Moonshot AI·Kimi K2·DeepseekV3ForCausalLM

Kimi K2 Instruct — Hardware Requirements & GPU Compatibility

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Kimi K2 Instruct is Moonshot AI's massive Mixture-of-Experts model, weighing in at over one trillion total parameters. It represents one of the largest open-weight models available, delivering frontier-class performance across reasoning, coding, and multilingual tasks through its sparse MoE architecture that activates only a fraction of its full parameter count per token. Running Kimi K2 locally is an extreme undertaking, requiring professional multi-GPU setups with hundreds of gigabytes of combined VRAM even at aggressive quantization. This model is best suited for research labs, enterprise deployments, or enthusiasts with access to server-grade hardware who want to explore trillion-parameter-scale inference.

80.6K downloads 2.3K likesJan 2026131K context

Specifications

Publisher
Moonshot AI
Family
Kimi K2
Parameters
1026.5B
Architecture
DeepseekV3ForCausalLM
Context Length
131,072 tokens
Vocabulary Size
163,840
Release Date
2026-01-30
License
Other

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How Much VRAM Does Kimi K2 Instruct Need?

Select a quantization to see compatible GPUs below.

QuantizationBitsVRAM
IQ2_XXS2.20286.2 GB
IQ2_M2.70350.3 GB
IQ3_XXS3.10401.6 GB
Q2_K3.40440.1 GB
Q3_K_S3.50453.0 GB
Q3_K_M3.90504.3 GB
Q4_04.00517.1 GB
IQ4_XS4.30555.6 GB
Q4_14.50581.3 GB
Q4_K_S4.50581.3 GB
IQ4_NL4.50581.3 GB
Q4_K_M4.80619.8 GB
Q5_K_S5.50709.6 GB
Q5_K_M5.70735.2 GB
Q6_K6.60850.7 GB
Q8_08.001030.3 GB

Which GPUs Can Run Kimi K2 Instruct?

Q4_K_M · 619.8 GB

Kimi K2 Instruct (Q4_K_M) requires 619.8 GB of VRAM to load the model weights. For comfortable inference with headroom for KV cache and system overhead, 806+ GB is recommended. Using the full 131K context window can add up to 225.7 GB, bringing total usage to 845.4 GB. No single GPU has enough memory — multi-GPU or cluster setups are needed.

Which Devices Can Run Kimi K2 Instruct?

Q4_K_M · 619.8 GB

2 devices with unified memory can run Kimi K2 Instruct, including NVIDIA DGX H100.

Decent

Enough memory, may be tight

Related Models

Frequently Asked Questions

How much VRAM does Kimi K2 Instruct need?

Kimi K2 Instruct requires 619.8 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M, or 1030.3 GB at Q8_0. Full 131K context adds up to 225.7 GB (845.4 GB total).

VRAM = Weights + KV Cache + Overhead

Weights = 1026.5B × 4.8 bits ÷ 8 = 615.9 GB

KV Cache + Overhead 3.9 GB (at 2K context + ~0.3 GB framework)

KV Cache + Overhead 229.5 GB (at full 131K context)

VRAM usage by quantization

619.8 GB
845.4 GB

Learn more about VRAM estimation →

Can NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 run Kimi K2 Instruct?

No — Kimi K2 Instruct requires at least 286.2 GB at IQ2_XXS, which exceeds the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090's 32 GB of VRAM.

What's the best quantization for Kimi K2 Instruct?

For Kimi K2 Instruct, Q4_K_M (619.8 GB) offers the best balance of quality and VRAM usage. Q5_K_S (709.6 GB) provides better quality if you have the VRAM. The smallest option is IQ2_XXS at 286.2 GB.

VRAM requirement by quantization

IQ2_XXS
286.2 GB
Q3_K_S
453.0 GB
Q4_1
581.3 GB
Q4_K_M
619.8 GB
Q5_K_S
709.6 GB
Q8_0
1030.3 GB

★ Recommended — best balance of quality and VRAM usage.

Learn more about quantization →

Can I run Kimi K2 Instruct on a Mac?

Kimi K2 Instruct requires at least 286.2 GB at IQ2_XXS, which exceeds the unified memory of most consumer Macs. You would need a Mac Studio or Mac Pro with a high-memory configuration.

Can I run Kimi K2 Instruct locally?

Yes — Kimi K2 Instruct can run locally on consumer hardware. At Q4_K_M quantization it needs 619.8 GB of VRAM. Popular tools include Ollama, LM Studio, and llama.cpp.

What's the download size of Kimi K2 Instruct?

At Q4_K_M, the download is about 615.88 GB. The full-precision Q8_0 version is 1026.47 GB. The smallest option (IQ2_XXS) is 282.28 GB.