Can I run Qwen3 235B-A22B locally?
Not on a single consumer GPU. Even at Q4 with 8K context, Qwen3 235B-A22B needs about 135 GB. That takes several GPUs, a workstation card, or a machine with a lot of fast system RAM, where it runs slowly.
Memory needed by compression and context length
| Compression | 4K context | 8K context | 32K context |
|---|---|---|---|
Q4 The most common download. Small quality loss. | 134 GB | 135 GB | 140 GB |
Q5 Very close to full quality. | 157 GB | 158 GB | 163 GB |
Q8 Practically indistinguishable from FP16 at about half the size. | 234 GB | 235 GB | 240 GB |
FP16 Uncompressed. Reference quality, largest size. | 440 GB | 440 GB | 445 GB |
Total memory: model weights, context (KV cache) and about 1 GB of runtime overhead. To run entirely on the GPU, VRAM must be about 5% larger than this.
GPUs that run Qwen3 235B-A22B entirely on the GPU
None of the GPUs in our database has the 143 GB of VRAM it needs at Q4.
Model facts
- Parameters
- 235.1B (22B active, mixture-of-experts)
- Max context
- 32K tokens
- License
- Apache 2.0
- Released
- Apr 2025
Check it with your hardware
Change the compression, context length and system RAM in the calculator.
Open calculator