3-bit	Fits: 32K context · ~253 tok/s
2.7 GB	14.8 GB	53.4 GB	1.6 GB	3-bit · i-quant extra small — Importance-weighted 3-bit, extra small	Fits: 32K context · ~245 tok/s
2.7 GB	14.8 GB	53.5 GB	1.4 GB	2-bit · K-quant — 2-bit quantization with K-quant improvements	Fits: 32K context · ~240 tok/s
2.7 GB	14.8 GB	53.5 GB	1.7 GB	3-bit · i-quant small — Importance-weighted 3-bit, small	Fits: 32K context · ~240 tok/s
2.8 GB	14.9 GB	53.5 GB	1.7 GB	3-bit small — 3-bit small quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~236 tok/s
2.8 GB	14.9 GB	53.6 GB	1.9 GB	3-bit · i-quant medium — Importance-weighted 3-bit, medium	Fits: 32K context · ~232 tok/s
3.0 GB	15.1 GB	53.7 GB	2 GB	3-bit medium — 3-bit medium quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~221 tok/s
3.0 GB	15.1 GB	53.8 GB	2.2 GB	4-bit · legacy — 4-bit legacy quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~217 tok/s
3.1 GB	15.1 GB	53.8 GB	2.1 GB	3-bit large — 3-bit large quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~214 tok/s
3.2 GB	15.2 GB	53.9 GB	2.1 GB	4-bit · i-quant compact — Importance-weighted 4-bit, compact	Fits: 32K context · ~207 tok/s
3.3 GB	15.3 GB	54 GB	2.2 GB	4-bit small — 4-bit small quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~202 tok/s
3.4 GB	15.5 GB	54.1 GB	2.4 GB	4-bit medium — 4-bit medium quantization — most popular sweet spot	Fits: 32K context · ~193 tok/s
3.5 GB	15.5 GB	54.2 GB	2.5 GB	4-bit large — 4-bit large quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~190 tok/s
3.5 GB	15.6 GB	54.2 GB	2.6 GB	5-bit · legacy — 5-bit legacy quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~188 tok/s
3.7 GB	15.8 GB	54.5 GB	2.6 GB	5-bit small — 5-bit small quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~176 tok/s
3.8 GB	15.9 GB	54.6 GB	2.8 GB	5-bit medium — 5-bit medium quantization — good quality/size tradeoff	Fits: 32K context · ~171 tok/s
3.9 GB	16 GB	54.6 GB	2.9 GB	5-bit large — 5-bit large quantization	Fits: 32K context · ~169 tok/s
4.3 GB	16.3 GB	55 GB	3.1 GB	6-bit, very good — 6-bit quantization, very good quality	Fits: 32K context · ~154 tok/s
4.9 GB	17 GB	55.7 GB	4.1 GB	8-bit, near-lossless — 8-bit quantization, near-lossless	Fits: 32K context · ~133 tok/s
8.8 GB	20.8 GB	59.5 GB	7.6 GB	16-bit · bfloat — Brain floating point 16 — preferred for training	Fits: 32K context · ~75 tok/s

Selected Q4_K_M

4-bit medium quantization

9.0GBat 16K context

Weights: 2.3 GB
KV cache: 6.5 GB
Overhead: 0.3 GB

Fits RTX 4090 (reference) · 15.0 GB free · ~193 tok/s

≥50 tok/s needs ≥261 GB/s · RTX 5090 ~343, RTX 3090 Ti ~193

Which Hardware Can Run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct?

Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB

Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct (Q4_K_M) requires 3.4 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 5+ GB is recommended. Using the full 131K context window can add up to 50.7 GB, bringing total usage to 54.1 GB. 52 GPUs can run it, including NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti. 163 devices with unified memory can run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct, including Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 256GB), Mac Studio (M3 Ultra, 512GB), MacBook Air 13" M3 (8 GB).

By VRAM tier · typical GPUs and Macs at Q4_K_M

Typical hardwareQuantVRAMtok/sContext that fits

8 GB · RTX 4060Q4_K_M · 9 GB · ~52 tok/s · 8Ktight9~528K8 GB tier →

12 GB · RTX 3060 12GBQ4_K_M · 9 GB · ~69 tok/s · 16K9~6916K12 GB tier →

16 GB · RTX 5060 Ti 16GBQ4_K_M · 9 GB · ~86 tok/s · 32K9~8632K16 GB tier →

24 GB · RTX 4090referenceQ4_K_M · 9 GB · ~193 tok/s · 32K9~19332K24 GB tier →

Mac 32 GB · Mac Mini M4Q4_K_M · 9 GB · ~25 tok/s · 64K9~2564KMacs →

Mac 64 GB · Mac Studio M4 MaxQ4_K_M · 9 GB · ~112 tok/s · 128K9~112128KMacs →

How good is Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct?

llmrun Score blends public benchmark boards into one number; 100 = the average open model.

Not enough data yet for an llmrun Score.

A Score needs results on enough independent boards. How the Composite Score is built

Benchmarks

MMLU-Pro
TIGER-LabIndependent
47.9%
#79/145 open
Independent
GSM8K
Epoch AI · Aug 2024Lab-reported
86.2%
#9/62 open
Lab-reported
BoolQ
Epoch AI · Aug 2024Lab-reported
78.0%
#17/38 open
Lab-reported
PIQA
Epoch AI · Aug 2024Lab-reported
81.0%
#17/40 open
Lab-reported

All 4 Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct benchmarks

Alternatives to Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct

Phi 3 family · 15 models →

Similar models

6tok/s on RTX 4090

Model	Score	VRAM	tok/s	Why it is similar
Granite Vision 4.1 4BIBM	—	4 GB	~228	same size
Qwen3 4B Instruct 2507Alibaba	—	4.2 GB	~226	same size
MiniCPM V 4OpenBMB	—	3.1 GB	~236	same size
Qwen2.5 VL 3B InstructAlibaba	—	3.2 GB	~249	same size
CAJAL 4BAgnuxo	—	4.8 GB	~248	same size
Gemma 4 E4B IT AssistantGoogle	—	2.7 GB	~243	same size

Fine-tunes & variants(2)community builds of Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct

Specifications

Publisher: Microsoft
Family: Phi 3
Parameters: 3.8B
Architecture: Phi3ForCausalLM
Context Length: 131,072 tokens
Vocabulary Size: 32,064
Release Date: 2024-08-16
License: MIT

Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

How much VRAM does Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct need?

Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct requires 3.4 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 8.8 GB at BF16. Full 131K context adds up to 50.7 GB (54.1 GB total).

VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead

Weights = 3.8B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 2.3 GB

KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 1.1 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)

Fit ratings and hardware model lists check this model with room for a 16K-token context, which needs a little more memory.

KV Cache + Overhead ≈ 51.8 GB (at full 131K context)

VRAM usage by quantization

Q4_K_M

3.4 GB

Q4_K_M + full context

54.1 GB

Learn more about VRAM estimation →

What's the best quantization for Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct?

For Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct, Q4_K_M (3.4 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q4_K_L (3.5 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is IQ2_XXS at 2.2 GB.

VRAM requirement by quantization

IQ2_XXS

2.2 GB~53%

Q2_K

2.7 GB~75%

Q3_K_L

3.1 GB~86%

Q4_K_M ★

3.4 GB~89%

Q5_0

3.5 GB~90%

BF16

8.8 GB~100%

★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.

Learn more about quantization →

Can I run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct on a Mac?

Yes — Mac Mini M2 (8 GB) and 145 other Macs can run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct. Apple Silicon uses unified memory, so the model shares RAM with the system. At Q4_K_M you need at least 3.4 GB of usable unified memory (RAM minus macOS overhead).

Can I run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct locally?

Yes — Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct can run locally on consumer hardware. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.

How fast is Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct?

At Q4_K_M, Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct can reach ~1412 tok/s on AMD Instinct MI350X. On NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090: ~193 tok/s. Speed depends mainly on GPU memory bandwidth. Real-world results typically within ±20%.

tok/s = (bandwidth GB/s ÷ model GB) × efficiency

Example: NVIDIA B200 → 8000 ÷ 3.4 × 0.65 = ~1529 tok/s

Estimated speed at Q4_K_M (3.4 GB)

NVIDIA B200

~1529 tok/s

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090

~193 tok/s

NVIDIA B300

~1529 tok/s

AMD Instinct MI350X

~1412 tok/s

Real-world results typically within ±20%. Speed depends on batch size, quantization kernel, and software stack.

Learn more about tok/s estimation →

What's the download size of Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct?

At Q4_K_M, the download is about 2.29 GB. The full-precision BF16 version is 7.64 GB. The smallest option (IQ2_XXS) is 1.05 GB.

Which GPUs can run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct?

52 consumer GPUs can run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct at Q4_K_M. Top options include AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, AMD Radeon RX 6800, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT. 52 GPUs have plenty of headroom for comfortable inference.

Which devices can run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct?

163 devices with unified memory can run Phi 3.5 Mini Instruct at Q4_K_M (3.4 GB), including AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Strix Point) Laptop, ASUS Ascent GX10, Beelink GTR9 Pro (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB), Framework Desktop (Ryzen AI Max+ 395, 128 GB). Apple Silicon Macs use unified memory shared between CPU and GPU, making them well-suited for local LLM inference.