TextImage + textImage generation

ERNIE 4.5

Baidu's first open line: from a tiny 0.3B to MoE with 424 billion parameters, including versions that understand images. The mid-size 21B-A3B fits on one GPU; ERNIE-Image 8B draws images with text.

Developer
Baidu, China
First release
Jun 2025
Latest release
Apr 2026
Sizes
0.3B – 424B-A47B
License
Commercial use allowedApache 2.0
Russian
Not supported
Ready-made builds
GGUF, AWQ
Running
On your own serverAlso runs without a GPU
Industries
Customer support, Documents and accounting, Retail and marketplaces
Deploy on your server Hugging Face GitHub

What it does

  • Corporate assistant
  • Analysis of documents and images
  • Customer request classification

Where it is used

Customer supportDocument managementE-commerce

Hardware requirements

LaptopLaptop or regular PC, up to 8 GB of VRAM — smaller versions
fits
1 GPUOne GPU with 16–80 GB — mid-size versions
fits
ClusterServer with several GPUs — flagship versions
fits

Versions

  1. ERNIE-Image / Image-Turbo 8B
  2. ERNIE-4.5-VL-28B-A3B-Thinking
  3. ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking
  4. ERNIE 4.5 (0.3B, 21B-A3B, 300B-A47B, VL до 424B-A47B)

How to run it

On your own serverWeights are downloaded from Hugging Face and served with vLLM (load and API) or llama.cpp (modest hardware). The model then runs in a closed network with no per-request fees.Hugging Face
How much hardware you needCalculate the VRAM for the model size, context length and number of concurrent requests.Open the hardware calculator

I can set this up end to end: pick the model size, deploy it on your server and connect it to your systems. Quantization compresses a model so it takes less video memory and runs on more modest hardware. Answers change slightly, so quality is checked on your own examples.

Frequently asked questions

Can ERNIE 4.5 be used in a commercial project?

Yes. License: Apache 2.0. It allows commercial use, but it is still worth having a lawyer review the license before launch.

What hardware does ERNIE 4.5 need?

At minimum: Laptop or regular PC, up to 8 GB of VRAM — smaller versions. Some versions also run on an ordinary CPU, without a GPU. You can calculate the exact VRAM for your model size and context in the hardware calculator.

Does ERNIE 4.5 support Russian?

No. The model card lists its languages and Russian is not among them.

Where can I download ERNIE 4.5 and what does it cost?

The ERNIE 4.5 weights are open and free to download. You only pay for the hardware it runs on and for the setup. Source links are at the bottom of this page.

How I deploy it for clients

  1. SelectionI pick the model size for your task and hardware and test it on your examples.
  2. DeploymentI deploy it on your server or in a closed network and provide an API.
  3. Fine-tuningI fine-tune it on your data (LoRA) or connect a knowledge base — whichever is cheaper for the task.
  4. IntegrationI connect it to your CRM, ERP, bot, website or team chat and set up monitoring.

Similar models

TextQwenAlibaba · ChinaCommercial use with conditions

A family of language models with strong Russian language support, from small versions for a laptop to a flagship on par with commercial APIs.

DetailsTextHunyuan / HyTencent · ChinaCommercial use with conditions

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DetailsTextGLM (ChatGLM)Zhipu AI (Z.ai) · ChinaCommercial use with conditions

One of the oldest Chinese open lines: from ChatGLM-6B to GLM-5.3. Strong at agentic tasks and programming; GLM-5.3-Flash understands images and is released under MIT.

Details

Source: huggingface.co/baidu/ERNIE-4.5-21B-A3B-Thinking. Data checked against the model card on 22 Sep 2026. Have a lawyer review the license before commercial launch.