NVIDIA’s Nemotron 3 Nano 4B is a small text model for local conversational assistants and tool use. Specify the 4B tag: Ollama’s default is the larger 30B variant.
Where it works well
- Compact text assistant.
- Instruction following and tool use.
- Reasoning and non-reasoning tasks.
Common use cases
- Draft a short reply.
- Organize supplied notes.
- Try tool calling in a compatible local app.
Know its limits
- The 4B model is text-only.
- Tool use requires an application configured to provide tools.
- Long context and other open apps increase memory use.
Run it on your computer
Compatibility: Select the 4B tag explicitly; the default is the larger 30B model.
Start with a compressed download and a short conversation. Our estimate is about 8 GB of total RAM or Mac unified memory, with room for the operating system. The listed 2.8–2.9 GB download is the model file, not its full running memory use.
Check the model’s supported runtime and hardware before loading it. System RAM on a PC and unified memory on a Mac are different from dedicated NVIDIA VRAM. A memory match doesn’t guarantee compatibility or speed. Choose a smaller model if responses are too slow.
Use a desktop app that supports the listed model format, such as LM Studio or Ollama. Download the exact local variant, load it in Chat, and start with one small task. Model downloads need internet; local chat can work offline once the model is downloaded.
Official model information
See the linked model sources for current capabilities. These use cases are practical starting suggestions, not performance guarantees.