How much RAM does granite-embedding-311m-multilingual-r2 need?

granite-embedding-311m-multilingual-r2 needs about 748 MB of memory at Q4_K_M quantization with 4K context. The download itself is 188 MB; the extra covers the context cache and runtime overhead.

Can I run granite-embedding-311m-multilingual-r2 on a laptop?

Yes — it runs comfortably on a machine with 8GB RAM, for example Base MacBook Air (M1/M2).

granite-embedding-311m-multilingual-r2: hardware requirements

granite-embedding-311m-multilingual-r2 needs about 748 MB of memory at Q4 quantization — a 188 MB download plus room for context and overhead. That fits a machine with 8GB RAM.

Parameters

312M

Tier

Runs on a laptop

Licence

See model card

Released

2026-04-29

Will it run on your machine?

8GB RAMRuns well 16GB RAMRuns well 32GB RAMRuns well 64GB RAMRuns well 128GB RAMRuns well 8GB VRAMRuns well 12GB VRAMRuns well 16GB VRAMRuns well 24GB VRAMRuns well 32GB VRAMRuns well

Download sizes by quantization

Lower quantization means a smaller file and less memory, at some cost to quality. Q4_K_M is the usual starting point. What is this?

Quant	Download	RAM @ 4K	RAM @ 32K	Source
Q4_K_Mrecommended	188 MB	748 MB	748 MB	estimated
Q5_K_M	221 MB	784 MB	784 MB	estimated
Q6_K	256 MB	823 MB	823 MB	estimated
Q8_0	331 MB	908 MB	908 MB	estimated
BF16	623 MB	1.2 GB	1.2 GB	estimated

“Measured” sizes are read from published GGUF files. “Estimated” sizes are derived from the parameter count and are typically within a few percent. The RAM columns add the context cache and runtime overhead to the download size.

Model card on HuggingFace →API specs & pricing →Verified 2026-08-03