Mistral Small 3 (24B) — VRAM, Speed & Local Setup

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated January 28, 2025

Model library → Mistral Family → Mistral Small 3 (24B)

The new standard for 24GB GPUs. Highly efficient and dense.

Mistral Small 3 (24B) needs about 15 GB of VRAM at Q4_K_M — quantized weights plus framework overhead, before any KV cache. On Apple Silicon that figure comes out of unified memory.

Specifications

Parameters24 Billion
Context window32,000
ArchitectureDense
ProviderMistral AI
LicenceMistral Research
Specified atQ4_K_M
System RAM32 GB
Record updated2025-01-28

Licence

Apache-2.0 — commercial use permitted. Commercial use permitted. No usage restrictions beyond attribution.

VRAM and Speed by Quantization

Modelled on a reference NVIDIA RTX 4090 (24 GB), at 8K context. Speed figures are ESTIMATES from the memory-bandwidth roofline described on the methodology page, not benchmarks we ran — rows marked measured come from published or reader-submitted runs. VRAM here includes the KV cache, so it reads higher than the headline figure above, which does not.

QuantWeightsVRAM neededEst. speedFit on 24 GB
Q2_K7.9 GB10.6 GB~72 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q3_K_M10.2 GB12.9 GB~59 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q4_K_M14.5 GB17.2 GB~44 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q5_K_M17.0 GB19.7 GB~38 tok/s (est.)Fits comfortably
Q6_K19.7 GB22.4 GB~34 tok/s (est.)Tight fit
Q8_025.5 GB28.2 GB~4 tok/s (est.)Offloads to system RAM (slow)
F1648.0 GB50.7 GB~2 tok/s (est.)Offloads to system RAM (slow)

Want the memory numbers alone, at every quantization level and your own context length? Use the Mistral Small 3 (24B) VRAM calculator.

Buy This HardwareAMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB — 16 GB VRAM · 160 W board powerDeploy in the Cloud NowRTX 4090 on RunPod — from $0.34/hr · rate checked 2026-07

or compare on Vast.ai from $0.35/hr (typical low · varies)

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Recommended GPU

The cheapest catalogued GPU that runs Mistral Small 3 (24B) is the AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB (16 GB).

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AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT 16GB
16 GB VRAM · 160 W board power
2026 prices are volatile — check the current listing.
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How to Run Mistral Small 3 (24B)

Install Ollama, then run:

ollama run mistral-small

Weights on Hugging Face: mistralai/Mistral-Small-24B-Instruct-2501.

Best for: chat, rag.

Can I Run Mistral Small 3 (24B) on My GPU?

Other Mistral Family Sizes

Mistral Small 3 (24B) — Frequently Asked Questions

How much VRAM does Mistral Small 3 (24B) need?
About 15 GB at Q4_K_M — quantized weights plus framework overhead, before any KV cache. The cache grows with context length and is added on top; the table above folds it in. Apple Silicon counts unified memory toward the same figure.
Does Mistral Small 3 (24B) run on an RTX 4090 (24 GB)?
Yes. Mistral Small 3 (24B) needs about 15 GB at Q4_K_M, inside a 24 GB card, at an estimated 44 tokens/sec.
How do I run Mistral Small 3 (24B) locally?
Install Ollama and run `ollama run mistral-small`. That pulls the weights and starts a local OpenAI-compatible endpoint; after the download nothing leaves the machine.
What other sizes does Mistral Family come in?
Mistral Small 3 (24B) (15 GB), Mistral NeMo 12B (8 GB). Every size shares the family's training and licence; the larger ones score higher and need proportionally more memory.

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