How much VRAM does Kimi K2.6 need?
Kimi K2.6 needs 554 GB for its weights as released (INT4), 556 GB with an 8K context and 557 GB with 32K.
- Parameters
- 1T
- Active per token
- 32B
- Longest context
- 256K
- Released
- Apr 2026
- License
- Modified MIT
- Strongest at
- Chat, Coding, Agents, Docs
Memory at each precision
| Precision | Weights | With 8K | With 32K | With 128K |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| As released (INT4) | 554 GB | 556 GB | 557 GB | 564 GB |
| 3-bit | 467 GB | 469 GB | 471 GB | 477 GB |
| 2-bit | 359 GB | 360 GB | 362 GB | 368 GB |
| 1.6-bit | 197 GB | 199 GB | 200 GB | 207 GB |
One conversation, 16-bit context cache, runtime overhead included.
What runs it
| Machine | Best fit | Context | Speed | First reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTX 3060 12 GB | Too big | |||
| RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB | Too big | |||
| RTX 3090 | Too big | |||
| RTX 4090 | Too big | |||
| RTX 5090 | Too big | |||
| 2× RTX 3090 | Too big | |||
| RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell | Too big | |||
| M4 Max 128 GB | Too big | |||
| M5 Max 128 GB | Too big | |||
| Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128 GB | Too big | |||
| DGX Spark 128 GB | Too big | |||
| M3 Ultra 256 GB | Too big | |||
| M5 Ultra 512 GB | 2-bit | 80K | 42 tok/s | 6.1 s |
| H100 SXM | Too big | |||
| DGX Station GB300 | 1.6-bit | 256K | 200 tok/s | 0.6 s |
| 8× H200 NVL | INT4 | 256K | 58 tok/s | 0.3 s |
Best fit is the highest quality, up to 8-bit, that leaves 16K of context. First reply is the wait for a 2K prompt. Speeds are rough, plus or minus 25%.
How to run it
- llama.cpp
llama-server -hf unsloth/Kimi-K2.6-GGUF- vLLM
vllm serve moonshotai/Kimi-K2.6- MLX (Mac)
mlx_lm.chat --model mlx-community/Kimi-K2.6-mlx-DQ3_K_M-q8
Questions
How much VRAM does Kimi K2.6 need?
Kimi K2.6 needs 554 GB for its weights as released (INT4), 556 GB with an 8K context and 557 GB with 32K.
Can Kimi K2.6 run on an RTX 4090?
Not on one card. The smallest machine here that runs it is the M5 Ultra 512 GB.