# Grouped-Query Attention (GQA)

> Several query heads share one key/value head, shrinking the KV cache with little quality loss.

Category: Attention

GQA keeps many query heads but groups them so each group reads from a single shared key/value head. With 32 query heads and 8 KV heads, the cache is four times smaller than MHA.

Multi-query attention (MQA) is the extreme case with one KV head for everyone; GQA sits between MQA and MHA and became the default for dense open models from Llama 2 onwards.

It is simple to implement, plays well with existing kernels, and is often combined with sliding-window layers for further savings.

**Trade-off:** Large memory and bandwidth savings at inference for a small modelling cost.

## Models using GQA (78)

- [LFM3 (1.7B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/lfm3-1-7b.md) — Liquid AI, 2026-10-27
- [MiniMax M3.1-Flash (428B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/minimax-m3-1-flash-428b.md) — MiniMax, 2026-10-19
- [Recursive Flint (40B-A2.5B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/recursive-flint-40b-a2-5b.md) — Recursive, 2026-10-18
- [Reflection Beam (501B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/reflection-beam-501b.md) — Reflection, 2026-10-16
- [Dory1.0 (4B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/dory1-0-4b.md) — NVIDIA, 2026-10-16
- [Muse Spark Open (816B-A42B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/muse-spark-open-816b-a42b.md) — Meta, 2026-10-15
- [Nemotron 3.5 Super VL (120B-A12B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nemotron-3-5-super-vl-120b-a12b.md) — NVIDIA, 2026-10-15
- [Kolibri-1 (78B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/kolibri-1-78b.md) — Aleph Alpha, 2026-10-03
- [Naive-N0.5-Flash (309B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/naive-n0-5-flash-309b.md) — NaiveAI, 2026-09-27
- [Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Flash-RL (309B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/xiaomi-mimo-v2-6-flash-rl-309b.md) — Xiaomi, 2026-09-21
- [Xiaomi MiMo-V2.6-Pro-RL (1.02T)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/xiaomi-mimo-v2-6-pro-rl-1-02t.md) — Xiaomi, 2026-09-21
- [Step-5 Preview (600B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/step-5-preview-600b.md) — StepFun, 2026-09-20
- [Qwen3.8-Flash-Next (125B-A6B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-8-flash-next-125b-a6b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2026-08-26
- [Ornith 1.5 (35B-A3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/ornith-1-5-35b-a3b.md) — Ornith, 2026-08-23
- [Qwen3.8 (27B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-8-27b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2026-08-14
- [Nemotron 3.5 Lightning (30B-A3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nemotron-3-5-lightning-30b-a3b.md) — NVIDIA, 2026-08-11
- [Muse Glimmer (30B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/muse-glimmer-30b.md) — Meta, 2026-08-10
- [Solar Open 2 (250B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/solar-open-2.md) — Upstage, 2026-07-22
- [Antares (1B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/antares-1b.md) — Cisco, 2026-07-21
- [Laguna S 2.1 (118B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/laguna-s-2-1.md) — Poolside, 2026-07-21
- [Nanbeige 4.2 (3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nanbeige-4-2-3b.md) — BOSS Zhipin, 2026-07-21
- [BTL-3 (27B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/btl-3-27b.md) — Bad Theory Labs, 2026-07-20
- [Inkling (975B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/inkling.md) — Thinking Machines Lab, 2026-07-15
- [Soofi S (30B-A3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/soofi-s-30b-a3b.md) — SOOFI Consortium, 2026-07-10
- [Laguna XS 2.1 (33B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/laguna-xs-2-1.md) — Poolside, 2026-07-02
- [VibeThinker-3B (3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/vibethinker-3b.md) — Weibo, 2026-06-15
- [MiniMax M3 (428B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/minimax-m3-428b.md) — MiniMax, 2026-06-13
- [North Mini Code (30B-A3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/north-mini-code-30b-a3b.md) — Cohere, 2026-06-05
- [Nemotron 3 Ultra (550B-A55B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b.md) — NVIDIA, 2026-06-04
- [Gemma 4 (12B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/gemma-4-12b.md) — Google, 2026-06-03
- [JetBrains Mellum2 Thinking (12B-A2.5B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/jetbrains-mellum2-thinking-12b-a2-5b.md) — JetBrains, 2026-06-01
- [LFM2.5 (1.2B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/lfm2-5-1-2b.md) — Liquid AI, 2026-05-28
- [LFM2.5 (350M)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/lfm2-5-350m.md) — Liquid AI, 2026-05-28
- [LFM2.5 (8B-A1B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/lfm2-5-8b-a1b.md) — Liquid AI, 2026-05-28
- [Command A+ (218B-A25B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/command-a-218b-a25b.md) — Cohere, 2026-05-20
- [ZAYA1-8B (8.4B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/zaya1-8b.md) — Zyphra, 2026-05-06
- [Granite 4.1 (30B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/granite-4-1-30b.md) — IBM, 2026-04-29
- [Laguna XS.2 (33B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/laguna-xs-2.md) — Poolside, 2026-04-28
- [Tencent Hy3-preview (295B-A21B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/tencent-hy3-preview-295b-a21b.md) — Tencent, 2026-04-23
- [Xiaomi MiMo-V2.5-Pro (1.02T)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/xiaomi-mimo-v2-5-pro-1-02t.md) — Xiaomi, 2026-04-22
- [Gemma 4 (31B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/gemma-4-31b.md) — Google, 2026-04-02
- [Gemma 4 (26B-A4B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/gemma-4-26b-a4b.md) — Google, 2026-04-02
- [Gemma 4 (E4B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/gemma-4-e4b.md) — Google, 2026-04-02
- [MiniMax M2.7 (230B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/minimax-m2-7-230b.md) — MiniMax, 2026-03-18
- [Nemotron 3 Nano (4B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nemotron-3-nano-4b.md) — NVIDIA, 2026-03-16
- [Nemotron 3 Super (120B-A12B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b.md) — NVIDIA, 2026-03-11
- [Sarvam (30B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/sarvam-30b.md) — Sarvam AI, 2026-03-03
- [Sarvam (105B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/sarvam-105b.md) — Sarvam AI, 2026-03-03
- [Tiny Aya (3.35B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/tiny-aya-3-35b.md) — Cohere, 2026-02-13
- [MiniMax-M2.5 (230B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/minimax-m2-5-230b.md) — MiniMax, 2026-02-12
- [Nanbeige 4.1 (3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nanbeige-4-1-3b.md) — BOSS Zhipin, 2026-02-10
- [Step 3.5 Flash (196B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/step-3-5-flash-196b.md) — StepFun, 2026-02-01
- [Arcee AI Trinity Large (400B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/arcee-ai-trinity-large-400b.md) — Arcee AI, 2026-01-27
- [GLM-4.7 (355B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/glm-4-7-355b.md) — Z.ai, 2025-12-22
- [Nemotron 3 Nano (30B-A3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/nemotron-3-nano-30b-a3b.md) — NVIDIA, 2025-12-04
- [INTELLECT-3 (106B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/intellect-3.md) — Prime Intellect, 2025-11-26
- [OLMo 3 (32B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/olmo-3-32b.md) — Ai2, 2025-11-20
- [MiniMax M2 (230B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/minimax-m2-230b.md) — MiniMax, 2025-10-23
- [Grok 2.5 (270B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/grok-2-5-270b.md) — xAI, 2025-08-22
- [GPT-OSS (120B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/gpt-oss-120b.md) — OpenAI, 2025-08-04
- [GPT-OSS (20B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/gpt-oss-20b.md) — OpenAI, 2025-08-04
- [Qwen3 Coder Flash (30B-A3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-coder-flash-30b-a3b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2025-07-31
- [GLM-4.5 (355B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/glm-4-5-355b.md) — Z.ai, 2025-07-28
- [GLM-4.5-Air (106B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/glm-4-5-air.md) — Z.ai, 2025-07-28
- [SmolLM3 (3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/smollm3-3b.md) — Hugging Face, 2025-06-19
- [Qwen3 (0.6B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-0-6b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2025-04-28
- [Qwen3 (235B-A22B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-235b-a22b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2025-04-28
- [Qwen3 (30B-A3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-30b-a3b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2025-04-28
- [Qwen3 (32B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-32b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2025-04-28
- [Qwen3 (4B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-4b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2025-04-28
- [Qwen3 (8B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/qwen3-8b.md) — Alibaba Cloud, 2025-04-28
- [Llama 4 Maverick (400B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/llama-4-maverick.md) — Meta, 2025-04-05
- [Mistral Small 3.1 (24B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/mistral-small-3-1-24b.md) — Mistral AI, 2025-03-18
- [Gemma 3 (27B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/gemma-3-27b.md) — Google, 2025-03-11
- [Phi-4 (14B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/phi-4.md) — Microsoft, 2024-12-12
- [Llama 3.2 (1B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/llama-3-2-1b.md) — Meta, 2024-09-25
- [Llama 3.2 (3B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/llama-3-2-3b.md) — Meta, 2024-09-25
- [Llama 3 (8B)](https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/models/llama-3-8b.md) — Meta, 2024-04-18

Full explainer with figures by Sebastian Raschka: https://sebastianraschka.com/llm-architecture-gallery/gqa/
Web page: https://llm-atlas-7or.pages.dev/concepts/gqa/