How to Deploy GLM 4.5 Air Locally
GLM 4.5 Air is a MoE model with 106B total parameters and 12B active per token. At Q4 it needs 62GB of VRAM to sit entirely on the GPU; with experts offloaded to system RAM it needs only 7GB of VRAM plus 56GB of RAM. The cheapest card that runs it today is the Instinct MI210 at about $5,046, at roughly 75.6 tokens/s. In offload mode the cheapest card that runs it is the Tesla V100 16GB, at roughly 12 tokens/s.
GLM 4.5 Air details
How much VRAM does GLM 4.5 Air need for local deployment?
MoE: all 106B parameters must stay resident in memory, while speed is set by the 12B active per token.
| Quantization | WeightsGB | Total at 8KGB | Total at 32KGB | Total at 128KGB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-bit | 40.1GGUF | 27.3 | 31.6 | 48.9 |
| 2-bit | 47.4GGUF | 41.8 | 46.1 | 63.4 |
| 3-bit | 54.8GGUF | 53.2 | 57.5 | 74.8 |
| 4-bit | 73GGUF | 61.5 | 65.8 | 83.1 |
| 5-bit | 83.5GGUF | 74 | 78.3 | 95.5 |
| 8-bit | 117.5GGUF | 112.3 | 116.6 | 133.9 |
| FP16 | 221GGUF | 209.7 | 214.1 | 231.3 |
Total = weights + KV cache (FP16) + 1GB runtime overhead. Weights marked GGUF are measured file sizes from the repository; the rest are estimated from bytes per parameter. Contexts beyond this model's 128K limit show a dash. Each tier takes whichever file of that bit width the repository has, preferring unsloth dynamic quants, so the exact file name varies by model.
Which GPUs can run GLM 4.5 Air?
eBay
| Device | VRAMGB | Price | Est. t/s | Suggested context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Instinct MI210 | 64 | $5,04611 listings | 75.6 | 8K |
| MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 | $5,5493 listings | 34.3 | 128K |
| Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB | 128 | $6,5474 listings | 34.3 | 128K |
| MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB | 128 | $7,2505 listings | 37.9 | 128K |
 RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell | 96 | $16,9854 listings | 99.7 | 128K |
| Mac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB | 512 | $22,00011 listings | 48.1 | 128K |
| CMP 170HX 64GB | 64 | —No listings | 89 | 8K |
| RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 72GB | 72 | —No listings | 83.1 | 32K |
| RTX PRO 6000D | 84 | —No listings | 91.9 | 128K |
| DGX Spark 128GB | 128 | —No listings | 23 | 128K |
| Mac Studio M5 Max 128GB | 128 | —No listings | 37.9 | 128K |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB | 128 | —No listings | 15.9 | 128K |
Fits when weights + KV cache + runtime overhead is at or below usable memory, single card. "Offload" on MoE models means it runs with expert weights in system RAM (only attention layers and KV cache stay in VRAM); that speed assumes 70 GB/s RAM bandwidth. The context column is the largest tier that fits.
Recommended GPUs for GLM 4.5 Air with CPU/GPU offloading
eBay
Expert weights live in system RAM (needs at least 56 GB); VRAM holds only attention layers, shared experts and the KV cache, at least 7 GB at Q4. Speed is bound by RAM bandwidth (estimated at 70 GB/s) and is far slower than a full-VRAM setup.
| Device | VRAMGB | Price | RAM neededGB | Est. t/s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesla V100 16GB | 16 | $305 | 56 | 12 |
| Radeon RX 6950 XT | 16 | $500 | 56 | 11 |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 22GB | 22 | $551 | 56 | 11.6 |
| Radeon RX 7800 XT | 16 | $568 | 56 | 11.2 |
| GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | 16 | $700 | 56 | 11.2 |
| Radeon RX 7900 XT | 20 | $700 | 56 | 11.5 |
| Tesla V100 32GB | 32 | $720 | 56 | 12 |
| Instinct MI50 32GB | 32 | $768 | 56 | 11.8 |
| GeForce RTX 5070 | 12 | $775 | 56 | 11.7 |
| Radeon RX 9070 XT | 16 | $795 | 56 | 11.2 |
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX | 24 | $999 | 56 | 11.7 |
| Instinct MI100 | 32 | $999 | 56 | 12 |
| GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | 16 | $1,200 | 56 | 12 |
| GeForce RTX 4080 | 16 | $1,263 | 56 | 11.8 |
| GeForce RTX 3090 | 24 | $1,550 | 56 | 12.1 |
| GeForce RTX 5080 | 16 | $1,800 | 56 | 12.1 |
| RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell | 24 | $2,950 | 56 | 11.7 |
| GeForce RTX 4090 | 24 | $3,199 | 56 | 12.1 |
| Radeon PRO W7900 | 48 | $3,495 | 56 | 11.6 |
| RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | 32 | $4,300 | 56 | 12 |
| A100 40GB PCIe | 40 | $4,899 | 56 | 12.4 |
| GeForce RTX 5090 | 32 | $6,500 | 56 | 12.5 |
 Arc Pro B60 | 24 | — | 56 | 10.4 |
| GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 | 24 | — | 56 | 12.3 |
| Arc Pro B65 | 32 | — | 56 | 10.9 |
| Arc Pro B70 | 32 | — | 56 | 10.9 |
| GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 32GB | 32 | — | 56 | 11.8 |
| GeForce RTX 5090 D | 32 | — | 56 | 12.5 |
| Radeon AI PRO R9700 | 32 | — | 56 | 11.2 |
| Radeon PRO W7800 | 32 | — | 56 | 11 |
| CMP 170HX 40GB | 40 | — | 56 | 12.4 |
| GeForce RTX 4090 48GB | 48 | — | 56 | 12.1 |
| RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48GB | 48 | — | 56 | 12.3 |
Deploy GLM 4.5 Air locally with Ollama, llama.cpp or vLLM
Ollama pulls and runs it in one command; the quantization comes from the official tag.
ollama run glm4.5:air
llama.cpp pulls the GGUF straight from Hugging Face; -c sets the context length.
llama-server -hf unsloth/GLM-4.5-Air-GGUF:Q4_K_M -c 8192
vLLM serves the original-precision weights, which needs far more memory than GGUF and usually more than one GPU.
vllm serve zai-org/GLM-4.5-Air
File names follow that week's model-library snapshot; the definitions are in the methodology. Methodology
FAQ
How much VRAM does GLM 4.5 Air need?
At Q4_K_M with an 8K context GLM 4.5 Air needs about 62GB of VRAM; 76GB leaves comfortable headroom.
What is the cheapest GPU that runs GLM 4.5 Air?
The Instinct MI210: 64GB of VRAM, currently about $5,046, at roughly 75.6 tokens/s.
Can you run GLM 4.5 Air with Ollama?
Yes: ollama run glm4.5:air.