---
license: mit
base_model:
- inclusionAI/Ling-3.0-flash
pipeline_tag: text-generation
library_name: llama.cpp
tags:
- gguf
- bailingmoe3
- mixture-of-experts
- speculative-decoding
- conversational
---

# Ling-3.0-flash GGUF

GGUF conversions of [inclusionAI/Ling-3.0-flash](https://huggingface.co/inclusionAI/Ling-3.0-flash)
(124B total / 5.1B active, hybrid KDA + gated MLA, 512-expert MoE), converted directly from the
released BF16 safetensors.

These are the **reference conversions for the `bailingmoe3` architecture**, merged into llama.cpp in
[PR #26608](https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/26608) (2026-08-17). Every file bundles the MTP (NextN)
block and Ling 3.0's trained per-layer SwiGLU clamp metadata, and no separate drafter file, nor fork
required.

🔔 2026-08-21: added `reasoning_effort` support (low = thinking off, high = on, default same). 
If you want `reasoning_effort`, re-download or override with [chat_template.jinja](./chat_template.jinja). 

🎉 `bailingmoe3` is now supported in stock llama.cpp! 
Since [PR #26608](https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/26608) (merged 2026-08-17, 
commit `3733366720`). Any build from that commit onward loads these files directly:

```bash
llama-server -hf bloomer010/Ling-3.0-flash-GGUF:Q4_K_S
```

⚠️ Thinking model occasionally stops after thinking with empty content 
(reasoning lands in reasoning_content); 
serve with `--reasoning-format none` if your client only reads content.


## Pick a file

Generally... Larger files = more precision.
Smaller files = More compression = More slop and misbehavin'.

Weights and context share your memory, so be sure leave headroom.

| your memory | file | size |
| --- | --- | ---: |
| 192 GB+ | `UD-Q8_K_XL` | 177 GB |
| 128 GB | `Q8_0` | 136 GB |
| 96 GB | `UD-Q6_K_XL` | 116 GB |
| 80 GB (A100/H100) | `Q5_K_M` | 92 GB |
| 64 GB | `Q4_K_M` | 78 GB |
| 56 GB | `Q4_K_S` / `MXFP4_MOE`¹ | 74 / 70 GB |
| 48 GB | `Q3_K_M` | 63 GB |
| 32 GB | `UD-Q2_K_XL` / `IQ2_M` | 43 / 42 GB |
| 24 GB | `IQ1_M` (with expert offload, see below) | 30 GB |

¹ `MXFP4_MOE` runs its native path on MXFP4-capable GPUs (Blackwell RTX 50-series, GB10/DGX
Spark). Elsewhere it falls back to a slower dequant path — prefer `Q4_K_S` on older hardware.

With less VRAM than the file size, keep the experts on CPU and the rest on GPU, e.g.:

```bash
llama-server -hf bloomer010/Ling-3.0-flash-GGUF:IQ1_M \
  -ngl 99 -ot "ffn_.*_exps\.weight=CPU" -c 32768
```

## Usage

Recommended sampling from the source model card: `temperature 0.6, top_p 0.95, top_k 20`.
Thinking mode is on by default; disable per request with
`"chat_template_kwargs": {"enable_thinking": false}`.

```bash
./build/bin/llama-server \
  -m Ling-3.0-flash-Q4_K_S.gguf \
  -c 262144 \
  -ngl auto \
  --flash-attn auto \
  --temp 0.6 --top-p 0.95 --top-k 20 \
  --jinja
```

### MTP speculative decoding

Every quant bundles the MTP/NextN block. Enable it with `--spec-type draft-mtp`:

```bash
./build/bin/llama-server \
  -m Ling-3.0-flash-Q8_0.gguf \
  -c 262144 \
  -ngl auto \
  --flash-attn auto \
  --temp 0.6 --top-p 0.95 --top-k 20 \
  --jinja \
  --spec-type draft-mtp
```

During ordinary inference, llama.cpp skips the MTP tensors and may report them as unused. With
`--spec-type draft-mtp`, the same GGUF is opened as an MTP draft model and block 42 is loaded and
executed. No separate drafter file is required.

MoE placement can be adjusted for available VRAM with -ncmoe N. Draft-model placement can be
controlled separately with -ncmoed N and -ngld N.

Supports up to 256K context.

<!-- keep existing sections below unchanged:
     Conversion and Quantization / Importance Matrix / Quants / Notes /
     Validation Completed / Build -->

## Conversion and Quantization

Taken directly from the released `inclusionAI/Ling-3.0-flash` BF16 safetensors.

Conversion-specific tensor transformations include:

- `A_log` stored as `exp(A_log)`
- MLA `kv_b_proj` split into separate K and V tensors, with the K tensor transposed
- KDA convolution weights reshaped for llama.cpp
- Per-expert tensors stacked into GGUF expert tensors
- KDA and MLA `g_proj` tensors mapped separately

Norms, routing tensors, expert routing bias, KDA state scalars, `dt_bias`, and convolution weights
remain F32.

### Importance Matrix

Importance matrix generated from the Q8_0 model:

- `wiki.train.raw`
- 100 chunks
- 512 tokens per chunk
- 51,200 calibration tokens total
- 573 matrix entries

### Quants

`MXFP4_MOE`:

- Quantized using llama.cpp's MXFP4_MOE quantization type (4.25 bpw)

`Q8_0`:

- 8.51 BPW
- 126.3 GiB
- Includes MTP block

`UD-Q2_K_XL`:

- Model-specific Unsloth-style mixed tensor recipe
- Main expert gate/up tensors: IQ2_XS
- Main expert down tensors: IQ3_XXS
- Final target layer experts: IQ3_XXS and IQ4_XS
- Attention, shared experts, and KDA projections retained at higher precision
- MTP experts: Q3_K and Q4_K

`IQ1_S`:

- Expected size: approximately 24.9 GiB
- Preserves MTP functionality

## Notes

The GGUF contains 43 blocks:

- 42 target-model layers
- 35 KDA layers
- 7 gated MLA layers at zero-based indices 5, 11, 17, 23, 29, 35, and 41
- One MTP/NextN block at index 42

The first two target layers use dense FFNs. The remaining target layers use 512 routed experts with
top-8 selection plus one shared expert. Routing uses sigmoid scoring, expert bias, eight expert
groups, and four selected groups.

The KDA safe gate is implemented as:

`lower_bound * sigmoid(exp(A_log) * (f_proj(x) + dt_bias))`

The lower bound is `-5.0`. The GGUF stores the positive `exp(A_log)` value, while the sign is
supplied by the negative lower bound.

## Validation Completed

- BF16 architecture load and tensor round-trip
- CPU and CUDA execution on a reduced-size BailingMoE3 fixture
- Target next-token parity against the released Hugging Face implementation before the missing
  trained clamps were identified
- Nonzero SwiGLU clamp execution and GGUF round-trip on the reduced-size BailingMoE3 fixture
- First three recursive MTP proposals matched the Hugging Face implementation
- Full MXFP4_MOE target and MTP graph smoke test
- Q8_0 conversion completed successfully with all 938 tensors

## Build

```bash
git clone https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp.git   # bailingmoe3 merged 2026-08-17
# pre-merge builds:
# git clone --branch bailingmoe3-support https://github.com/aetherbird/llama.cpp.git

cd llama.cpp
cmake -B build -DGGML_CUDA=ON
cmake --build build --config Release -j --target llama-cli llama-server
```

Upstream PR:
https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/pull/26608