mlx-vlm 0.4.3

MLX-VLM is a package for inference and fine-tuning of Vision Language Models (VLMs) and Omni Models (VLMs with audio and video support) on your Mac using MLX.

MLX-VLM

MLX-VLM is a package for inference and fine-tuning of Vision Language Models (VLMs) and Omni Models (VLMs with audio and video support) on your Mac using MLX.

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • Command Line Interface (CLI)
    • Thinking Budget
  • Chat UI with Gradio
  • Python Script
• Activation Quantization (CUDA)
• Multi-Image Chat Support
  • Supported Models
  • Usage Examples
• Model-Specific Documentation
• TurboQuant KV Cache
• Fine-tuning

Model-Specific Documentation

Some models have detailed documentation with prompt formats, examples, and best practices:

Model	Documentation
DeepSeek-OCR	Docs
DeepSeek-OCR-2	Docs
DOTS-OCR	Docs
DOTS-MOCR	Docs
GLM-OCR	Docs
Phi-4 Reasoning Vision	Docs
MiniCPM-o	Docs
Phi-4 Multimodal	Docs
MolmoPoint	Docs
Moondream3	Docs
Gemma 4	Docs
Falcon-OCR	Docs
Granite Vision 3.2	Docs
Granite 4.0 Vision	Docs

Installation

The easiest way to get started is to install the mlx-vlm package using pip:

pip install -U mlx-vlm

Usage

Command Line Interface (CLI)

Generate output from a model using the CLI:

# Text generation
mlx_vlm.generate --model mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit --max-tokens 100 --prompt "Hello, how are you?"

# Image generation
mlx_vlm.generate --model mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit --max-tokens 100 --temperature 0.0 --image http://images.cocodataset.org/val2017/000000039769.jpg

# Audio generation (New)
mlx_vlm.generate --model mlx-community/gemma-3n-E2B-it-4bit --max-tokens 100 --prompt "Describe what you hear" --audio /path/to/audio.wav

# Multi-modal generation (Image + Audio)
mlx_vlm.generate --model mlx-community/gemma-3n-E2B-it-4bit --max-tokens 100 --prompt "Describe what you see and hear" --image /path/to/image.jpg --audio /path/to/audio.wav

Thinking Budget

For thinking models (e.g., Qwen3.5), you can limit the number of tokens spent in the thinking block:

mlx_vlm.generate --model mlx-community/Qwen3.5-2B-4bit \
  --thinking-budget 50 \
  --thinking-start-token "<think>" \
  --thinking-end-token "</think>" \
  --enable-thinking \
  --prompt "Solve 2+2"

Flag	Description
--enable-thinking	Activate thinking mode in the chat template
--thinking-budget	Max tokens allowed inside the thinking block
--thinking-start-token	Token that opens a thinking block (default: <think>)
--thinking-end-token	Token that closes a thinking block (default: </think>)

When the budget is exceeded, the model is forced to emit \n</think> and transition to the answer. If --enable-thinking is passed but the model's chat template does not support it, the budget is applied only if the model generates the start token on its own.

Chat UI with Gradio

Launch a chat interface using Gradio:

mlx_vlm.chat_ui --model mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit

Python Script

Here's an example of how to use MLX-VLM in a Python script:

import mlx.core as mx
from mlx_vlm import load, generate
from mlx_vlm.prompt_utils import apply_chat_template
from mlx_vlm.utils import load_config

# Load the model
model_path = "mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit"
model, processor = load(model_path)
config = load_config(model_path)

# Prepare input
image = ["http://images.cocodataset.org/val2017/000000039769.jpg"]
# image = [Image.open("...")] can also be used with PIL.Image.Image objects
prompt = "Describe this image."

# Apply chat template
formatted_prompt = apply_chat_template(
    processor, config, prompt, num_images=len(image)
)

# Generate output
output = generate(model, processor, formatted_prompt, image, verbose=False)
print(output)

Audio Example

from mlx_vlm import load, generate
from mlx_vlm.prompt_utils import apply_chat_template
from mlx_vlm.utils import load_config

# Load model with audio support
model_path = "mlx-community/gemma-3n-E2B-it-4bit"
model, processor = load(model_path)
config = model.config

# Prepare audio input
audio = ["/path/to/audio1.wav", "/path/to/audio2.mp3"]
prompt = "Describe what you hear in these audio files."

# Apply chat template with audio
formatted_prompt = apply_chat_template(
    processor, config, prompt, num_audios=len(audio)
)

# Generate output with audio
output = generate(model, processor, formatted_prompt, audio=audio, verbose=False)
print(output)

Multi-Modal Example (Image + Audio)

from mlx_vlm import load, generate
from mlx_vlm.prompt_utils import apply_chat_template
from mlx_vlm.utils import load_config

# Load multi-modal model
model_path = "mlx-community/gemma-3n-E2B-it-4bit"
model, processor = load(model_path)
config = model.config

# Prepare inputs
image = ["/path/to/image.jpg"]
audio = ["/path/to/audio.wav"]
prompt = ""

# Apply chat template
formatted_prompt = apply_chat_template(
    processor, config, prompt,
    num_images=len(image),
    num_audios=len(audio)
)

# Generate output
output = generate(model, processor, formatted_prompt, image, audio=audio, verbose=False)
print(output)

Server (FastAPI)

Start the server:

mlx_vlm.server --port 8080

# Preload a model at startup (Hugging Face repo or local path)
mlx_vlm.server --model <hf_repo_or_local_path>

# Preload a model with adapter
mlx_vlm.server --model <hf_repo_or_local_path> --adapter-path <adapter_path>

# With trust remote code enabled (required for some models)
mlx_vlm.server --trust-remote-code

Server Options

• --model: Preload a model at server startup, accepts a Hugging Face repo ID or local path (optional, loads lazily on first request if omitted)
• --adapter-path: Path for adapter weights to use with the preloaded model
• --host: Host address (default: 0.0.0.0)
• --port: Port number (default: 8080)
• --trust-remote-code: Trust remote code when loading models from Hugging Face Hub

You can also set trust remote code via environment variable:

MLX_TRUST_REMOTE_CODE=true mlx_vlm.server

The server provides multiple endpoints for different use cases and supports dynamic model loading/unloading with caching (one model at a time).

Available Endpoints

• /models and /v1/models - List models available locally
• /chat/completions and /v1/chat/completions - OpenAI-compatible chat-style interaction endpoint with support for images, audio, and text
• /responses and /v1/responses - OpenAI-compatible responses endpoint
• /health - Check server status
• /unload - Unload current model from memory

Usage Examples

List available models

curl "http://localhost:8080/models"

Text Input

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/chat/completions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": "Hello, how are you"
      }
    ],
    "stream": true,
    "max_tokens": 100
  }'

Image Input

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/chat/completions" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mlx-community/Qwen2.5-VL-32B-Instruct-8bit",
    "messages":
    [
      {
        "role": "system",
        "content": "You are a helpful assistant."
      },
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
          {
            "type": "text",
            "text": "This is today's chart for energy demand in California. Can you provide an analysis of the chart and comment on the implications for renewable energy in California?"
          },
          {
            "type": "input_image",
            "image_url": "/path/to/repo/examples/images/renewables_california.png"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "stream": true,
    "max_tokens": 1000
  }'

Audio Support (New)

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/generate" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mlx-community/gemma-3n-E2B-it-4bit",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
          { "type": "text", "text": "Describe what you hear in these audio files" },
          { "type": "input_audio", "input_audio": "/path/to/audio1.wav" },
          { "type": "input_audio", "input_audio": "https://example.com/audio2.mp3" }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "stream": true,
    "max_tokens": 500
  }'

Multi-Modal (Image + Audio)

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/generate" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mlx-community/gemma-3n-E2B-it-4bit",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
          {"type": "input_image", "image_url": "/path/to/image.jpg"},
          {"type": "input_audio", "input_audio": "/path/to/audio.wav"}
        ]
      }
    ],
    "max_tokens": 100
  }'

Responses Endpoint

curl -X POST "http://localhost:8080/responses" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": [
          {"type": "input_text", "text": "What is in this image?"},
          {"type": "input_image", "image_url": "/path/to/image.jpg"}
        ]
      }
    ],
    "max_tokens": 100
  }'

Request Parameters

• model: Model identifier (required)
• messages: Chat messages for chat/OpenAI endpoints
• max_tokens: Maximum tokens to generate
• temperature: Sampling temperature
• top_p: Top-p sampling parameter
• top_k: Top-k sampling cutoff
• min_p: Min-p sampling threshold
• repetition_penalty: Penalty applied to repeated tokens
• stream: Enable streaming responses

Activation Quantization (CUDA)

When running on NVIDIA GPUs with MLX CUDA, models quantized with mxfp8 or nvfp4 modes require activation quantization to work properly. This converts QuantizedLinear layers to QQLinear layers which quantize both weights and activations.

Command Line

Use the -qa or --quantize-activations flag:

mlx_vlm.generate --model /path/to/mxfp8-model --prompt "Describe this image" --image /path/to/image.jpg -qa

Python API

Pass quantize_activations=True to the load function:

from mlx_vlm import load, generate

# Load with activation quantization enabled
model, processor = load(
    "path/to/mxfp8-quantized-model",
    quantize_activations=True
)

# Generate as usual
output = generate(model, processor, "Describe this image", image=["image.jpg"])

Supported Quantization Modes

• mxfp8 - 8-bit MX floating point
• nvfp4 - 4-bit NVIDIA floating point

Note: This feature is required for mxfp/nvfp quantized models on CUDA. On Apple Silicon (Metal), these models work without the flag.

Multi-Image Chat Support

MLX-VLM supports analyzing multiple images simultaneously with select models. This feature enables more complex visual reasoning tasks and comprehensive analysis across multiple images in a single conversation.

Usage Examples

Python Script

from mlx_vlm import load, generate
from mlx_vlm.prompt_utils import apply_chat_template
from mlx_vlm.utils import load_config

model_path = "mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit"
model, processor = load(model_path)
config = model.config

images = ["path/to/image1.jpg", "path/to/image2.jpg"]
prompt = "Compare these two images."

formatted_prompt = apply_chat_template(
    processor, config, prompt, num_images=len(images)
)

output = generate(model, processor, formatted_prompt, images, verbose=False)
print(output)

Command Line

mlx_vlm.generate --model mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit --max-tokens 100 --prompt "Compare these images" --image path/to/image1.jpg path/to/image2.jpg

Video Understanding

MLX-VLM also supports video analysis such as captioning, summarization, and more, with select models.

Supported Models

The following models support video chat:

1. Qwen2-VL
2. Qwen2.5-VL
3. Idefics3
4. LLaVA

With more coming soon.

Usage Examples

Command Line

mlx_vlm.video_generate --model mlx-community/Qwen2-VL-2B-Instruct-4bit --max-tokens 100 --prompt "Describe this video" --video path/to/video.mp4 --max-pixels 224 224 --fps 1.0

These examples demonstrate how to use multiple images with MLX-VLM for more complex visual reasoning tasks.

TurboQuant KV Cache

TurboQuant compresses the KV cache during generation, enabling longer context lengths with less memory while maintaining quality.

Quick Start

# 3.5-bit KV cache quantization (3-bit keys + 4-bit values)
mlx_vlm generate \
  --model mlx-community/Qwen3.5-4B-4bit \
  --kv-bits 3.5 \
  --kv-quant-scheme turboquant \
  --prompt "Your long prompt here..."

from mlx_vlm import generate

result = generate(
    model, processor, prompt,
    kv_bits=3.5,
    kv_quant_scheme="turboquant",
    max_tokens=256,
)

How It Works

TurboQuant uses random rotation + codebook quantization (arXiv:2504.19874) to compress KV cache entries from 16-bit to 2-4 bits per dimension:

• Keys: ProdCodec (MSE codebook + QJL sign residual) for accurate attention scoring
• Values: MSE codebook for reconstruction quality
• Fractional bits (e.g. 3.5): uses lower bits for keys, higher for values (3-bit K + 4-bit V)

Custom Metal kernels fuse score computation and value aggregation directly on packed quantized data, avoiding full dequantization during decode.

Performance

Tested on Qwen3.5-4B-4bit at 128k context:

Metric	Baseline	TurboQuant 3.5-bit
KV Memory	4.1 GB	0.97 GB (76% reduction)
Peak Memory	18.3 GB	17.3 GB (-1.0 GB)

At 512k+ contexts, TurboQuant's per-layer attention is faster than FP16 SDPA due to reduced memory bandwidth requirements.

Tested on gemma-4-31b-it at 128k context:

Metric	Baseline	TurboQuant 3.5-bit
KV Memory	13.3 GB	4.9 GB (63% reduction)
Peak Memory	75.2 GB	65.8 GB (-9.4 GB)

Supported Bit Widths

Bits	Compression	Best For
2	~8x	Maximum compression, some quality loss
3	~5x	Good balance of quality and compression
3.5	~4.5x	Recommended default (3-bit keys + 4-bit values)
4	~4x	Best quality, moderate compression

Compatibility

TurboQuant automatically quantizes KVCache layers (global attention). Models with RotatingKVCache (sliding window) or ArraysCache (MLA/absorbed keys) keep their native cache format for those layers since they are already memory-efficient.

Fine-tuning

MLX-VLM supports fine-tuning models with LoRA and QLoRA.

LoRA & QLoRA

To learn more about LoRA, please refer to the LoRA.md file.