Llama 3.1 8B

In non-nerd speak

Who makes it: Meta. The files come from the maker's own Hugging Face account.

License: Llama Community License. Meta's own license. You can download and use it for free, but Meta sets the rules. The Open Source Initiative says it is not open source.

Business use: Yes for most businesses. If your products had over 700 million monthly users, you need a separate deal with Meta. You must follow Meta's use policy and show "Built with Llama" if you share it.

Training data: We have not found a full public data release. Not yet checked in depth.

Will it run on my computer?

Pick a computer with at least 8 GB of memory. On a Mac, that is the unified memory. On a PC, a graphics card with that much VRAM is fastest. A PC with only normal RAM will also work, just slower.

Not sure? Use our pick-by-computer guide.

How to run it in LM Studio

1. Get LM Studio from lmstudio.ai and open it.
2. Make a free Hugging Face account. Open the official page and accept the terms.
3. Open the Discover tab. Search for lmstudio-community/Meta-Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-GGUF.
4. Pick a file that ends in Q4_K_M. It is the best mix of size and quality for most people.
5. Click Download. When it is done, open a new chat and load the model.

The files are GGUF builds that LM Studio can load. We checked that this repo exists on Oct 14, 2026. Full LM Studio guide.

How to use it with Hermes

Does it fit? Not yet checked. We could not read its memory window without a sign-up.

1. Load the model in LM Studio. Set the context length to at least 64000.
2. In LM Studio, open the Developer tab and start the server.
3. In a terminal, run hermes model. Choose LM Studio and press Enter to keep http://localhost:1234/v1.
4. Pick this model from the list. Then run hermes to start.

Steps based on the Hermes docs. Full Hermes guide.

Common questions

Is Llama 3.1 8B truly open source?

No, open weights with custom rules. Meta's own license. You can download and use it for free, but Meta sets the rules. The Open Source Initiative says it is not open source.

Can I use Llama 3.1 8B for my business?

Yes for most businesses. If your products had over 700 million monthly users, you need a separate deal with Meta. You must follow Meta's use policy and show "Built with Llama" if you share it.

Do I need to sign up to download Llama 3.1 8B?

Yes. Free Hugging Face account and accept terms.

How much memory does Llama 3.1 8B need?

Our estimate is about 8 GB of RAM for a 4-bit file of about 4.8 GB. This is a rough guide, not a test.

Similar models to compare

Same maker first, then models that need about the same memory.

Where Llama 3.1 8B shows up

• Best local AI for low-RAM laptops
• Other models that fit a 8 GB computer
• What its license means

Sources we checked

If the maker's page and this page disagree, trust the maker. Tell us what we got wrong.