Model reference · open weights

Llama-3.1

LLMs meta-llama Text gen 8 builds Open, with conditions 5.9M dl/mo

Llama-3.1 is an open-weight language model from Meta. Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (BF16) weighs 16.1 GB; the smallest configuration that runs it is 2× RTX 3060 12 GB.

For self-hosting, compare this build's requirements below with the GPU you plan to rent.

  • Llama-3.1 is an 8.0B parameter instruction-tuned language model developed by Meta for multilingual dialogue and text generation.
  • It supports English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, Spanish, and Thai, and is distributed under the Llama 3.1 Community License.

Summary of the meta-llama/Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct model card, 2026-10-01

What it is

Released byMeta
Released2024-07-18
Parameters8.0B
VRAM16.1 GB for the weights

What it runs on

Memory and cards for Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (BF16)

16.1 GBweights, file size
131 MBcache per 1K tokens
745 MBruntime overhead, at least
131,072 tokenscontext max
CardRequests at onceContext maxMemory
8K each32K each
RTX 3060 12 GB … RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB
2 smaller cards
RTX 3090 24 GB6149K23.4 GB
RTX 4090 24 GB6148K23.4 GB
RTX 5090 32 GB133105K31.0 GB
L40S 48 GB256all 128K44.0 GB
A100 80 GB5714all 128K78.2 GB
H100 80 GB5313all 128K78.1 GB
RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96 GB6716all 128K93.8 GB
DGX Spark (GB10) 128 GB unified8020all 128K107 GB
H200 141 GB10927all 128K138 GB
B200 180 GB14335all 128K176 GB
2× RTX 3060 12 GB
tensor parallel
5142K11.6 GB a card
2× RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB
tensor parallel
12398K15.4 GB a card
2× RTX 4090 24 GB
tensor parallel
276all 128K23.4 GB a card
2× RTX 3090 24 GB
tensor parallel
276all 128K23.4 GB a card
Memory needed at each load
Requests at once8K tokens each32K tokens each
117.9 GB21.1 GB
522.2 GB38.3 GB
825.4 GB51.2 GB
1634.0 GB85.5 GB
3251.2 GB154 GB
6485.5 GB292 GB

One card, with vLLM's small-card settings.

Builds

Sizes, precisions & builds

BuildParamsPrecisionWeightsSmallest setup
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct (above) ↗ 8.0BBF16 16.1 GB2× RTX 3060 12 GB
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct ↗ 70.6BBF16 141 GB4× L40S 48 GB
Llama-3.1-405B-FP8 ↗ 405.9BFP8 487 GBnone of the reference configurations
Llama-3.1-405B ↗ 405.9BBF16 812 GBnone of the reference configurations
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct ↗
packaged by unsloth
8.0BBF16 16.1 GB2× RTX 3060 12 GB
Llama-3.1-70B-Instruct-FP8 ↗
packaged by nvidia
70.6BFP8 72.7 GBA100 80 GB
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-FP8 ↗
packaged by nvidia
8.0BFP8 9.1 GBRTX 3060 12 GB
Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-GGUF ↗
packaged by unsloth
25 builds: IQ1_S 2.2 GB … BF16 16.1 GB
GGUF 4.9 GBRTX 3060 12 GB

From the model card

What Meta says about Llama-3.1

Read the model card

Model Information

The Meta Llama 3.1 collection of multilingual large language models (LLMs) is a collection of pretrained and instruction tuned generative models in 8B, 70B and 405B sizes (text in/text out). The Llama 3.1 instruction tuned text only models (8B, 70B, 405B) are optimized for multilingual dialogue use cases and outperform many of the available open source and closed chat models on common industry benchmarks.

Model developer: Meta

Model Architecture: Llama 3.1 is an auto-regressive language model that uses an optimized transformer architecture. The tuned versions use supervised fine-tuning (SFT) and reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) to align with human preferences for helpfulness and safety.

Supported languages: English, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, Spanish, and Thai.

Llama 3.1 family of models. Token counts refer to pretraining data only. All model versions use Grouped-Query Attention (GQA) for improved inference scalability.

Model Release Date: July 23, 2024.

Status: This is a static model trained on an offline dataset. Future versions of the tuned models will be released as we improve model safety with community feedback.

License: A custom commercial license, the Llama 3.1 Community License, is available at: https://github.com/meta-llama/llama-models/blob/main/models/llama3_1/LICENSE

Where to send questions or comments about the model Instructions on how to provide feedback or comments on the model can be found in the model README. For more technical information about generation parameters and recipes for how to use Llama 3.1 in applications, please go here.

Intended Use

Intended Use Cases Llama 3.1 is intended for commercial and research use in multiple languages. Instruction tuned text only models are intended for assistant-like chat, whereas pretrained models can be adapted for a variety of natural language generation tasks. The Llama 3.1 model collection also supports the ability to leverage the outputs of its models to improve other models including synthetic data generation and distillation. The Llama 3.1 Community License allows for these use cases.

Out-of-scope Use in any manner that violates applicable laws or regulations (including trade compliance laws). Use in any other way that is prohibited by the Acceptable Use Policy and Llama 3.1 Community License. Use in languages beyond those explicitly referenced as supported in this model card**.

**Note: Llama 3.1 has been trained on a broader collection of languages than the 8 supported languages. Developers may fine-tune Llama 3.1 models for languages beyond the 8 supported languages provided they comply with the Llama 3.1 Community License and the Acceptable Use Policy and in such cases are responsible for ensuring that any uses of Llama 3.1 in additional languages is done in a safe and responsible manner.

How to use

This repository contains two versions of Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct, for use with transformers and with the original llama codebase.

Use with transformers

Starting with transformers >= 4.43.0 onward, you can run conversational inference using the Transformers pipeline abstraction or by leveraging the Auto classes with the generate() function.

Make sure to update your transformers installation via pip install --upgrade transformers.

import transformers
import torch

model_id = "meta-llama/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct"

pipeline = transformers.pipeline(
    "text-generation",
    model=model_id,
    model_kwargs={"torch_dtype": torch.bfloat16},
    device_map="auto",
)

messages = [
    {"role": "system", "content": "You are a pirate chatbot who always responds in pirate speak!"},
    {"role": "user", "content": "Who are you?"},
]

outputs = pipeline(
    messages,
    max_new_tokens=256,
)
print(outputs[0]["generated_text"][-1])

Note: You can also find detailed recipes on how to use the model locally, with torch.compile(), assisted generations, quantised and more at huggingface-llama-recipes

Tool use with transformers

LLaMA-3.1 supports multiple tool use formats. You can see a full guide to prompt formatting here.

Tool use is also supported through chat templates in Transformers. Here is a quick example showing a single simple tool:

# First, define a tool
def get_current_temperature(location: str) -> float:
    """
    Get the current temperature at a location.

    Args:
        location: The location to get the temperature for, in the format "City, Country"
    Returns:
        The current temperature at the specified location in the specified units, as a float.
    """
    return 22.  # A real function should probably actually get the temperature!

# Next, create a chat and apply the chat template
messages = [
  {"role": "system", "content": "You are a bot that responds to weather queries."},
  {"role": "user", "content": "Hey, what's the temperature in Paris right now?"}
]

inputs = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(messages, tools=[get_current_temperature], add_generation_prompt=True)

You can then generate text from this input as normal. If the model generates a tool call, you should add it to the chat like so:

tool_call = {"name": "get_current_temperature", "arguments": {"location": "Paris, France"}}
messages.append({"role": "assistant", "tool_calls": [{"type": "function", "function": tool_call}]})

and then call the tool and append the result, with the tool role, like so:

messages.append({"role": "tool", "name": "get_current_temperat

Quoted from the model card on Hugging Face. The full card is behind the Hugging Face link above.

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