Qwen · text · mixture of experts

Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct

Qwen/Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct

Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct at Q4_K_M is exactly 142,154,076,192 bytes (132.39 GiB / 142.15 GB) — an effective 4.825 bits per weight, not the nominal 4. Its KV cache at 32K is 5.88 GiB.

From the file· summed from 3 file(s)From the file· KV per layer
Parameters
236B
total, not active
Architecture
qwen3vlmoe
94 layers
Context
262,144
native (config.json)
License
apache-2.0

Shipped quantizations

exact bytes, summed from published files
QuantSizeExact bytesEffective bpwTensorsPublisher
UD-TQ1_050.67 GiB54,408,122,0801.847unsloth
UD-TQ1_050.67 GiB54,408,122,1121.847unsloth
UD-IQ1_S2 shards58.49 GiB62,807,216,0322.132unsloth
UD-IQ1_S2 shards58.49 GiB62,807,216,0962.132unsloth
UD-IQ1_M2 shards64.83 GiB69,608,509,3442.363unsloth
UD-IQ1_M2 shards64.83 GiB69,608,509,4082.363unsloth
Q2_K2 shards79.81 GiB85,691,002,7842.909unsloth
Q2_K2 shards79.81 GiB85,691,002,8482.909unsloth
Q2_K_L2 shards79.94 GiB85,836,861,3442.914unsloth
Q2_K_L2 shards79.94 GiB85,836,861,4082.914unsloth
UD-IQ3_XXS2 shards88.15 GiB94,648,504,2243.213unsloth
UD-IQ3_XXS2 shards88.15 GiB94,648,504,2883.213unsloth
Q3_K_S3 shards94.48 GiB101,444,706,3363.444unsloth
Q3_K_S3 shards94.48 GiB101,444,706,4003.444unsloth
Q3_K_M3 shards104.72 GiB112,447,381,5043.817unsloth
Q3_K_M3 shards104.72 GiB112,447,381,5683.817unsloth
IQ4_XS3 shards116.70 GiB125,303,361,6004.253unsloth
IQ4_XS3 shards116.70 GiB125,303,361,6644.253unsloth
IQ4_NL3 shards123.50 GiB132,603,416,5764.501unsloth
IQ4_NL3 shards123.50 GiB132,603,416,6404.501unsloth
Q4_03 shards123.99 GiB133,132,423,2004.519unsloth
Q4_03 shards123.99 GiB133,132,423,2644.519unsloth
Q4_K_S3 shards124.51 GiB133,687,119,9044.538unsloth
Q4_K_S3 shards124.51 GiB133,687,119,9684.538unsloth
Q4_K_M3 shards132.39 GiB142,154,076,1924.825unsloth
Q4_K_M3 shards132.39 GiB142,154,076,2564.825unsloth
Q4_13 shards137.12 GiB147,230,101,5364.998unsloth
Q4_13 shards137.12 GiB147,230,101,6004.998unsloth
Q5_K_S4 shards150.76 GiB161,881,428,1285.495unsloth
Q5_K_S4 shards150.76 GiB161,881,428,1925.495unsloth
Q5_K_M4 shards155.36 GiB166,814,158,9445.663unsloth
Q5_K_M4 shards155.36 GiB166,814,159,0085.663unsloth
Q6_K4 shards179.76 GiB193,015,496,8646.552unsloth
Q6_K4 shards179.76 GiB193,015,496,9286.552unsloth
Q8_06 shards232.77 GiB249,940,106,7528.484Qwen
Q8_06 shards232.77 GiB249,940,107,6488.484unsloth
Q8_06 shards232.77 GiB249,940,107,7128.484unsloth
BF1610 shards437.99 GiB470,293,438,97615.964unsloth
BF1610 shards437.99 GiB470,293,439,04015.964unsloth

KV cache by context

computed per layer
ContextKV cache (f16)Flat formulaOverstated byFull / windowed / recurrent
4,0960.73 GiB0.73 GiB94 / 0 / 0
8,1921.47 GiB1.47 GiB94 / 0 / 0
16,3842.94 GiB2.94 GiB94 / 0 / 0
32,7685.88 GiB5.88 GiB94 / 0 / 0
65,53611.75 GiB11.75 GiB94 / 0 / 0
131,07223.50 GiB23.50 GiB94 / 0 / 0

Compare with

same modality, comparable size

Will it run on your card?

full quant x context sweep

Why other calculators give a different number

A parameters × bits ÷ 8 estimate puts Q4_K_M at roughly 123.46 GiB. The real file is 132.39 GiB, because a quantization is a mixture and some tensors are always kept at higher precision.

Architecture

from config.json
Layers
94
Attention heads
64
KV heads
4
Head dim
128
Hidden size
4096
Vocab
151,936
Sliding window
none
SWA period
MLA
no
Experts
128
Experts per token
8
use_sliding_window

Questions people ask

How much VRAM does Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct need?
Q4_K_M is exactly 142,154,076,192 bytes (132.39 GiB) in weights. Add the KV cache, which depends on your context length, plus roughly half a gigabyte of runtime overhead.
How large is Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct's KV cache?
5.88 GiB at 32K context with an f16 cache, computed per layer. Quantizing the cache to q8_0 roughly halves it, which is often the difference between a context length fitting and not.
Is Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct a mixture-of-experts model?
Yes — 128 experts, 8 routed per token. Every expert must be resident, but only the routed ones are read per token, which is why its memory requirement and its speed behave very differently.
Which quantization of Qwen3-VL-235B-A22B-Instruct should I use?
Q4_K_M is the usual default. Pick the largest quantization that fits your card at the context you actually need — the table above gives exact sizes for every one published.