Olmo 3 7B — VRAM, speed & local setup
Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated
The small Olmo 3, in Base, Instruct and Think builds. Runs on an 8 GB card at Q4. Its value is provenance: every token it was trained on is published.
Olmo 3 7B needs about 5 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.
VRAM and speed by quantization
Quoted against NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24 GB). Weights plus overhead only: this model's architecture is unpublished, so no KV cache is added.
| Quant | Memory | VRAM | Speed (est.) | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2_K 2.63 bpw | 3.1 GB | ~166 tok/s | Fits | |
| Q3_K_M 3.41 bpw | 3.8 GB | ~144 tok/s | Fits | |
| Q4_K_M 4.83 bpw | 5 GB | ~117 tok/s | Fits | |
| Q5_K_M 5.67 bpw | 5.8 GB | ~105 tok/s | Fits | |
| Q6_K 6.56 bpw | 6.5 GB | ~95 tok/s | Fits | |
| Q8_0 8.50 bpw | 8.2 GB | ~78 tok/s | Fits | |
| F16 16.00 bpw | 14.8 GB | ~47 tok/s | Fits |
Black marker = usable memory on the NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24 GB). Estimates from the memory-bandwidth roofline on the methodology page. Olmo 3 7B VRAM calculator →
Get Olmo 3 7B running
The cheapest catalogued GPU that runs Olmo 3 7B is the Intel Arc B570 (10 GB).
or compare on Vast.ai from $0.35/hr (typical low · varies)
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How to run Olmo 3 7B
Install Ollama, then run:
ollama run olmo-3Specifications
Corroborated — Two or more independent sources agree on these figures, but the model card itself was not retrieved. Treat the numbers as good rather than confirmed. Still unconfirmed: context.
- Parameters
- 7 Billion
- Context window
- 65,536
- Architecture
- Dense
- Provider
- Ai2 (Allen Institute for AI)
- Licence
- Apache 2.0
- Practical deployment
- Edge device (phone, SBC)
- Specified at
- Q4_K_M
- System RAM
- 16 GB
- Record updated
- 2026-09-19
Commercial use permitted. No usage restrictions beyond attribution.
Quality and use cases
Scores as published by the model’s authors or an independent evaluator — quality, not throughput, and not measured by us.
Other Olmo 3 sizes
Olmo 3 7B — frequently asked questions
How much VRAM does Olmo 3 7B need?
About 5 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 Olmo 3 7B run on an RTX 4090 (24 GB)?
Yes. Olmo 3 7B needs about 5 GB at Q4_K_M, inside a 24 GB card, at an estimated 117 tokens/sec.
How do I run Olmo 3 7B locally?
Install Ollama and run `ollama run olmo-3`. That pulls the weights and starts a local OpenAI-compatible endpoint; after the download nothing leaves the machine.
What other sizes does Olmo 3 come in?
Olmo 3 7B (5 GB), Olmo 3 32B (20 GB). Every size shares the family's training and licence; the larger ones score higher and need proportionally more memory.