# Kimi K2 Instruct: RAM and VRAM requirements

> Kimi K2 Instruct is a 1000B Kimi model (Mixture-of-Experts, 32B active per token). At Q4_K_M it needs about **586.6 GB** to run and fits **0 of 40** tracked devices. Minimum to run: high-memory hardware.

Last validated: 2026-08-03. Sources: Ollama, HuggingFace GGUF repos, vendor specs.

## Memory by quantization
| Quant | On disk | To run (4k context) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Q4_K_M | 578.15 GB | ~586.6 GB |
| Q8_0 | 1016.12 GB | ~1024.5 GB |

Memory = weights + KV cache + ~0.8 GB runtime overhead, and varies ±15% with context length.

## Will it run on my device?
- **Apple M1 (8GB)** (8 GB): No, not enough memory
- **iPhone 17** (8 GB): No, not enough memory
- **iPhone 17 Pro** (12 GB): No, not enough memory
- **16GB RAM Laptop (CPU/iGPU only)** (16 GB): No, not enough memory
- **Google Pixel 10 Pro** (16 GB): No, not enough memory
- **Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 (24GB)** (24 GB): No, not enough memory
- **Apple M4 Pro (48GB)** (48 GB): No, not enough memory
- **Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)** (256 GB): No, not enough memory

Full table of all 40 devices: https://localmodel.run/model/kimi-k2

## How to run
Quickest path: `ollama run kimi-k2`. On Mac, LM Studio (ships MLX) is fastest; on Linux, Ollama for chat or vLLM to serve; on Windows, LM Studio or Ollama.

## Details
- Parameters: 1000B (MoE, 32B active per token)
- Default context: 128k tokens
- License: Modified MIT (commercial use: conditional)
- Released: 2025-07
- HuggingFace: 177,689 downloads/mo, 2371 likes

## FAQ
### How much VRAM or RAM does Kimi K2 Instruct need?
About 586.6 GB at Q4_K_M (weights 578.15 GB + KV cache + overhead) at a 4k context. Budget ~1024.5 GB for Q8_0.
### Can Kimi K2 Instruct run on a laptop?
Kimi K2 Instruct is large; you need a high-memory Mac or a 24 GB+ GPU at Q4_K_M.
### Can I use Kimi K2 Instruct commercially?
Conditionally: Modified MIT; commercial use allowed below a large-user threshold..

Sources: https://huggingface.co/moonshotai/Kimi-K2-Instruct, https://huggingface.co/unsloth/Kimi-K2-Instruct-GGUF, https://ollama.com/library/kimi-k2, https://www.hpcwire.com/2025/07/16/chinas-moonshot-ai-releases-trillion-parameter-model-kimi-k2/, https://aider.chat/docs/leaderboards/, https://gorilla.cs.berkeley.edu/leaderboard.html
More: https://localmodel.run/model/kimi-k2