LLMs · DeepSeek

DeepSeek V2 Chat

Name: DeepSeek V2 Chat
Author: DeepSeek

Parameters: 236B (21.0B active)
Architecture: Mixture of experts
Max context: 160K tokens
License: deepseek
Released: 2024-04

How to run it

Quickest · Ollama

One command downloads a ready-to-run version and starts a chat.

Get Ollama at ollama.com/download (opens in a new tab) · model page (opens in a new tab)

ollama run deepseek-v2:236b

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

huggingface.co/mradermacher/DeepSeek-V2-Chat-i1-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/mradermacher/DeepSeek-V2-Chat-i1-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from DeepSeek, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V2-Chat (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 2 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

Apps that run DeepSeek V2 Chat

Our pick for each kind of computer, assuming the model fits in its memory. Pick your own GPU or device in the Model Finder for an exact answer.

Mac (Apple silicon)

Ollama

One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.

Also good:

Windows PC, NVIDIA GPU

Ollama

One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.

Also good:

Windows PC, AMD Radeon

Lemonade

AMD’s own app: llama.cpp tuned for Radeon on Vulkan and ROCm.

Also good:

Linux, NVIDIA GPU

Ollama

One command with Ollama’s own build of this model.

Also good:

Linux server, 80 GB+ GPUs

vLLM

The full model fits in GPU memory at 8-bit, so it can batch many requests: best for serving a team or an app.

Also good:

App	Type	Opens it as	Systems	Engine	Start
LM Studio	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, MLX	Open in LM Studio
Ollama	CLI + API	Ollama library	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, MLX	`ollama run deepseek-v2:236b`
llama.cpp	CLI + API	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp	`llama-server -hf mradermacher/DeepSeek-V2-Chat-i1-GGUF:Q4_K_M`
Jan	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, MLX	Open in Jan
vLLM	Server	Original weights	WSLWindowsLinux	vLLM	`vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V2-Chat`
SGLang	Server	Original weights	WSLWindowsLinux	SGLang	`python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model-path deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V2-Chat`
Docker Model Runner	CLI + API	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, vLLM	`docker model run hf.co/mradermacher/DeepSeek-V2-Chat-i1-GGUF:Q4_K_M`
Lemonade	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, ONNX Runtime GenAI	`lemonade pull mradermacher/DeepSeek-V2-Chat-i1-GGUF:Q4_K_M`
Unsloth Desktop	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, MLX, stable-diffusion.cpp	Open in Unsloth Desktop
Atomic Chat	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, MLX-VLM	Open in Atomic Chat
GPT4All	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp	Get GPT4All
KoboldCpp	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp	Get KoboldCpp
Text Generation WebUI	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, Transformers, ExLlamaV3	Get Text Generation WebUI
llamafile	CLI + API	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp	Get llamafile
Msty Studio	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	Ollama, llama.cpp, MLX	Open in Msty Studio
Llama (macOS)	Desktop app	GGUF	macOS	llama.cpp	Open in Llama (macOS)
RecurseChat	Desktop app	GGUF	macOS	llama.cpp	Open in RecurseChat
node-llama-cpp	Library	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp	Get node-llama-cpp
PocketPal AI	Mobile app	GGUF	iOSAndroid	llama.cpp	App Store Google Play
ChatterUI	Mobile app	GGUF	Android	llama.cpp	Download the APK
LLM Farm	Mobile app	GGUF	iOS	llama.cpp	Not on the App Store or TestFlight for now (checked 2026-11-09).

Which apps can open a model depends on the files published for it: GGUF for llama.cpp-based apps, MLX for Apple’s engine, the original weights for vLLM and SGLang. Compare every app.

Memory needed

Weights plus KV cache and runtime overhead. Leave a little extra free for the operating system and other apps. Try another context length.

KV cache: latent (MLA) KV cache.

Quantization	Quality	Weights	Total at 8K context	Total at 32K context	Download
`Q2_K`	Low	94.3 GB	95.5 GB	97.2 GB
`Q3_K_M`	Low	116 GB	117 GB	118 GB
`Q4_K_M`	Good	144 GB	145 GB	147 GB
`Q5_K_M`	High	167 GB	169 GB	170 GB
`Q6_K`	High	193 GB	194 GB	196 GB
`Q8_0`	Very high	250 GB	251 GB	253 GB
`F16`	Full	471 GB	473 GB	474 GB	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Best hardware for DeepSeek V2 Chat

Quality	Hardware	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Apple M3 Ultra (256 GB)	`Q4_K_M`	160 GB / 192 GB	36.2 tok/s	Runs great
52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Apple M2 Ultra (192 GB)	`Q3_K_M`	128 GB / 144 GB	44.5 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Apple M3 Ultra (512 GB)	`Q4_K_M`	176 GB / 384 GB	36.2 tok/s	Runs great
43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GB10 (128 GB)	`Q2_K`	105 GB / 115 GB	24.2 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 59/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell	`Q2_K`	100 GB / 96.0 GB	63.5 tok/s	Runs welloffloads to RAM
43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 58/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Apple M4 Max (128 GB)	`Q2_K`	103 GB / 96.0 GB	33.6 tok/s	Runs wellover GPU memory limit
43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 55/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA RTX Spark N1X (6144-core GPU) (128 GB)	`Q2_K`	104 GB / 102 GB	22.5 tok/s	Runs wellover GPU memory limit
43Fair quality (C) · 43 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 54/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (128 GB)	`Q2_K`	103 GB / 96.0 GB	16.9 tok/s	Runs wellover GPU memory limit
61Good quality (B) · 61 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AMD Instinct MI325X	`Q6_K`	207 GB / 256 GB	119 tok/s	Runs great
61Good quality (B) · 61 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AMD Instinct MI350X	`Q6_K`	209 GB / 288 GB	139 tok/s	Runs great

Check it on your own hardware

Run it on a cluster

Devices that can’t run DeepSeek V2 Chat alone can run it together. These example clusters do:

Two gaming PCs (RTX 3090 + RTX 4090)7.1 tok/s at Q3_K_M with llama.cpp RPC

Try it with your own devices

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.