Model reference · open weights

VAREdit

Image HiDream-ai Image edit 1 build Open weights 0 dl/mo

VAREdit is an open-weight image model from HiDream-ai. VAREdit (BF16) weighs 11.4 GB; the smallest configuration that runs it is RTX 4090 24 GB.

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

  • VAREdit is an image-to-image editing model developed by HiDream-ai for instruction-based image modifications.
  • It is built on the Infinity models and supports 512×512 and 1024×1024 image resolutions.
  • The model is available in 2.2B and 8.4B parameter variants, operates in English, and is released under the MIT license.

Summary of the HiDream-ai/VAREdit model card, 2026-10-01

What it is

Released byHiDream-ai
Released2025-08-14
VRAM11.4 GB for the weights

What it runs on

Memory and cards for VAREdit (BF16)

11.4 GBweights, file size
5.0 GBworking memory, one 1024² image
537 MBruntime overhead
CardOne imageMemory
RTX 3060 12 GB … RTX 4060 Ti 16 GBdoes not fit
RTX 3090 24 GBfits23.4 GB
RTX 4090 24 GBfits23.4 GB
RTX 5090 32 GBfits31.0 GB
L40S 48 GBfits44.0 GB
A100 80 GBfits78.2 GB
H100 80 GBfits78.1 GB
RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell 96 GBfits93.8 GB
DGX Spark (GB10) 128 GB unifiedfits107 GB
H200 141 GBfits138 GB
B200 180 GBfits176 GB

From the model card

What HiDream-ai says about VAREdit

Read the model card

📄 Paper

VAREdit is an advanced image editing model built on the Infinity models, designed for high-quality instruction-based image editing.

Try our online demos: 🤗VAREdit-8B-1024 and 🤗VAREdit-8B-512.

🌟 Key Features

  • Strong Instruction Follow: Follows instructions more accurately due to the autoregressive nature of the model.
  • Efficient Inference: Optimized for fast generation with less than 1 seconds for 8B model.
  • Flexible Resolution: Supports 512×512 and 1024×1024 image resolutions

📊 Model Variants

Model VariantResolutionsHuggingFace ModelTime (H800)VRAM (GB)
VAREdit-8B-512512×512VAREdit-8B-512~0.7s50.41
VAREdit-8B-10241024×1024VAREdit-8B-1024~1.99s50.41

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

  • Python 3.8+
  • CUDA-compatible GPU with sufficient VRAM (8GB+ for 2B model, 24GB+ for 8B model)
  • Required dependencies installed

Installation

  1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/HiDream-ai/VAREdit.git
cd VAREdit
  1. Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt
  1. Download model checkpoints

Download the VAREdit model checkpoints:

# Download from HuggingFace
git lfs install
git clone https://huggingface.co/HiDream-ai/VAREdit

Basic Usage

from infer import load_model, generate_image

model_components = load_model(
    pretrain_root="HiDream-ai/VAREdit",
    model_path="HiDream-ai/VAREdit/8B-1024.pth",
    model_size="8B",
    image_size=1024
)

# Generate edited image
edited_image = generate_image(
    model_components,
    src_img_path="assets/test.jpg",
    instruction="Add glasses to this girl and change hair color to red",
    cfg=3.0,  # Classifier-free guidance scale
    tau=0.1,  # Temperature parameter
    seed=42  # Optional random seed
)

📝 Detailed Configuration

Model Sampling Parameters

ParameterDescriptionDefault
cfgClassifier-free guidance scale3.0
tauTemperature for sampling0.1
seedRandom seed for reproducibility-1 (random)

📂 Project Structure

VAREdit/
├── infer.py              # Main inference script
├── infinity/             # Core model implementations
│   ├── models/          # Model architectures
│   ├── dataset/         # Data processing utilities
│   └── utils/           # Helper functions
├── tools/               # Additional tools and scripts
│   └── run_infinity.py  # Model execution utilities
├── assets/              # Demo images and resources
└── README.md           # This file

📊 Performance Benchmarks

MethodSizeEMU-Edit Bal.PIE-Bench Bal.Time (A800)
InstructPix2Pix1.1B2.9234.0343.5s
UltraEdit7.7B4.5415.5802.6s
OmniGen3.8B4.6743.49216.5s
AnySD2.9B3.1293.3263.4s
EditAR0.8B3.3054.70745.5s
ACE++16.9B2.0762.5745.7s
ICEdit17.0B4.7854.9338.4s
VAREdit (256px)2.2B5.5656.6840.5s
VAREdit (512px)2.2B5.6626.9960.7s
VAREdit (512px)8.4B7.7928.1051.2s
VAREdit (1024px)8.4B7.3797.6883.9s

Note: The released 8B models are trained longer and on more data, so the performances are better than that in the paper.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

📚 Citation

If you use VAREdit in your research, please cite:

@article{varedit2025,
  title={Visual Autoregressive Modeling for Instruction-Guided Image Editing},
  author={Mao, Qingyang and Cai, Qi and Li, Yehao and Pan, Yingwei and Cheng, Mingyue and Yao, Ting and Liu, Qi and Mei, Tao},
  journal={arXiv preprint},
  year={2025}
}

🙏 Acknowledgments

Note: This project is under active development. Features and code may change.

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

How it works

How image models work

Text promptwhat to makeText encoderunderstands itDiffusion stepsdenoise to pixelsImagePNG / JPEGA diffusion model starts from noise and denoises it, guided by your prompt, into a finished image.

Running it yourself

Run it on a rented GPU

Rent a machine by the hour. ComfyUI is installed on it. Open ComfyUI through the tunnel, load the workflow from the model's card on Hugging Face, and choose this file in its text encoder loader.

# on your rented machine (the ssh line is on its page in the console)
# get REPO FILE FOLDER: one file into /workspace/models/FOLDER, where ComfyUI loads it from
get() { hf download "$1" "$2" --local-dir /workspace/hf-files && mkdir -p "/workspace/models/$3" && mv "/workspace/hf-files/$2" "/workspace/models/$3/$4"; }

# the model (8.8 GB)
get HiDream-ai/VAREdit flan-t5-xl/model-00001-of-00002.safetensors text_encoders

start-comfyui
Renting a GPU: connect, tunnels, ComfyUI
# on your computer, in a second terminal: ComfyUI in your browser at http://localhost:8188
# HOST, PORT and BOOKING are your machine's, from its page in the console
ssh -o HostKeyAlias=axforge-BOOKING -o StrictHostKeyChecking=accept-new -L 8188:localhost:8188 dev@HOST -p PORT
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