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FLUX.1 [schnell] VRAM requirements — what is official, and what is not
Official statement: none. This page exists because a real searcher asks it: “flux schnell how much vram” reached us (Google Search Console, 1 impression, average position 41, window 2026-10-10–10-24).
Where we checked, and what we did not find
- Hugging Face repo card: gated — an unauthenticated GET of the raw README returns a 140-byte “Access to model … is restricted” stub (attempted 2026-10-24; stub archived in our build notes). What is not gated is the API metadata below, and no VRAM field exists in it.
- Hugging Face API metadata for this repo: parameter count (below), license, tags — and no memory/VRAM field anywhere in the payload (2026-10-24).
- black-forest-labs/flux GitHub docs README, raw file retrieved 2026-10-24:
case-insensitive grep for
VRAMandmemory→ 0 hits.
Conclusion, stated carefully: no official VRAM requirement is published for this model — not by BFL, not in the repo metadata, not in the docs → no public data (we checked, 2026-10-24).
The arithmetic we can honestly show
- Params, official repo metadata: 11,891,178,560 (huggingface.co/api/models/black-forest-labs/FLUX.1-schnell → safetensors BF16 params 11,891,178,560, retrieved 2026-10-24).
- bf16/fp16 weight floor: 11,891,178,560 × 2 bytes ≈ 22.15 GiB — derived by us from the official count; a weights-only floor, not a running footprint.
- On a nominal 24 GB card that leaves ≈ 1.85 GiB before text encoders, VAE and activations — and that budget is already generous: we take the card’s nominal GB whole and deduct nothing for OS or display driver, because no source publishes a defensible deduction (our heuristic, stated on /vram/).
- Text encoders + VAE + activations for the FLUX pipeline: no official GB figures exist → no public data (we checked, 2026-10-24).
- The
FLUX.1-devrepo’s own metadata reports 10,229,760 more parameters than this repo (11,901,408,320 vs 11,891,178,560, both retrieved 2026-10-24; a ≈0.09% gap). Neither repo explains the difference → no public data on why (we checked, 2026-10-24).
Measured-anchors (deliberately empty)
Run FLUX.1 [schnell] at your resolution/precision, note the peak memory your driver reports, post it anywhere public — we cite reports with handle & date, and that beats any blog number including ours. None is on this page yet. Testing without buying: RunPod RTX 5090 32GB @ $0.99/h is our cheapest ≥24 GB anchor (modelvram.com public table (self-stated check 2026-09-29, retrieved 2026-10-20). Partial re-verify 2026-10-20: Lambda A100 40GB $1.99/h CONFIRMED on lambda.ai/pricing (fetched directly); Lambda H100 rows ambiguous on-page ($3.99 vs $4.09 configs) → not adopted; RunPod & Vast pricing pages are JS-rendered, no extractable static figures — verify rates visually before spending. Re-check 2026-10-22 (us): source table values unchanged since its stated 2026-09-29 check). Repo demand, same retrieval as the params: 522,991 downloads, 6,426 likes (HF API).
FAQ
How much VRAM does FLUX.1 [schnell] need?
No official figure exists (we checked the gated HF card via API metadata, the black-forest-labs/flux GitHub docs and the repo README on 2026-10-24). Officially checkable: 11,891,178,560 params → bf16/fp16 weights alone ≈ 22.15 GiB. Text encoders, VAE and activations stack on top with no published GB figures — a field measurement, not a guess, is the only honest completion.
Can FLUX.1 [schnell] run on a 24 GB card?
Nobody official answers that. By arithmetic the bf16 weight floor ≈ 22.15 GiB leaves about 1.85 GiB of a nominal 24 GB budget for encoders, VAE and activations — before any OS/driver deduction, which we deliberately do not invent (our stated heuristic, see /vram/). Measured peaks: no public data (we checked, 2026-10-24).
Can FLUX.1 [schnell] run on 16 GB or less?
The weight floor alone exceeds 16 GB by ≈ 6.15 GiB, so not with unquantised bf16 weights. Quantised community builds circulate but publish no verifiable spec → we list zero unverified numbers. Ran one? Post your peak-memory report and we cite you with handle and date.
Is the licence commercial-friendly?
the repo metadata tags the licence apache-2.0 (HF API, retrieved 2026-10-24). We did not re-read the licence text today, so read it yourself before shipping; the dev and Kontext repos tag a different, non-commercial licence.
FLUX family & series links: FLUX.1 overview · schnell · dev · Kontext dev · FLUX vs SDXL · SDXL · Wan 2.1 (official numbers exist) · LLM pages · method & sources.