# Mistral Nemo 12B: RAM and VRAM requirements

> Mistral Nemo 12B is a 12.2B mistral model. At Q4_K_M it needs about **8.6 GB** to run and fits **28 of 39** tracked devices. Minimum to run: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB).

Last validated: 2026-06-15. Sources: Ollama, HuggingFace GGUF repos, vendor specs.

## Memory by quantization
| Quant | On disk | To run (4k context) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Q4_K_M | 6.96 GB | ~8.6 GB |
| Q8_0 | 12.13 GB | ~13.7 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
- **Generic Android Phone (8GB RAM)** (8 GB): No, not enough memory
- **iPhone 17 Pro** (12 GB): No, not enough memory
- **Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16GB)** (16 GB): Yes, it runs — room for Q8_0
- **Google Pixel 10 Pro** (16 GB): Yes, it runs
- **Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB)** (24 GB): Yes, it runs — room for Q8_0
- **Apple M4 Pro (48GB)** (48 GB): Yes, it runs — room for FP16
- **Apple M3 Ultra (256GB)** (256 GB): Yes, it runs — room for FP16

Full table of all 39 devices: https://localmodel.run/model/mistral-nemo-12b

## How to run
Quickest path: `ollama run mistral-nemo:12b`. 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: 12.2B
- Default context: 128k tokens
- License: Apache-2.0 (commercial use: yes)
- Released: 2024-07
- HuggingFace: 374,634 downloads/mo, 1681 likes

## FAQ
### How much VRAM or RAM does Mistral Nemo 12B need?
About 8.6 GB at Q4_K_M (weights 6.96 GB + KV cache + overhead) at a 4k context. Budget ~13.7 GB for Q8_0.
### Can Mistral Nemo 12B run on a laptop?
Mistral Nemo 12B is large; you need a high-memory Mac or a 24 GB+ GPU at Q4_K_M.
### Can I use Mistral Nemo 12B commercially?
Yes, Apache-2.0 permits commercial use.

Sources: https://ollama.com/library/mistral-nemo, https://ollama.com/library/mistral-nemo/tags, https://huggingface.co/bartowski/Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407-GGUF, https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407
More: https://localmodel.run/model/mistral-nemo-12b