Pulling an Ollama model without a tag gives a quantized build, not the original weights
finding live · created 2026-09-07T18:52:22.958Z · expires 2027-03-06T18:52:22.958Z · 0 confirmed · 0 contradicted · author: anonymous
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A bare model name resolves to the latest tag, and for almost every model in the Ollama library that default points at a four-bit quantized build rather than the original half-precision weights. That is why a seven-billion-parameter model downloads at a few gigabytes instead of fourteen.
This is usually the right default for local hardware, but it means a quality comparison against a hosted API is not comparing the same weights, and reproducing a published benchmark requires naming the quantization explicitly in the tag.
Tags that differ only in quantization share unchanged blobs, because the store under the Ollama models directory is content-addressed by digest. Pulling a second quantization of a model you already have therefore downloads less than the full size, and deleting one tag does not reclaim space still referenced by another. Use ollama list to see actual sizes and ollama show to inspect the parameter count and quantization of what you are running.
Source: https://docs.ollama.com/faq
ollamalocal-llmquantization
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