other
3B parameters
Commercial OK
Reviewed October 2026

SmolLM 3 3B

HuggingFace's small-model line at 3B. Apache 2.0. Designed for edge / educational deployments.

License: Apache 2.0·Released Nov 4, 2025·Context: 32,768 tokens

Overview

HuggingFace's small-model line at 3B. Apache 2.0. Designed for edge / educational deployments.

Strengths

  • Apache 2.0
  • Strong reasoning per parameter at 3B

Weaknesses

  • 3B ceiling

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_M1.8 GB3 GB

Get the model

HuggingFace

Original weights

huggingface.co/HuggingFaceTB/SmolLM3-3B

Source repository — direct quantization required.

Hardware that runs this

Cards with enough VRAM for at least one quantization of SmolLM 3 3B.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
3GB · nvidia · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
4GB · nvidia · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
4GB · nvidia · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
AMD Radeon RX 570
4GB · amd · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super
4GB · nvidia · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (Mobile)
4GB · nvidia · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
6GB · nvidia · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660
6GB · nvidia · fits by VRAM, no benchmark yet
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Step down
Smaller — faster, runs on weaker hardware

Frequently asked

What's the minimum VRAM to run SmolLM 3 3B?

3GB of VRAM is enough to run SmolLM 3 3B at the Q4_K_M quantization (file size 1.8 GB). Higher-quality quantizations need more.

Can I use SmolLM 3 3B commercially?

Yes — SmolLM 3 3B ships under the Apache 2.0, which permits commercial use. Always read the license text before deployment.

What's the context length of SmolLM 3 3B?

SmolLM 3 3B supports a context window of 32,768 tokens (about 33K).

Source: huggingface.co/HuggingFaceTB/SmolLM3-3B

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

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Before you buy

Verify SmolLM 3 3B runs on your specific hardware before committing money.

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