Skip to content
Updated minutes ago
Google

Gemma 2 9B

Google · dense · 9.2B parameters · 8,192 context

Quality
68.0

Parameters

9.2B

Context Window

8K tokens

Architecture

Dense

Best GPU

RTX 5090

Cheapest API

$0.10/M

Quality Score

68/100

Intelligence Brief

Gemma 2 9B is a 9.2B parameter DENSE model from Google, featuring Grouped Query Attention (GQA) with 42 layers and 3,584 hidden dimensions. With a 8,192 token context window, it supports structured output, code, math, multilingual. On standardized benchmarks, it achieves MMLU 71.3, HumanEval 40, GSM8K 76. The most cost-effective API deployment is via deepinfra at $0.10/M output tokens. For self-hosted inference, RTX 5090 delivers optimal throughput at $845/month.

Architecture Details

TypeDENSE
Total Parameters9.2B
Active Parameters9.2B
Layers42
Hidden Dimension3,584
Attention Heads16
KV Heads8
Head Dimension256
Vocab Size256,000

Memory Requirements

BF16 Weights

18.4 GB

FP8 Weights

9.2 GB

INT4 Weights

4.6 GB

KV-Cache per Token344064 bytes
Activation Estimate1.00 GB

GPU Compatibility Matrix

Gemma 2 9B is compatible with 90% of GPU configurations across 41 GPUs at 3 precision levels.

BF16 (Full)
FP8 (Half)
INT4 (Quarter)
Blackwell(7 GPUs)
B200 NVL (pair)360GB
B300288GB
B100 SXM192GB
GB200 NVL72 (per GPU)192GB
Hopper(7 GPUs)
H100 NVL 94GB (per GPU pair)188GB
H200 SXM141GB
H2096GB
GH20096GB
Ada Lovelace(11 GPUs)
L40S48GB
L4048GB
RTX 6000 Ada48GB
L2048GB
Ampere(16 GPUs)
A100 80GB SXM80GB
A100 80GB PCIe80GB
A1664GB
RTX A600048GB
Legend:No fitVery tightTightModerateGoodExcellent

GPU Recommendations

RTX 5090optimal

BF16 · 1 GPU · vllm

95/100

score

Throughput

473.3 tok/s

Latency (ITL)

2.1ms

Est. TTFT

0ms

Cost/Month

$845

Cost/M Tokens

$0.68

Use this config →
V100 32GBoptimal

BF16 · 1 GPU · vllm

95/100

score

Throughput

91.7 tok/s

Latency (ITL)

10.9ms

Est. TTFT

2ms

Cost/Month

$180

Cost/M Tokens

$0.75

Use this config →
Instinct MI100optimal

BF16 · 1 GPU · vllm

95/100

score

Throughput

110.8 tok/s

Latency (ITL)

9.0ms

Est. TTFT

2ms

Cost/Month

$380

Cost/M Tokens

$1.30

Use this config →

Deployment Options

API

API Deployment

deepinfra

$0.10/M

output tokens

Self-Hosted

Single GPU

RTX 5090

$845/mo

Min VRAM: 9 GB

Scale

Multi-GPU

A4000 x2

188.2 tok/s

TP· $323/mo

API Pricing Comparison

ProviderInput $/MOutput $/MBadges
deepinfra$0.10$0.10
Cheapest
together$0.20$0.20

Cost Analysis

ProviderInput $/MOutput $/M~Monthly Cost
deepinfraBest Value$0.10$0.10$1
together$0.20$0.20$2

Cost per 1,000 Requests

Short (500 tok)

$0.07

via deepinfra

Medium (2K tok)

$0.28

via deepinfra

Long (8K tok)

$1.00

via deepinfra

Performance Estimates

Throughput by GPU

RTX 5090
473.3 tok/s
V100 32GB
91.7 tok/s
Instinct MI100
110.8 tok/s

VRAM Breakdown (RTX 5090, BF16)

Weights
KV
Act
Weights 18.4 GBKV-Cache 5.6 GBActivations 8.0 GBOverhead 1.5 GB

Precision Impact

bf16

18.4 GB

weights/GPU

~473.3 tok/s

fp8

9.2 GB

weights/GPU

int4

4.6 GB

weights/GPU

Quality Benchmarks

Average
71th percentile across all models
MMLU
71.3
Below Average (35th pctile)
HumanEval
40.0
Below Average (25th pctile)
GSM8K
76.0
Below Average (40th pctile)
MT-Bench
78.0
Bottom 25% (0th pctile)

Capabilities

Features

Tool Use Vision Code Math Reasoning Multilingual Structured Output

Supported Frameworks

vllmsglangtgitensorrt-llmollama

Supported Precisions

BF16 (default)FP8INT4

Where to Deploy Gemma 2 9B

Similar Models

Gemma 2 27B

27B params · dense

Quality: 65

from $0.27/M

More expensive, Larger modelCompare →

GLM-4 9B

9.4B params · dense

Quality: 50

from $0.15/M

Larger context, Lower qualityCompare →
Larger context, Lower qualityCompare →

Yi 1.5 9B

8.83B params · dense

Quality: 62

from $0.20/M

Lower quality, More expensiveCompare →

Frequently Asked Questions

How much VRAM does Gemma 2 9B need for inference?

Gemma 2 9B requires approximately 18.4 GB of VRAM at BF16 precision, 9.2 GB at FP8, or 4.6 GB at INT4 quantization. Additional VRAM is needed for KV-cache (344064 bytes per token) and activations (~1.00 GB).

What is the best GPU for Gemma 2 9B?

The top recommended GPU for Gemma 2 9B is the RTX 5090 using BF16 precision. It achieves approximately 473.3 tokens/sec at an estimated cost of $845/month ($0.68/M tokens). Score: 95/100.

How much does Gemma 2 9B inference cost?

Gemma 2 9B API inference starts from $0.10/M input tokens and $0.10/M output tokens. Self-hosted inference costs depend on your GPU configuration — use our ROI calculator for a detailed breakdown.