Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated July 10, 2026
Cohere's February 17, 2026 release — the most capable multilingual open-weight model at the 3B parameter class. Tiny Aya outperforms Qwen3-4B, Gemma 3 4B, and Ministral 3B on multilingual benchmarks across 23 languages. Perfect for edge devices, phones, and resource-constrained deployments where global language support is critical.
| Aya 3B | Min 3 GB VRAM · Q4_K_M · 8,192 ctx · ollama run aya:3b |
The cheapest GPU that runs Aya 3B (Tiny Aya) locally (min 3 GB VRAM) is the Intel Arc B570 (10 GB).
Install Ollama then run: ollama run aya:3b
Minimum VRAM: 3 GB. For best results use Q4_K_M quantization.
Aya 3B (Tiny Aya) needs about 3 GB VRAM at Q4_K_M quantization for its smallest variant. Variants: Aya 3B (3 GB, Q4_K_M). On Apple Silicon, unified memory counts toward this requirement.
Yes — Aya 3B (Tiny Aya) 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 Aya 3B (Tiny Aya) 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 aya:3b. This downloads Aya 3B (Tiny Aya) and starts a local, OpenAI-compatible endpoint — no internet connection is needed after the initial download.