GGUF vs GPTQ vs AWQ vs EXL2: LLM Model Formats Explained (2026)

First, separate 2 ideas: containers vs. quantization methods Most confusion comes from mixing 2 layers. A container defines how tensors are stored on disk. A quantization method defines how weights are squeezed into fewer bits. Containers: safetensors, GGUF, PyTorch pickle (.bin / .pt). Methods: GPTQ, AWQ, bitsandbytes NF4, llama.cpp K-quants and... Weiterlesen