Local AI Glossary
What is Bits per weight (bpw)?
Source: local-llm.net/glossary
A measure of quantization precision indicating the average number of bits used to store each model weight. FP16 uses 16 bpw, Q4_K_M uses approximately 4.8 bpw, and Q2_K uses approximately 2.7 bpw. Lower bpw means smaller model files and lower memory usage, but reduced quality.
How Bits per weight (bpw) fits in the local AI stack
Bits per weight (bpw) is part of the broader local AI ecosystem. See the related guides, comparisons, and tools below to see how it applies in practice.
See also
- Full Local AI Glossary
- All learn topics
- What is Local AI?
- Quantization explained
- Hardware requirements
- How to choose a local LLM