Aya Expanse 8B — VRAM, Speed & Local Setup

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated October 8, 2024

Model library → Aya Expanse → Aya Expanse 8B

The compact multilingual powerhouse. Outperforms Llama 3 8B in 23 languages. Perfect for non-English applications — ideal for Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, French, Spanish, Russian, and more.

Aya Expanse 8B needs about 6 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M — quantized weights plus framework overhead, before any KV cache. On Apple Silicon that figure comes out of unified memory.

Specifications

Parameters8 Billion
Context window8,192
ArchitectureDense
ProviderCohere
LicenceCC-BY-NC
Specified atQ4_K_M
System RAM16 GB
Record updated2024-10-08

Licence

CC-BY-NC-4.0 — research / non-commercial only. Research / non-commercial only — this licence does NOT permit shipping a commercial product.

VRAM and Speed by Quantization

Modelled on a reference NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24 GB), at 8K context. Speed figures are ESTIMATES from the memory-bandwidth roofline described on the methodology page, not benchmarks we ran — rows marked measured come from published or reader-submitted runs. VRAM here includes the KV cache, so it reads higher than the headline figure above, which does not.

QuantWeightsVRAM neededEst. speedFit on 24 GB
Q2_K2.6 GB4.5 GB~155 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q3_K_M3.4 GB5.3 GB~134 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q4_K_M4.8 GB6.7 GB~107 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q5_K_M5.7 GB7.6 GB~95 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q6_K6.6 GB8.5 GB~86 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q8_08.5 GB10.4 GB~70 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
F1616.1 GB17.9 GB~41 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably

Want the memory numbers alone, at every quantization level and your own context length? Use the Aya Expanse 8B VRAM calculator.

Buy This HardwareIntel Arc B570 10GB — 10 GB VRAM · 150 W board powerDeploy in the Cloud NowRTX 4090 on RunPod — from $0.34/hr · rate checked 2026-07

or compare on Vast.ai from $0.35/hr (typical low · varies)

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Recommended GPU

The cheapest catalogued GPU that runs Aya Expanse 8B is the Intel Arc B570 (10 GB).

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Intel Arc B570 10GB
10 GB VRAM · 150 W board power
2026 prices are volatile — check the current listing.
Check price on Amazon

How to Run Aya Expanse 8B

Install Ollama, then run:

ollama run aya-expanse:8b

Weights on Hugging Face: CohereForAI/aya-expanse-8b.

Best for: multilingual, global chat, non english.

Can I Run Aya Expanse 8B on My GPU?

Other Aya Expanse Sizes

Aya Expanse 8B — Frequently Asked Questions

How much VRAM does Aya Expanse 8B need?
About 6 GB at Q4_K_M — quantized weights plus framework overhead, before any KV cache. The cache grows with context length and is added on top; the table above folds it in. Apple Silicon counts unified memory toward the same figure.
Does Aya Expanse 8B run on an RTX 4090 (24 GB)?
Yes. Aya Expanse 8B needs about 6 GB at Q4_K_M, inside a 24 GB card, at an estimated 107 tokens/sec.
How do I run Aya Expanse 8B locally?
Install Ollama and run `ollama run aya-expanse:8b`. That pulls the weights and starts a local OpenAI-compatible endpoint; after the download nothing leaves the machine.
What other sizes does Aya Expanse come in?
Aya Expanse 8B (6 GB), Aya Expanse 32B (20 GB). Every size shares the family's training and licence; the larger ones score higher and need proportionally more memory.

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