Granite-4.2-3B (GGUF)

Granite-4.2-3B (GGUF)

Packages IBM's Granite 4.2 3B text model as GGUF files for local use. The 4-bit weights are estimated at about 1.8 GB, for people who want a compact model under Apache 2.0.

Made by ibm-granite on Hugging Face. These notes are Mindket's, written from its model page and model card; the model's own files and license are on Hugging Face.

About

What it is: This repository holds the GGUF version of IBM's Granite-4.2-3B, a language model with about 3.7B parameters. GGUF is a single-file format meant for running a model on your own machine. The card is short and sends you to the original model's card for details.

Who it suits: It suits people who want a compact text model on their own computer under a license that allows commercial use. The repository is popular, with 279,159 downloads in the last 30 days.

Title: Who runs it
Industry | Who uses it | How they use it | Example
Software | Developers | Try a small language model on a local machine | A test of a local text feature
Research | Hobbyists and students | Study a compact model without a large GPU | Compare it with the original model
IT | Small teams | Keep text processing on their own computers | A private helper for internal notes

If you need the full original model or its details, you can skip it. The card points to the original model's page.

Where to use it:

• Windows, macOS or Linux with Python, for downloading the files
• Local apps that load GGUF files, which the card does not name
• The transformers library, which is the library listed for the repository

Title: Jobs it does
Use case | Who | What they get back
Local text generation | Developers | A model file small enough for an ordinary computer
Comparing a model and its GGUF copy | Researchers | The same Granite 4.2 3B in a different format

How to set it up:

• Python on Windows, macOS or Linux
• Room for about 1.8 GB of files at 4-bit, which is an estimate
• The Hugging Face tools below, to fetch the files

1. Install the Hugging Face Hub tools.
2. Download the repository files.
3. Open the model in an app that reads GGUF, following the original model's card.

pip install -U huggingface_hub
hf download ibm-granite/granite-4.2-3b-GGUF

How to use it: The visible card text gives no run command. It tells you to read the original model's card for the details. The download command above gets the files, and the app you load them in sets how you talk to the model.

hf download ibm-granite/granite-4.2-3b-GGUF

Example: You download the GGUF files and open them in a local app that reads this format. You then type a question and read the reply the model writes on your own computer. The card shows no sample reply.

For newcomers and experts: If you are new, this is a small AI that writes text, packed into a file format made for home computers. The first small thing to try is downloading the files and reading the original model's card.

If you know the field, this is a quantized conversion of ibm-granite/granite-4.2-3b, and the card adds no benchmarks or run notes of its own. The trade-off is detail: the shorter file loses some precision against the original weights, and the card does not say by how much.

Download the GGUF files from Hugging Face
Open them in an app that reads GGUF
Ask the model a question
Read the reply on your own machine

Good to know:

• Parameters: about 3.7B.
• Size: about 1.8 GB at 4-bit, which Hugging Face gives as an estimate.
• Variants: one quantized version of this repository exists and no fine-tuned ones.
• Details: the card sends you to the original model's page for everything else.
• License: apache-2.0.
• Cost to run: no API key, account or paid service is named.
• Data it reaches: you download files from Hugging Face, and the model reaches only what your own app gives it.
• Not for: anyone who needs the full original weights or documented benchmarks, which this card does not give.

On Hugging Face, 13 November 2026

• Library: transformers
• Parameters: 3.7B
• Weights: about 1.8 GB at 4-bit (estimate)
• Formats: GGUF
• Downloads in the last 30 days: 276,584
• Likes: 47
• License: apache-2.0
• Based on: ibm-granite/granite-4.2-3b
• Quantized versions: 1
• Tags: transformers, gguf, language, granite-4.2, conversational

Links

• Model: https://huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-4.2-3b-GGUF
• Files: https://huggingface.co/ibm-granite/granite-4.2-3b-GGUF/tree/main

Get the model

Download its files with Hugging Face's command line:

pip install -U huggingface_hub
hf download ibm-granite/granite-4.2-3b-GGUF

Then follow the usage in its model card. Nothing in this kit runs by itself.