LLMs · IBM

Granite Code 20B Instruct

Name: Granite Code 20B Instruct
Author: IBM

Parameters: 20B
Architecture: Dense
Max context: 8K tokens
License: apache-2.0
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 granite-code:20b

Quantized files · GGUF

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

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k-GGUF

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

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

Apps that run Granite Code 20B Instruct

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 granite-code:20b`
llama.cpp	CLI + API	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp	`llama-server -hf ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k-GGUF:Q4_K_M`
Jan	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, MLX	Open in Jan
vLLM	Server	Original weights	WSLWindowsLinux	vLLM	`vllm serve ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k`
SGLang	Server	Original weights	WSLWindowsLinux	SGLang	`python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model-path ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k`
Docker Model Runner	CLI + API	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, vLLM	`docker model run hf.co/ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k-GGUF:Q4_K_M`
Lemonade	Desktop app	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	llama.cpp, ONNX Runtime GenAI	`lemonade pull ibm-granite/granite-20b-code-instruct-8k-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
Pi	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp or MLX LM	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Hermes Agent	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWSLWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp or MLX LM	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
OpenClaw	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWSLWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp or MLX LM	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
OpenCode	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Codex CLI	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWSLWindowsLinux	uses Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible server	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
OpenHands	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWSLWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Zed	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Cline	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Open Interpreter	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Goose	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Aider	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Crush	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Qwen Code	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Kilo Code	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Open WebUI	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Khoj	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Letta	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses llama.cpp, Ollama or LM Studio	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
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
Continue	Coding agent	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
SillyTavern	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
LibreChat	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Cherry Studio	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
Chatbox	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
PrivateGPT	Assistant	GGUF	macOSWindowsLinux	uses Ollama, LM Studio or llama.cpp	Point it at a llama.cpp or MLX LM server
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: multi-query attention: one shared KV head.

Quantization	Quality	Weights	Total at 8K context	Download
`Q2_K`	Low	8.0 GB	8.8 GB
`Q3_K_M`	Low	9.8 GB	10.7 GB
`Q4_K_M`	Good	12.2 GB	13.1 GB	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	High	14.2 GB	15.1 GB
`Q6_K`	High	16.5 GB	17.3 GB
`Q8_0`	Very high	21.3 GB	22.1 GB
`F16`	Full	40.1 GB	41.0 GB	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Best hardware for Granite Code 20B Instruct

The least expensive GPU in our catalog that runs it without offloading is the Intel Arc B570 (launch price $219) at Q2_K.

Quality	Hardware	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
36Basic quality (D) · 36 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090	`Q8_0`	23.7 GB / 32.0 GB	55.8 tok/s	Runs great
35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 71/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090	`Q6_K`	18.5 GB / 24.0 GB	42.8 tok/s	Runs great
35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090	`Q6_K`	18.5 GB / 24.0 GB	39.7 tok/s	Runs great
34Basic quality (D) · 34 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX	`Q5_K_M`	16.3 GB / 24.0 GB	41.8 tok/s	Runs great
34Basic quality (D) · 34 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti	`Q5_K_M`	15.9 GB / 16.0 GB	45.3 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
34Basic quality (D) · 34 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080	`Q5_K_M`	15.9 GB / 16.0 GB	48.5 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
34Basic quality (D) · 34 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER	`Q4_K_M`	13.9 GB / 16.0 GB	41.1 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
34Basic quality (D) · 34 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER	`Q4_K_M`	13.9 GB / 16.0 GB	45.0 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
30Basic quality (D) · 30 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT	`Q3_K_M`	11.5 GB / 16.0 GB	43.6 tok/s	Runs great
30Basic quality (D) · 30 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 67/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB	`Q3_K_M`	11.5 GB / 16.0 GB	35.4 tok/s	Runs great

Check it on your own hardware

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.