# bitsandbytes
[bitsandbytes](https://huggingface.co/docs/bitsandbytes/index) is the easiest option for quantizing a model to 8 and 4-bit. 8-bit quantization multiplies outliers in fp16 with non-outliers in int8, converts the non-outlier values back to fp16, and then adds them together to return the weights in fp16. This reduces the degradative effect outlier values have on a model's performance.
4-bit quantization compresses a model even further, and it is commonly used with [QLoRA](https://hf.co/papers/2305.14314) to finetune quantized LLMs.
This guide demonstrates how quantization can enable running
[FLUX.1-dev](https://huggingface.co/black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev)
on less than 16GB of VRAM and even on a free Google
Colab instance.
To use bitsandbytes, make sure you have the following libraries installed:
```bash
pip install diffusers transformers accelerate bitsandbytes -U
```
Now you can quantize a model by passing a [`BitsAndBytesConfig`] to [`~ModelMixin.from_pretrained`]. This works for any model in any modality, as long as it supports loading with [Accelerate](https://hf.co/docs/accelerate/index) and contains `torch.nn.Linear` layers.
Quantizing a model in 8-bit halves the memory-usage:
bitsandbytes is supported in both Transformers and Diffusers, so you can quantize both the
[`FluxTransformer2DModel`] and [`~transformers.T5EncoderModel`].
For Ada and higher-series GPUs. we recommend changing `torch_dtype` to `torch.bfloat16`.
> [!TIP]
> The [`CLIPTextModel`] and [`AutoencoderKL`] aren't quantized because they're already small in size and because [`AutoencoderKL`] only has a few `torch.nn.Linear` layers.
```py
from diffusers import BitsAndBytesConfig as DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig
from transformers import BitsAndBytesConfig as TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig
from diffusers import FluxTransformer2DModel
from transformers import T5EncoderModel
quant_config = TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_8bit=True,)
text_encoder_2_8bit = T5EncoderModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="text_encoder_2",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
quant_config = DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_8bit=True,)
transformer_8bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
```
By default, all the other modules such as `torch.nn.LayerNorm` are converted to `torch.float16`. You can change the data type of these modules with the `torch_dtype` parameter.
```diff
transformer_8bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quant_config,
+ torch_dtype=torch.float32,
)
```
Let's generate an image using our quantized models.
Setting `device_map="auto"` automatically fills all available space on the GPU(s) first, then the
CPU, and finally, the hard drive (the absolute slowest option) if there is still not enough memory.
```py
pipe = FluxPipeline.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
transformer=transformer_8bit,
text_encoder_2=text_encoder_2_8bit,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
device_map="auto",
)
pipe_kwargs = {
"prompt": "A cat holding a sign that says hello world",
"height": 1024,
"width": 1024,
"guidance_scale": 3.5,
"num_inference_steps": 50,
"max_sequence_length": 512,
}
image = pipe(**pipe_kwargs, generator=torch.manual_seed(0),).images[0]
```
When there is enough memory, you can also directly move the pipeline to the GPU with `.to("cuda")` and apply [`~DiffusionPipeline.enable_model_cpu_offload`] to optimize GPU memory usage.
Once a model is quantized, you can push the model to the Hub with the [`~ModelMixin.push_to_hub`] method. The quantization `config.json` file is pushed first, followed by the quantized model weights. You can also save the serialized 8-bit models locally with [`~ModelMixin.save_pretrained`].
Quantizing a model in 4-bit reduces your memory-usage by 4x:
bitsandbytes is supported in both Transformers and Diffusers, so you can can quantize both the
[`FluxTransformer2DModel`] and [`~transformers.T5EncoderModel`].
For Ada and higher-series GPUs. we recommend changing `torch_dtype` to `torch.bfloat16`.
> [!TIP]
> The [`CLIPTextModel`] and [`AutoencoderKL`] aren't quantized because they're already small in size and because [`AutoencoderKL`] only has a few `torch.nn.Linear` layers.
```py
from diffusers import BitsAndBytesConfig as DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig
from transformers import BitsAndBytesConfig as TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig
from diffusers import FluxTransformer2DModel
from transformers import T5EncoderModel
quant_config = TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_4bit=True,)
text_encoder_2_4bit = T5EncoderModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="text_encoder_2",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
quant_config = DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_4bit=True,)
transformer_4bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
```
By default, all the other modules such as `torch.nn.LayerNorm` are converted to `torch.float16`. You can change the data type of these modules with the `torch_dtype` parameter.
```diff
transformer_4bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quant_config,
+ torch_dtype=torch.float32,
)
```
Let's generate an image using our quantized models.
Setting `device_map="auto"` automatically fills all available space on the GPU(s) first, then the CPU, and finally, the hard drive (the absolute slowest option) if there is still not enough memory.
```py
pipe = FluxPipeline.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
transformer=transformer_4bit,
text_encoder_2=text_encoder_2_4bit,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
device_map="auto",
)
pipe_kwargs = {
"prompt": "A cat holding a sign that says hello world",
"height": 1024,
"width": 1024,
"guidance_scale": 3.5,
"num_inference_steps": 50,
"max_sequence_length": 512,
}
image = pipe(**pipe_kwargs, generator=torch.manual_seed(0),).images[0]
```
When there is enough memory, you can also directly move the pipeline to the GPU with `.to("cuda")` and apply [`~DiffusionPipeline.enable_model_cpu_offload`] to optimize GPU memory usage.
Once a model is quantized, you can push the model to the Hub with the [`~ModelMixin.push_to_hub`] method. The quantization `config.json` file is pushed first, followed by the quantized model weights. You can also save the serialized 4-bit models locally with [`~ModelMixin.save_pretrained`].
Training with 8-bit and 4-bit weights are only supported for training *extra* parameters.
Check your memory footprint with the `get_memory_footprint` method:
```py
print(model.get_memory_footprint())
```
Quantized models can be loaded from the [`~ModelMixin.from_pretrained`] method without needing to specify the `quantization_config` parameters:
```py
from diffusers import FluxTransformer2DModel, BitsAndBytesConfig
quantization_config = BitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_4bit=True)
model_4bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"hf-internal-testing/flux.1-dev-nf4-pkg", subfolder="transformer"
)
```
## 8-bit (LLM.int8() algorithm)
Learn more about the details of 8-bit quantization in this [blog post](https://huggingface.co/blog/hf-bitsandbytes-integration)!
This section explores some of the specific features of 8-bit models, such as outlier thresholds and skipping module conversion.
### Outlier threshold
An "outlier" is a hidden state value greater than a certain threshold, and these values are computed in fp16. While the values are usually normally distributed ([-3.5, 3.5]), this distribution can be very different for large models ([-60, 6] or [6, 60]). 8-bit quantization works well for values ~5, but beyond that, there is a significant performance penalty. A good default threshold value is 6, but a lower threshold may be needed for more unstable models (small models or finetuning).
To find the best threshold for your model, we recommend experimenting with the `llm_int8_threshold` parameter in [`BitsAndBytesConfig`]:
```py
from diffusers import FluxTransformer2DModel, BitsAndBytesConfig
quantization_config = BitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_8bit=True, llm_int8_threshold=10,
)
model_8bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quantization_config,
)
```
### Skip module conversion
For some models, you don't need to quantize every module to 8-bit which can actually cause instability. For example, for diffusion models like [Stable Diffusion 3](../api/pipelines/stable_diffusion/stable_diffusion_3), the `proj_out` module can be skipped using the `llm_int8_skip_modules` parameter in [`BitsAndBytesConfig`]:
```py
from diffusers import SD3Transformer2DModel, BitsAndBytesConfig
quantization_config = BitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_8bit=True, llm_int8_skip_modules=["proj_out"],
)
model_8bit = SD3Transformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"stabilityai/stable-diffusion-3-medium-diffusers",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quantization_config,
)
```
## 4-bit (QLoRA algorithm)
Learn more about its details in this [blog post](https://huggingface.co/blog/4bit-transformers-bitsandbytes).
This section explores some of the specific features of 4-bit models, such as changing the compute data type, using the Normal Float 4 (NF4) data type, and using nested quantization.
### Compute data type
To speedup computation, you can change the data type from float32 (the default value) to bf16 using the `bnb_4bit_compute_dtype` parameter in [`BitsAndBytesConfig`]:
```py
import torch
from diffusers import BitsAndBytesConfig
quantization_config = BitsAndBytesConfig(load_in_4bit=True, bnb_4bit_compute_dtype=torch.bfloat16)
```
### Normal Float 4 (NF4)
NF4 is a 4-bit data type from the [QLoRA](https://hf.co/papers/2305.14314) paper, adapted for weights initialized from a normal distribution. You should use NF4 for training 4-bit base models. This can be configured with the `bnb_4bit_quant_type` parameter in the [`BitsAndBytesConfig`]:
```py
from diffusers import BitsAndBytesConfig as DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig
from transformers import BitsAndBytesConfig as TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig
from diffusers import FluxTransformer2DModel
from transformers import T5EncoderModel
quant_config = TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_4bit=True,
bnb_4bit_quant_type="nf4",
)
text_encoder_2_4bit = T5EncoderModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="text_encoder_2",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
quant_config = DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_4bit=True,
bnb_4bit_quant_type="nf4",
)
transformer_4bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
```
For inference, the `bnb_4bit_quant_type` does not have a huge impact on performance. However, to remain consistent with the model weights, you should use the `bnb_4bit_compute_dtype` and `torch_dtype` values.
### Nested quantization
Nested quantization is a technique that can save additional memory at no additional performance cost. This feature performs a second quantization of the already quantized weights to save an additional 0.4 bits/parameter.
```py
from diffusers import BitsAndBytesConfig as DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig
from transformers import BitsAndBytesConfig as TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig
from diffusers import FluxTransformer2DModel
from transformers import T5EncoderModel
quant_config = TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_4bit=True,
bnb_4bit_use_double_quant=True,
)
text_encoder_2_4bit = T5EncoderModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="text_encoder_2",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
quant_config = DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_4bit=True,
bnb_4bit_use_double_quant=True,
)
transformer_4bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
```
## Dequantizing `bitsandbytes` models
Once quantized, you can dequantize a model to its original precision, but this might result in a small loss of quality. Make sure you have enough GPU RAM to fit the dequantized model.
```python
from diffusers import BitsAndBytesConfig as DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig
from transformers import BitsAndBytesConfig as TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig
from diffusers import FluxTransformer2DModel
from transformers import T5EncoderModel
quant_config = TransformersBitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_4bit=True,
bnb_4bit_use_double_quant=True,
)
text_encoder_2_4bit = T5EncoderModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="text_encoder_2",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
quant_config = DiffusersBitsAndBytesConfig(
load_in_4bit=True,
bnb_4bit_use_double_quant=True,
)
transformer_4bit = FluxTransformer2DModel.from_pretrained(
"black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-dev",
subfolder="transformer",
quantization_config=quant_config,
torch_dtype=torch.float16,
)
text_encoder_2_4bit.dequantize()
transformer_4bit.dequantize()
```
## Resources
* [End-to-end notebook showing Flux.1 Dev inference in a free-tier Colab](https://gist.github.com/sayakpaul/c76bd845b48759e11687ac550b99d8b4)
* [Training](https://gist.github.com/sayakpaul/05afd428bc089b47af7c016e42004527)
