Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 30, 2026
IBM's April 29, 2026 release. The 3B and 8B tiers are dense transformers; the 30B tier pivots back to a hybrid Mamba-Transformer (interleaved SSM + attention) design rather than 4.0's MoE. Apache 2.0 licensed, ISO 42001 certified, 128K context (extendable to 512K). All three sizes have official Ollama tags, spanning budget edge hardware to mid-range 24GB GPUs.
| Granite 4.1 3B | Min 3 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 128,000 ctx · ollama run granite4.1:3b |
| Granite 4.1 8B | Min 6 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 128,000 ctx · ollama run granite4.1:8b |
| Granite 4.1 30B | Min 19 GB VRAM · FP8 (Q4 est. ~12-15GB, unconfirmed) · 128,000 ctx · ollama run granite4.1:30b |
The cheapest GPU that runs IBM Granite 4.1 locally (min 3 GB VRAM) is the Intel Arc B570 (10 GB).
Install Ollama then run: ollama run granite4.1:3b
Minimum VRAM: 3 GB. For best results use Q4_K_M quantization.
IBM Granite 4.1 needs about 3 GB VRAM at Q4_K_M quantization for its smallest variant. Variants: Granite 4.1 3B (3 GB, Q4_K_M); Granite 4.1 8B (6 GB, Q4_K_M); Granite 4.1 30B (19 GB, FP8 (Q4 est. ~12-15GB, unconfirmed)). On Apple Silicon, unified memory counts toward this requirement.
Yes — IBM Granite 4.1 runs on an RTX 4090 (24 GB) and other 24 GB cards such as the RTX 3090. Smaller variants also fit comfortably on 8–16 GB GPUs at Q4_K_M.
Q4_K_M is the best balance of quality and VRAM for IBM Granite 4.1 in most cases. Choose Q8_0 for near-lossless quality if you have spare VRAM, or smaller quants (Q3/Q2) only when memory is tight.
Install Ollama, then run: ollama run granite4.1:3b. This downloads IBM Granite 4.1 and starts a local, OpenAI-compatible endpoint — no internet connection is needed after the initial download.