Visual document searchSearch and RAG

ModernVBERT / ColModernVBERT

A compact (250M) model for searching document pages as images. According to the authors, it matches models 10 times larger and runs without a GPU.

Developer
Illuin Technology, EPFL, CentraleSupélec, France
First release
Oct 2025
Latest release
Oct 2025
Sizes
250M
License
Commercial use allowedMIT
Russian
Not supported
Running
On your own serverAlso runs without a GPU
Industries
Documents and accounting, Software development
Deploy on your server Hugging Face

What it does

  • Search across scans and PDFs on a modest server
  • Indexing document archives
  • Search across slides and manuals

Where it is used

Document managementInternal knowledge bases

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. ModernVBERT, ColModernVBERT, BiModernVBERT

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.

Frequently asked questions

Can ModernVBERT / ColModernVBERT be used in a commercial project?

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

What hardware does ModernVBERT / ColModernVBERT 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 ModernVBERT / ColModernVBERT support Russian?

No. The developer documentation lists the supported languages and Russian is not among them.

Where can I download ModernVBERT / ColModernVBERT and what does it cost?

The ModernVBERT / ColModernVBERT 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

Visual document searchColPali / ColQwenIlluin Technology (ViDoRe team) · FranceCommercial use with conditions

Searches PDFs and scans as images: pages do not need to be OCR'd first, the model finds the right one for a question directly, including tables and charts. Trained on English.

DetailsVisual document searchEVIETencent · ChinaCommercial use allowed

Finds the right pages in documents as pictures, without turning them into text: matches a query against how the page looks. Version 8B scores 66.75 on ViDoRe V3. The index can be compressed to 32 vectors per page.

Details

Source: arxiv.org/abs/2510.01149. Data checked against the model card on 22 Sep 2026. Have a lawyer review the license before commercial launch.