SDXL 1.0 on 8 GB of VRAM
Yes, but only just: 16-bit leaves 0.9 GB free on 8 GB. The 2023 classic. One 6.9 GB checkpoint with the text encoders and VAE inside, and the biggest library of LoRAs and fine-tunes.
Runs well
Yes, just.
16-bit (6.9 GB) fits with only 0.9 GB to spare (about 7.1 GB of 8 GB).
Best file16-bit
File size6.9 GB
VRAM needed~7.1 GB
System RAM16 GB+
Memory map · 8 GB GPU7.1 GB / 8 GB
04 GB8 GB
Weights 16-bit · 5.1 GBWorking memory · 1.2 GBReserve · 0.8 GBFree · 0.9 GB
calculated How this is counted.
01What to download
| Part | File | Folder | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkpoint | sd_xl_base_1.0.safetensors 16-bit · stabilityai/stable-diffusion-xl-base-1.0 | models/checkpoints | 6.9 GB | Download → |
| Total download · keep about the same free on disk | 6.9 GB | |||
One file: the checkpoint already contains the text encoders and the VAE. Sizes from Hugging Face, 2026-10-01.
02Every file, on 8 GB
| File | Size | Needed | On this card | Quality | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16-bit ← SAFETENSORS · stabilityai | 6.9 GB | 7.1 GB | fits · 0.9 GB spare | the original weights | Hugging Face → |
“Needed” adds 1.2 GB of working memory for SDXL and a 0.8 GB reserve. Sizes 2026-10-01. The 6.94 GB checkpoint also holds the two text encoders and the VAE. During sampling only the UNet (about 5.1 GB at 16-bit, 2.6B parameters) has to sit in VRAM, so that is the figure used for the 16-bit file.
03The text encoder
The text encoder is inside the checkpoint, so there is nothing extra to download.