Pixtral 12B (2409) on Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB)

Can the Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB) run Pixtral 12B (2409)?

Barely: it runs very slowly

Very slow. At Q4_K_M it needs about 10.6 GB of 13.6 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 1.4 tok/s.

Best quant: Q4_K_M
Generation speed: 1.4 tok/s
Prompt processing: 7.3 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 141.1 s
Largest safe context: 25K

Best app to run it on the Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB)

On Linux on ARM boards

Docker Model Runner

Command line + local API · runs on llama.cpp, vLLM

Handy if you already work in Docker.

docker model run hf.co/mistralai/Pixtral-12B-2409

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download Pixtral 12B (2409)

Original weights · Hugging Face

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

huggingface.co/mistralai/Pixtral-12B-2409 (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Links checked 1 day ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q4_K_M, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Very slow: How well it runs on the Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	21.4 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.	25.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	2.8 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	15.0 / 15
Match score	64.2 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Raspberry Pi 5 (16 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	8.0 GB	13.6 GB	2.3 tok/s	Very slow	35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 57/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	9.1 GB	13.6 GB	1.8 tok/s	Very slow	42Fair quality (C) · 42 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	10.6 GB	13.6 GB	1.4 tok/s	Very slow	47Fair quality (C) · 47 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 64/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	11.8 GB	13.6 GB	1.2 tok/s	Very slowtight fit	48Fair quality (C) · 48 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	13.2 GB	13.6 GB	1.0 tok/s	Very slowtight fit	49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 63/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	16.2 GB	13.6 GB	—	Won't run	50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 6/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	All files (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	27.8 GB	13.6 GB	—	Won't run	50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 6/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Q8_0 · 41.7 tok/s · Runs great
50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Q8_0 · 47.2 tok/s · Runs great
50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Q8_0 · 50.8 tok/s · Runs great
49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Q6_K · 46.2 tok/s · Runs great
49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Q6_K · 50.6 tok/s · Runs great
49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Q6_K · 61.5 tok/s · Runs great

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.