Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) on L40S 48GB (48GB) — VRAM, KV Cache & Throughput

Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) (2780B total, 104B active, Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA) MoE) uses 1570.1 GiB of 4-bit weights (Q4_K_M), requiring 1571.49 GiB total at 8K context and 1573.94 GiB at 32K on L40S 48GB (~0.9 tok/s decode).

Interactive Sizing Workbench

Full Compatibility Report →

Open-Weight Model2780B / 104B

Weights & QuantizationQ4_K_M · 1570.1 GiB

Context Window8,192 (8K)

Target Hardware

48 GB · 864 GB/s

GPU Count (Tensor Parallel)

Concurrent Batch Size

KV Cache Precision

Inference Engine

System RAM Offload (CPU)0%

Exceeds Available GPU Memory

Config-derived formula HF config.json ↗

Memory Allocation Breakdown (GiB) 1571.49 GiB (1687.37 GB) / 48 GiB (3274%)

Model Weights: 1570.1 GiB KV Cache & State: 0.82 GiB Runtime & Activation Buffers: 0.57 GiB System RAM Offload: 0 GiB

Required GPU Memory

1571.49 GiB

1687.37 GB (decimal)

Usable Hardware Memory

45.6 GiB

48 GB (physical)

Safe Headroom

-1525.89 GiB

3274% utilization

Est. Decode Throughput

~0.9 tok/s

104B active params

Est. Prefill Throughput

~905 tok/s

4K Prompt TTFT: ~4526 ms

Est. Cost / 1M Tokens

$9382.72

Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA) MoE · Custom

Recommended Hardware for Current Configuration

Best Single GPU

Multi-GPU Required

—

Best Value / Used GPU

—

Apple Unified Memory

Exceeds 512 GB

—

Cloud From

DigitalOcean · $30.40 / hr

8x Instinct MI325X 256GB

Production Launch Commands

llama.cpp (GGUF)

llama-server -hf unsloth/Kimi-K3-GGUF:Q4_K_M \
  --ctx-size 8192 -ngl 999 --flash-attn

vLLM

vllm serve moonshotai/Kimi-K3 \
  --max-model-len 8192 --gpu-memory-utilization 0.92

Live Token Speed Simulator (TTFT ~4526ms · ~0.9 tok/s)

[Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) · 1571.49 GiB] allocated on target GPU. Prefill completed in TTFT window; streaming autoregressive tokens at memory-bandwidth-bound rate...

Cloud GPU Comparison & Rent-vs-Buy TCO

Verified public rates across RunPod, Vast.ai, Vultr, and DigitalOcean.

Verified: 2026-11-04

Active usage (hours / day)4 h / day

Local hardware budget ($)

Electricity rate ($/kWh)

Purchase break-even

~1.2 months

Est. local power: $7.45 / mo

Provider	Recommended Instance	Total VRAM	Hourly Rate	Monthly at Selected Hours	Billing Mode	Deploy
RunPod	8x B300 288GB Blackwell Ultra (Community Cloud)	2304 GB	$55.52 / hr	$6751.23 / mo	Per-second	Deploy GPU ↗
Vast.ai	—	—	—	—	Spot / On-demand	Deploy GPU ↗
*Vultr ($300 Free Credit)**	—	—	—	—	Hourly	Deploy GPU ↗
Vultr Cloud GPU	—	—	—	—	Hourly	Deploy GPU ↗
DigitalOcean	8x Instinct MI325X 256GB (Dedicated Instance)	2048 GB	$30.40 / hr	$3696.64 / mo	Per-second	Deploy GPU ↗

Rates reflect public listings on the verification date and fluctuate with regional inventory.

Fine-Tuning VRAM Requirements (QLoRA / LoRA / Full) — Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B)

QLoRA (4b) Exceeds Available GPU Memory

1585.83 GiB

Model Weights: 1570.1 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 14.56 GiB · Act: 1.17 GiB

Recommended GPU: Multi-GPU Required

LoRA (16b) Exceeds Available GPU Memory

5202.6 GiB

Model Weights: 5178.15 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 22.88 GiB · Act: 1.57 GiB

Recommended GPU: Multi-GPU Required

Full BF16 Exceeds Available GPU Memory

21233.18 GiB

Model Weights: 5178.15 GiB · Gradients + Optimizer: 16052.26 GiB · Act: 2.77 GiB

Recommended GPU: Multi-GPU Required

Engineering Sizing Notes & Optimization Playbook

Quick Hardware Verdict

A single L40S 48GB (48GB) cannot hold 4-bit Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) (1571.49 GiB at 8K) entirely in VRAM. Use multi-GPU tensor parallelism, offload layers to system RAM, or deploy on a larger cloud GPU.

KV Cache & Runtime Tuning

Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) uses Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA) MoE (2780B total, 104B active per token). Moving from 8K to 32K context expands FP16 KV cache from 0.82 GiB to 3.27 GiB; enabling 8-bit KV cache (llama.cpp -ctk q8_0 -ctv q8_0 or vLLM --kv-cache-dtype fp8) saves 1.64 GiB at 32K (reducing total VRAM to 1572.3 GiB).

VRAM Scaling Across Context Windows (4K to 128K, 4-bit Weights)

Model weights remain constant while attention KV cache grows with context length and batch size.

Quantization Precision & Memory Matrix — Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) @ 8K

Quantization Format	Weights (GiB)	KV Cache	Total VRAM (GiB)	Decode Speed	Compatibility (L40S 48GB)	Recommended GPU	Data Source
Native Weights (BF16 / FP8 / MXFP4 — Lossless) (MXFP4)	5178.15 GiB	0.82 GiB	5179.54 GiB (5561.49 GB)	~0.8 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Official checkpoint size
FP8 / GGUF Q8_0 (8-bit — Near-Lossless) (Q8_0)	2750.89 GiB	0.82 GiB	2752.28 GiB (2955.24 GB)	~0.8 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Config-derived formula
GGUF Q6_K (6-bit — High Precision) (Q6_K)	2123.04 GiB	0.82 GiB	2124.43 GiB (2281.09 GB)	~0.8 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Config-derived formula
GGUF Q5_K_M (5-bit — Balanced) (Q5_K_M)	1841.72 GiB	0.82 GiB	1843.11 GiB (1979.02 GB)	~0.8 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Config-derived formula
Q4_K_M / UD-Q4_K_XL / AWQ (4-bit — Recommended) (Q4_K_M)	1570.1 GiB	0.82 GiB	1571.49 GiB (1687.37 GB)	~0.9 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Config-derived formula
GGUF IQ4_XS (4.25-bit — Compact) (IQ4_XS)	1375.79 GiB	0.82 GiB	1377.18 GiB (1478.74 GB)	~1 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Config-derived formula
GGUF Q3_K_M (3-bit — Low VRAM) (Q3_K_M)	1265.71 GiB	0.82 GiB	1267.1 GiB (1360.54 GB)	~1.1 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Config-derived formula
GGUF UD-Q2_K_XL (2-bit — Extreme MoE) (UD-Q2_K_XL)	890.47 GiB	0.82 GiB	891.86 GiB (957.63 GB)	~1.6 tok/s	Exceeds Available GPU Memory	Multi-GPU Required	Config-derived formula

Technical Specifications & FAQ

Does Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) fit on L40S 48GB (48GB)?

In 4-bit (Q4_K_M) at 8,192 context, Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) requires 1571.49 GiB total GPU memory (1570.1 GiB weights + 0.82 GiB KV cache + 0.57 GiB runtime buffers) against 45.6 GiB usable on L40S 48GB, delivering ~0.9 tok/s decode.

How much VRAM does Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) need at 32K context?

At 32,768 context tokens, Kimi K3 (2.8T-A104B) (Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA) MoE) allocates 3.27 GiB for KV cache and state, bringing total 4-bit VRAM to 1573.94 GiB (1690.01 GB decimal).

Evaluate This Model on Other GPUs

RTX 3060 12GB (12GB)RTX 4060 Ti 16GB (16GB)RTX 4070 Ti Super (16GB)RTX 4080 Super (16GB)RTX 5070 12GB (12GB)RTX 5070 Ti (16GB)RTX 5080 (16GB)RTX 3090 (24GB)RTX 4090 (24GB)RTX 4090 D (24GB)RTX 5090 (32GB)RTX 5090 D (32GB)RTX A6000 (48GB)RTX 6000 Ada (48GB)RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell (96GB)DGX Spark (GB10 128GB) (128GB)L4 24GB (24GB)A40 48GB (48GB)L20 48GB (48GB)A800 80GB SXM (80GB)A100 80GB SXM (80GB)H800 80GB SXM (80GB)H100 80GB SXM (80GB)H20 96GB HBM3 (96GB)H20 141GB HBM3e (141GB)H200 141GB SXM (141GB)B200 180GB (180GB)B300 288GB Blackwell Ultra (288GB)Ascend 910B 64GB (昇腾) (64GB)Ascend 910C 128GB (昇腾) (128GB)Atlas 300I Duo 96GB (310P) (96GB)MLU590 80GB (寒武纪思元) (80GB)DCU K100-AI 64GB (海光深算) (64GB)MetaX C500 64GB (沐曦曦云) (64GB)Kunlunxin P800 64GB (昆仑芯) (64GB)MTT S4000 48GB (摩尔线程) (48GB)Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB (24GB)Radeon AI PRO R9700 32GB (32GB)Ryzen AI Max+ 395 128GB (128GB)Instinct MI300X 192GB (192GB)Instinct MI325X 256GB (256GB)Instinct MI355X 288GB (288GB)Arc Pro B60 24GB (24GB)Gaudi 3 128GB HBM2e (128GB)Mac mini M4 Pro 64GB (64GB)MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB (128GB)Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB (256GB)Mac Studio M3 Ultra 512GB (512GB)

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