Music models that run on 24 GB
4 models with published weights that fit in 24 GB — a 24 GB card, or a Mac with 24. Counted at four-bit quantisation, weights only, leaving the machine about a third of its memory and a gigabyte for context: room for roughly 24 billion parameters. A mixture of experts is counted in full, because it is held in full even though only a few experts compute.
A 24 GB graphics card or a Mac configured with 24. This is the first size where the well-regarded mid-weight models — the twenty-something billion parameter class — run comfortably, and where a local model starts to be a real alternative to an API for daily work rather than a demonstration.
Models that compose and render music from a description. They are priced per generation or per second of audio rather than per token. The question that decides whether you can use one commercially is not the price but the terms: makers differ sharply on who owns the output and whether it may be sold, and that is on the maker's page, not in the rate card.
- YuE2-3BMultimodal Art Projection3.6B≈2.4 GB at 4-bit
- ACE-Step-v1-3.5BACE-Step3.5B≈2.3 GB at 4-bit
- musicgen-melodyfacebook1.6B≈1.0 GB at 4-bit
- musicgen-smallAI at Meta0.6B≈0.4 GB at 4-bit