granite
8B parameters
Commercial OK
Reviewed May 2026

Granite 3.3 8B

IBM Granite 3.3. Iterative refresh of 3.2 — same architecture; improved instruction following and tool-call reliability. Apache 2.0.

License: Apache 2.0·Released Mar 12, 2026·Context: 131,072 tokens

Overview

IBM Granite 3.3. Iterative refresh of 3.2 — same architecture; improved instruction following and tool-call reliability. Apache 2.0.

Family & lineage

How this model relates to others in its lineage. Family members share architecture and training-data roots; parent / children edges record direct distillation or fine-tune relationships.

Parent / base model
Granite 3.2 8B8B
Consumer
Family siblings (granite-3)
Granite 3.0 2B Instruct2B
Edge
Granite 3.0 8B Instruct8B
Consumer
Granite 3.2 8B8B
Consumer
Granite 3.3 8B8B
You are here
Granite 3 MoE (3B active)16B
Consumer

Strengths

  • Apache 2.0
  • Drop-in upgrade from Granite 3.2

Weaknesses

  • Granite line trails Qwen / Llama on general-chat polish

Quantization variants

Each quantization trades model quality for file size and VRAM. Q4_K_M is the most popular starting point.

QuantizationFile sizeVRAM required
Q4_K_M4.8 GB6 GB

Get the model

HuggingFace

Original weights

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-3.3-8b-instruct

Source repository — direct quantization required.

Hardware that runs this

Cards with enough VRAM for at least one quantization of Granite 3.3 8B.

NVIDIA GB200 NVL72
13824GB · nvidia
AMD Instinct MI355X
288GB · amd
AMD Instinct MI325X
256GB · amd
AMD Instinct MI300X
192GB · amd
NVIDIA B200
192GB · nvidia
NVIDIA H100 NVL
188GB · nvidia
NVIDIA H200
141GB · nvidia
Intel Gaudi 3
128GB · intel
Compare alternatives

Models worth comparing

Same parameter band, plus what's one tier above and below — so you can decide what actually fits your hardware.

Step up
More capable — bigger memory footprint
Step down
Smaller — faster, runs on weaker hardware

Frequently asked

What's the minimum VRAM to run Granite 3.3 8B?

6GB of VRAM is enough to run Granite 3.3 8B at the Q4_K_M quantization (file size 4.8 GB). Higher-quality quantizations need more.

Can I use Granite 3.3 8B commercially?

Yes — Granite 3.3 8B ships under the Apache 2.0, which permits commercial use. Always read the license text before deployment.

What's the context length of Granite 3.3 8B?

Granite 3.3 8B supports a context window of 131,072 tokens (about 131K).

Source: huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-3.3-8b-instruct

Reviewed by RunLocalAI Editorial. See our editorial policy for how we research and verify model claims.

Related — keep moving

Compare hardware
Buyer guides
When it doesn't work
Recommended hardware
Alternatives
Granite 3.0 2B InstructGranite 3.0 8B InstructGranite 3.2 8BGranite 3 MoE (3B active)
Before you buy

Verify Granite 3.3 8B runs on your specific hardware before committing money.

Will it run on my hardware? →Custom hardware comparison →GPU recommender (4 questions) →