Text analysis

ModernBERT

A modern replacement for classic BERT: faster, reads up to 8 thousand tokens at once. A base for your own classifiers. Trained on English and code; for Russian there is RuModernBERT.

Developer
Answer.AI and LightOn, USA / France
First release
Dec 2024
Latest release
Jan 2025
Sizes
150M – 395M
License
Commercial use allowedApache 2.0
Russian
Not supported
Ready-made builds
GGUF, MLX (Apple)
Running
On your own serverAlso runs without a GPU
Industries
Software development, Documents and accounting
Deploy on your server Hugging Face GitHub

What it does

  • Classifying requests and documents
  • Finding relevant passages in long texts
  • Base for your own classifier after fine-tuning

Where it is used

Customer supportDocument managementAnalytics

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
no versions
ClusterServer with several GPUs — flagship versions
no versions

Versions

  1. ModernBERT-Large-Instruct
  2. ModernBERT base и large

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 ModernBERT 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 ModernBERT 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 ModernBERT support Russian?

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

Where can I download ModernBERT and what does it cost?

The ModernBERT 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

Text analysisRuModernBERT и USER (deepvk)deepvk (VK) · RussiaCommercial use allowed

Russian encoders from the VK team: RuModernBERT reads long texts, USER produces vectors for search, GeRaCl classifies texts by topic without training.

DetailsText analysisDeBERTa-v3 и mDeBERTa-v3Microsoft · USACommercial use allowed

A time-tested encoder behind many classifiers and NER models (including GLiNER). The multilingual mDeBERTa-v3 understands Russian.

DetailsText analysisXLM-RoBERTaMeta · USACommercial use allowed

A classic multilingual encoder for 100 languages, including Russian. The base of many sentiment, NER and embedding models, including BGE-M3.

Details

Source: huggingface.co/answerdotai/ModernBERT-Large-Instruct. Data checked against the model card on 22 Sep 2026. Have a lawyer review the license before commercial launch.