Text model · Gemma
Gemma 4 E2B: RAM and VRAM requirements
Gemma 4 E2B needs about 4.4 GB to run at Q4_K_M (the Q4_K_M GGUF file is ~3.11 GB to download; KV cache and overhead add the rest), or about 6.4 GB at Q8_0. The lightest hardware that runs it is Apple M1 (8GB).
Gemma family · 5.1B params · released Mar 2026.
Shopping for hardware? See what runs Gemma 4 E2B →
Q4_K_M and Q8_0 are GGUF download (file) sizes. Memory @ Q4 includes the KV cache and overhead, so it runs larger than the file on disk.
Will it run on your device?
Gemma 4 E2B runs on 40 of 40 tracked devices at Q4_K_M.
Memory breakdown
How context length changes it
Longer context grows the KV cache quickly: Gemma 4 E2B needs ~4.4 GB at 4k but ~21.2 GB at 128k, which can push it past a device that fits it at a short context.
Speed drops too: every token re-reads the KV cache, so at 128k context Gemma 4 E2B generates at roughly ~15% of its short-context speed. How this is estimated.
Quantization sizes
| Quantization | Size on disk |
|---|---|
| Q2_K | 2.1 GB est |
| Q3_K_M | 2.5 GB est |
| Q4_K_M (default) | 3.11 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 3.6 GB est |
| Q6_K | 4.2 GB est |
| Q8_0 | 5.05 GB |
| FP16 | 9.31 GB |
Lower quant = smaller and faster, slightly lower quality. Q4_K_M is the common default.
Run it
ollama run gemma4:e2b llama-cli -hf unsloth/gemma-4-E2B-it-GGUF:Q4_K_M lms get unsloth/gemma-4-E2B-it-GGUF Which devices can run Gemma 4 E2B?
Apple Silicon Macs
- Apple M1 (8GB) Yes
- Apple M2 (16GB) Yes
- Apple M4 (16GB) Yes
- Apple M5 (16GB) Yes
- Apple M3 Pro (18GB) Yes
- Apple M4 (24GB) Yes
- Apple M4 Pro (24GB) Yes
- Apple M5 (32GB) Yes
- Apple M4 Pro (48GB) Yes
- Apple M5 Pro (48GB) Yes
- Apple M4 Max (64GB) Yes
- Apple M4 Max (128GB) Yes
- Apple M5 Max (128GB) Yes
- Apple M3 Ultra (256GB) Yes
RAM-only laptops
iPhone & iPad
Android
NVIDIA GPUs
Same job, different size
Pick by what fits your memory: step down to free up VRAM, or step up if you have headroom.
Similar models
Head-to-head
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 3 270M
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 3 1B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 2 2B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 3 4B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 3n E4B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 4 E4B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 2 9B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 3 12B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 4 12B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 4 26B-A4B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 2 27B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 3 27B
- Gemma 4 E2B vs Gemma 4 31B
FAQ
How much VRAM or RAM does Gemma 4 E2B need?
At Q4_K_M, Gemma 4 E2B needs about 4.4 GB (weights ~3.11 GB + KV cache + overhead) at a 4k context. At Q8_0 budget ~6.4 GB.
What is the Q4_K_M GGUF file size of Gemma 4 E2B?
The Q4_K_M GGUF file is about 3.11 GB to download, and the Q8_0 GGUF is about 5.05 GB. That is the weights file on disk; to run it you also need room for the KV cache and overhead, so budget ~4.4 GB of memory at Q4_K_M.
Can Gemma 4 E2B run on a laptop?
Yes, Gemma 4 E2B fits on a 16 GB machine at Q4_K_M and runs on Apple Silicon or a 12 GB+ GPU comfortably.
Can I use Gemma 4 E2B commercially?
Yes. Gemma 4 E2B is licensed Apache-2.0, which permits commercial use.
Understand the numbers
Short guides to the ideas behind Gemma 4 E2B's memory and quant figures.
Google's on-device Gemma 4 (PLE): 2.3B effective params, 5.1B raw with per-layer embeddings. Multimodal (vision, ~1GB mmproj extra). Q4_K_M/Q8_0/BF16 sizes from unsloth HF repo. The Ollama gemma4:e2b blob is 7.2GB because it bundles full-precision per-layer embeddings, same pattern as Gemma 3n. 128K context.
Sources
Last validated 2026-08-03. Memory figures are estimates. See methodology.