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How much RAM does a phone LLM need?
0.5B to 12B parameter models on Android: what each size really needs in RAM, storage and speed - and which fits your phone.
The short answer
Rule of thumb: free RAM roughly equal to the model's file size, plus a little headroom. A 1 GB model wants ~2 GB free; a 4 GB model wants ~6 GB. Storage is the easy part - models run from a few hundred MB to about 8 GB.
Under 1 GB: any phone
Tiny 0.5-1B models load in seconds and run on almost any Android from the last five years. Great for quick questions, rewriting and autocomplete-style tasks.
1-3 GB: the sweet spot
Mid-range phones with 6-8 GB of RAM handle these comfortably. This is where answer quality starts feeling genuinely smart for everyday chat, summaries and translation.
4-8 GB: flagship territory
The biggest phone-friendly models (8-12B) want 8-12+ GB of RAM and a recent high-end chip. Slower to load, slower to answer - but the closest thing to a cloud model that fits in your pocket. Local AI shows each model's size upfront so there are no surprises.
Local AI: Private Offline Chat
A full AI chat that runs entirely on your phone — no internet, no account, no cloud.
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