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text model · Qwen3 · Android

Can I run Qwen3 30B-A3B on Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM)?

Compatibility verdict VRAM threshold engine
No, not enough memory would not load

No. Qwen3 30B-A3B needs ~20.7 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM) only has ~8.5 GB usable.

Needs ~20.7 GB Device usable ~8.5 GB

Needs ~20.7 GB even at Q4_K_M, but only ~8.5 GB is usable.

That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes.

The gap is about 12.2 GB: Qwen3 30B-A3B needs roughly 20.7 GB at Q4_K_M and Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM) leaves only about 8.5 GB usable for a model. The lightest tracked hardware that runs Qwen3 30B-A3B is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB) at 24 GB. See Qwen3 30B-A3B on Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB).

Q4_K_M needed
~20.7 GB
Usable on device
~8.5 GB
Device memory
12 GB
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Which quant fits

Quant ladder vs ~8.5 GB usable
Q2_K
~14.9 GB
Q3_K_M
~17 GB
Q4_K_M
~20.7 GB
Q5_K_M
~23.8 GB
Q6_K
~27.1 GB
Q8_0
~34.6 GB
FP16
~63.1 GB
The line marks Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM)'s ~8.5 GB budget; rungs past it are too large.

How to run it

On Android use PocketPal AI (Polished app, download GGUF and run offline.).

Model Qwen3
Parameters
30.5B (MoE, 3.3B active)
Q4_K_M size
18.6 GB
Q8_0 size
32.5 GB
Context
32k
Ollama tag
qwen3:30b-a3b
Full Qwen3 30B-A3B requirements →
Device Android
Memory
12 GB ram
Usable for weights
~8.5 GB
Best runtime
llama.cpp (PocketPal) or MLC-LLM
Best models for Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM) →

What you can run instead

Run Qwen3 30B-A3B on other hardware

FAQ

Can Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM) run Qwen3 30B-A3B?

No. Qwen3 30B-A3B needs ~20.7 GB even at Q4_K_M, but Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM) only has ~8.5 GB usable.

How much memory does Qwen3 30B-A3B need?

Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM) does not have enough memory. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~18.6 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~20.7 GB at a 4k context. It is a Mixture-of-Experts model (30.5B total / 3.3B active), so all experts must stay in memory; memory tracks total params, not active params.

What is the best tool to run Qwen3 30B-A3B on Android?

On Android, PocketPal AI (Polished app, download GGUF and run offline.) is the go-to option. NPU acceleration is limited and chip-specific; most apps run on CPU. Expect 1B-4B class.

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Sources

Weights are measured from GGUF files; KV cache and overhead are computed, so totals can vary ~15% with context and runtime. Any tok/s is a bandwidth estimate. See methodology.