# Saving to GGUF

{% tabs %}
{% tab title="Locally" %}
To save to GGUF, use the below to save locally:

```python
model.save_pretrained_gguf("directory", tokenizer, quantization_method = "q4_k_m")
model.save_pretrained_gguf("directory", tokenizer, quantization_method = "q8_0")
model.save_pretrained_gguf("directory", tokenizer, quantization_method = "f16")
```

To push to Hugging Face hub:

```python
model.push_to_hub_gguf("hf_username/directory", tokenizer, quantization_method = "q4_k_m")
model.push_to_hub_gguf("hf_username/directory", tokenizer, quantization_method = "q8_0")
```

All supported quantization options for `quantization_method` are listed below:

```python
# https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/blob/master/examples/quantize/quantize.cpp#L19
ALLOWED_QUANTS = \
{
    "not_quantized"  : "Recommended. Fast conversion. Slow inference, big files.",
    "fast_quantized" : "Recommended. Fast conversion. OK inference, OK file size.",
    "quantized"      : "Recommended. Slow conversion. Fast inference, small files.",
    "f32"     : "Not recommended. Retains 100% accuracy, but super slow and memory hungry.",
    "f16"     : "Fastest conversion + retains 100% accuracy. Slow and memory hungry.",
    "q8_0"    : "Fast conversion. High resource use, but generally acceptable.",
    "q4_k_m"  : "Recommended. Uses Q6_K for half of the attention.wv and feed_forward.w2 tensors, else Q4_K",
    "q5_k_m"  : "Recommended. Uses Q6_K for half of the attention.wv and feed_forward.w2 tensors, else Q5_K",
    "q2_k"    : "Uses Q4_K for the attention.vw and feed_forward.w2 tensors, Q2_K for the other tensors.",
    "q3_k_l"  : "Uses Q5_K for the attention.wv, attention.wo, and feed_forward.w2 tensors, else Q3_K",
    "q3_k_m"  : "Uses Q4_K for the attention.wv, attention.wo, and feed_forward.w2 tensors, else Q3_K",
    "q3_k_s"  : "Uses Q3_K for all tensors",
    "q4_0"    : "Original quant method, 4-bit.",
    "q4_1"    : "Higher accuracy than q4_0 but not as high as q5_0. However has quicker inference than q5 models.",
    "q4_k_s"  : "Uses Q4_K for all tensors",
    "q4_k"    : "alias for q4_k_m",
    "q5_k"    : "alias for q5_k_m",
    "q5_0"    : "Higher accuracy, higher resource usage and slower inference.",
    "q5_1"    : "Even higher accuracy, resource usage and slower inference.",
    "q5_k_s"  : "Uses Q5_K for all tensors",
    "q6_k"    : "Uses Q8_K for all tensors",
    "iq2_xxs" : "2.06 bpw quantization",
    "iq2_xs"  : "2.31 bpw quantization",
    "iq3_xxs" : "3.06 bpw quantization",
    "q3_k_xs" : "3-bit extra small quantization",
}
```

{% endtab %}

{% tab title="Manual Saving" %}
First save your model to 16bit:

```python
model.save_pretrained_merged("merged_model", tokenizer, save_method = "merged_16bit",)
```

Then use the terminal and do:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```bash
apt-get update
apt-get install pciutils build-essential cmake curl libcurl4-openssl-dev -y
git clone https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp
cmake llama.cpp -B llama.cpp/build \
    -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF -DGGML_CUDA=ON -DLLAMA_CURL=ON
cmake --build llama.cpp/build --config Release -j --clean-first --target llama-cli llama-mtmd-cli llama-server llama-gguf-split
cp llama.cpp/build/bin/llama-* llama.cpp

python llama.cpp/convert-hf-to-gguf.py FOLDER --outfile OUTPUT --outtype f16
```

{% endcode %}

Or follow the steps at <https://rentry.org/llama-cpp-conversions#merging-loras-into-a-model> using the model name "merged\_model" to merge to GGUF.
{% endtab %}
{% endtabs %}

### Running in Unsloth works well, but after exporting & running on other platforms, the results are poor

You might sometimes encounter an issue where your model runs and produces good results on Unsloth, but when you use it on another platform like Ollama or vLLM, the results are poor or you might get gibberish, endless/infinite generations *or* repeated output&#x73;**.**

* The most common cause of this error is using an <mark style="background-color:blue;">**incorrect chat template**</mark>**.** It’s essential to use the SAME chat template that was used when training the model in Unsloth and later when you run it in another framework, such as llama.cpp or Ollama. When inferencing from a saved model, it's crucial to apply the correct template.
* You must use the correct `eos token`. If not, you might get gibberish on longer generations.
* It might also be because your inference engine adds an unnecessary "start of sequence" token (or the lack of thereof on the contrary) so ensure you check both hypotheses!
* <mark style="background-color:green;">**Use our conversational notebooks to force the chat template - this will fix most issues.**</mark>
  * Qwen-3 14B Conversational notebook [**Open in Colab**](https://colab.research.google.com/github/unslothai/notebooks/blob/main/nb/Qwen3_\(14B\)-Reasoning-Conversational.ipynb)
  * Gemma-3 4B Conversational notebook [**Open in Colab**](https://colab.research.google.com/github/unslothai/notebooks/blob/main/nb/Gemma3_\(4B\).ipynb)
  * Llama-3.2 3B Conversational notebook [**Open in Colab**](https://colab.research.google.com/github/unslothai/notebooks/blob/main/nb/Llama3.2_\(1B_and_3B\)-Conversational.ipynb)
  * Phi-4 14B Conversational notebook [**Open in Colab**](https://colab.research.google.com/github/unslothai/notebooks/blob/main/nb/Phi_4-Conversational.ipynb)
  * Mistral v0.3 7B Conversational notebook [**Open in Colab**](https://colab.research.google.com/github/unslothai/notebooks/blob/main/nb/Mistral_v0.3_\(7B\)-Conversational.ipynb)
  * **More notebooks in our** [**notebooks docs**](https://unsloth.ai/docs/get-started/unsloth-notebooks)

### Saving to GGUF / vLLM 16bit crashes

You can try reducing the maximum GPU usage during saving by changing `maximum_memory_usage`.

The default is `model.save_pretrained(..., maximum_memory_usage = 0.75)`. Reduce it to say 0.5 to use 50% of GPU peak memory or lower. This can reduce OOM crashes during saving.

### How do I manually save to GGUF?

First save your model to 16bit via:

```python
model.save_pretrained_merged("merged_model", tokenizer, save_method = "merged_16bit",)
```

Compile llama.cpp from source like below:

{% code overflow="wrap" %}

```bash
apt-get update
apt-get install pciutils build-essential cmake curl libcurl4-openssl-dev -y
git clone https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp
cmake llama.cpp -B llama.cpp/build \
    -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF -DGGML_CUDA=ON -DLLAMA_CURL=ON
cmake --build llama.cpp/build --config Release -j --clean-first --target llama-cli llama-mtmd-cli llama-server llama-gguf-split
cp llama.cpp/build/bin/llama-* llama.cpp
```

{% endcode %}

Then, save the model to F16:

```bash
python llama.cpp/convert_hf_to_gguf.py merged_model \
    --outfile model-F16.gguf --outtype f16 \
    --split-max-size 50G
```

```bash
# For BF16:
python llama.cpp/convert_hf_to_gguf.py merged_model \
    --outfile model-BF16.gguf --outtype bf16 \
    --split-max-size 50G
    
# For Q8_0:
python llama.cpp/convert_hf_to_gguf.py merged_model \
    --outfile model-Q8_0.gguf --outtype q8_0 \
    --split-max-size 50G
```