How to Deploy Kimi Linear 48B A3B Locally
Kimi Linear 48B A3B is a MoE model with 49.1B total parameters and 3B active per token. At Q4 it needs 29GB of VRAM to sit entirely on the GPU; with experts offloaded to system RAM it needs only 3GB of VRAM plus 27GB of RAM. The cheapest card that runs it today is the Tesla V100 32GB at about $720, at roughly 147.9 tokens/s. In offload mode the cheapest card that runs it is the Tesla V100 16GB, at roughly 44 tokens/s.
Kimi Linear 48B A3B details
How much VRAM does Kimi Linear 48B A3B need for local deployment?
MoE: all 49.1B parameters must stay resident in memory, while speed is set by the 3B active per token.
| Quantization | WeightsGB | Total at 8KGB | Total at 32KGB | Total at 128KGB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-bit | 10.9GGUF | 12.6 | 12.8 | 13.5 |
| 2-bit | 17.9GGUF | 19.3 | 19.5 | 20.2 |
| 3-bit | 23.9GGUF | 24.6 | 24.8 | 25.5 |
| 4-bit | 30.1GGUF | 28.4 | 28.6 | 29.4 |
| 5-bit | 35.1GGUF | 34.2 | 34.4 | 35.1 |
| 8-bit | 52.2GGUF | 52 | 52.2 | 52.9 |
| FP16 | 98.3GGUF | 97.1 | 97.3 | 98.1 |
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 1M 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 Kimi Linear 48B A3B?
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| Device | VRAMGB | Price | Est. t/s | Suggested context |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Tesla V100 32GB | 32 | $72023 listings | 147.9 | 128K |
 Instinct MI50 32GB | 32 | $7687 listings | 135.1 | 128K |
| Instinct MI100 | 32 | $9997 listings | 146.3 | 128K |
| Radeon PRO W7900 | 48 | $3,4953 listings | 124.5 | 128K |
| RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell | 32 | $4,3003 listings | 147.6 | 128K |
| A100 40GB PCIe | 40 | $4,89913 listings | 178.6 | 128K |
| Instinct MI210 | 64 | $5,04611 listings | 163.3 | 128K |
| MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB | 128 | $5,5493 listings | 102.1 | 128K |
| GeForce RTX 5090 | 32 | $6,50012 listings | 185.6 | 128K |
| Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB | 128 | $6,5474 listings | 102.1 | 128K |
| MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB | 128 | $7,2505 listings | 109.2 | 128K |
| RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell | 96 | $16,9854 listings | 185.6 | 128K |
| Mac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB | 512 | $22,00011 listings | 127.2 | 128K |
 Arc Pro B65 | 32 | —No listings | 96.5 | 128K |
| Arc Pro B70 | 32 | —No listings | 96.5 | 128K |
| GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 32GB | 32 | —No listings | 135.5 | 128K |
| GeForce RTX 5090 D | 32 | —No listings | 185.6 | 128K |
| Radeon AI PRO R9700 | 32 | —No listings | 105.9 | 128K |
| Radeon PRO W7800 | 32 | —No listings | 99.6 | 128K |
| CMP 170HX 40GB | 40 | —No listings | 178.8 | 128K |
| GeForce RTX 4090 48GB | 48 | —No listings | 154.6 | 128K |
| RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 48GB | 48 | —No listings | 170.9 | 128K |
| CMP 170HX 64GB | 64 | —No listings | 176.5 | 128K |
| RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell 72GB | 72 | —No listings | 170.9 | 128K |
| RTX PRO 6000D | 84 | —No listings | 179 | 128K |
| DGX Spark 128GB | 128 | —No listings | 76.3 | 128K |
| Mac Studio M5 Max 128GB | 128 | —No listings | 109.2 | 128K |
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB | 128 | —No listings | 56.8 | 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 Kimi Linear 48B A3B with CPU/GPU offloading
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Expert weights live in system RAM (needs at least 27 GB); VRAM holds only attention layers, shared experts and the KV cache, at least 3 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 | 27 | 44 |
| Radeon RX 6950 XT | 16 | $500 | 27 | 41 |
| GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 22GB | 22 | $551 | 27 | 42.8 |
| Radeon RX 7800 XT | 16 | $568 | 27 | 41.4 |
| GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB | 16 | $700 | 27 | 41.4 |
| Radeon RX 7900 XT | 20 | $700 | 27 | 42.5 |
| GeForce RTX 5070 | 12 | $775 | 27 | 43.1 |
| Radeon RX 9070 XT | 16 | $795 | 27 | 41.5 |
| Radeon RX 7900 XTX | 24 | $999 | 27 | 43.2 |
| GeForce RTX 5070 Ti | 16 | $1,200 | 27 | 44 |
| GeForce RTX 4080 | 16 | $1,263 | 27 | 43.3 |
| GeForce RTX 3090 | 24 | $1,550 | 27 | 44.1 |
| GeForce RTX 5080 | 16 | $1,800 | 27 | 44.2 |
| RTX PRO 4000 Blackwell | 24 | $2,950 | 27 | 43.1 |
| GeForce RTX 4090 | 24 | $3,199 | 27 | 44.3 |
| Arc Pro B60 | 24 | — | 27 | 39 |
| GeForce RTX 5090 D V2 | 24 | — | 27 | 44.9 |
Deploy Kimi Linear 48B A3B locally with Ollama, llama.cpp or vLLM
The Ollama library has no official tag for it yet.
llama.cpp pulls the GGUF straight from Hugging Face; -c sets the context length.
llama-server -hf bartowski/moonshotai_Kimi-Linear-48B-A3B-Instruct-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 moonshotai/Kimi-Linear-48B-A3B-Instruct
File names follow that week's model-library snapshot; the definitions are in the methodology. Methodology
FAQ
How much VRAM does Kimi Linear 48B A3B need?
At Q4_K_M with an 8K context Kimi Linear 48B A3B needs about 29GB of VRAM; 36GB leaves comfortable headroom.
What is the cheapest GPU that runs Kimi Linear 48B A3B?
The Tesla V100 32GB: 32GB of VRAM, currently about $720, at roughly 147.9 tokens/s.
Can you run Kimi Linear 48B A3B with Ollama?
Not yet: the Ollama library has no official tag for it. You can load the GGUF with llama.cpp instead.