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LLM-QAT: Data-Free Quantization Aware Training for Large Language Models

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arxiv 2305.17888 v1 pith:IGKD77JM submitted 2023-05-29 cs.CL

LLM-QAT: Data-Free Quantization Aware Training for Large Language Models

classification cs.CL
keywords quantizationmethodsdownlargemodelmodelstrainingaware
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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Several post-training quantization methods have been applied to large language models (LLMs), and have been shown to perform well down to 8-bits. We find that these methods break down at lower bit precision, and investigate quantization aware training for LLMs (LLM-QAT) to push quantization levels even further. We propose a data-free distillation method that leverages generations produced by the pre-trained model, which better preserves the original output distribution and allows quantizing any generative model independent of its training data, similar to post-training quantization methods. In addition to quantizing weights and activations, we also quantize the KV cache, which is critical for increasing throughput and support long sequence dependencies at current model sizes. We experiment with LLaMA models of sizes 7B, 13B, and 30B, at quantization levels down to 4-bits. We observe large improvements over training-free methods, especially in the low-bit settings.

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Forward citations

Cited by 28 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. BCJR-QAT: A Differentiable Relaxation of Trellis-Coded Weight Quantization

    cs.LG 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 7.0

    BCJR-QAT makes trellis quantization differentiable via BCJR soft decoding at finite temperature, allowing QAT to improve 2-bit LLM perplexity over PTQ with a fused GPU kernel and a drift-budget escape condition.

  2. Reliability Scaling Laws for Quantized Large Language Models

    cs.LG 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    Reliability of quantized LLMs peaks nonlinearly at 4-bit precision under fixed total model bits, while accuracy scales monotonically, and quantization can improve robustness to natural perturbations.

  3. High-accuracy Low-Bit KV-Cache Quantization via Local Distribution Restoration

    cs.LG 2026-06 conditional novelty 6.0

    A learned top-K distribution-restoration layer recovers near-FP16 long-context accuracy under 1-bit KV-cache quantization.

  4. LC-QAT: Data-Efficient 2-Bit QAT for LLMs via Linear-Constrained Vector Quantization

    cs.CL 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    LC-QAT achieves data-efficient 2-bit weight-only QAT for LLMs by representing quantized weights as a learned affine transform over discrete vectors, supporting end-to-end optimization from a high-quality PTQ start.

  5. STaR-Quant: State-Time Consistent Post-Training Quantization for Diffusion Large Language Models

    cs.LG 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    STaR-Quant provides a state-time consistent PTQ framework for DLLMs using SGAT and TAC to improve low-bit weight-activation quantization.

  6. Recover-LoRA for Aggressive Quantization: Reclaiming Accuracy in 2-Bit Language Models via Low-Rank Adaptation with Knowledge Distillation on Synthetic Data

    cs.LG 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    Recover-LoRA with synthetic-data distillation recovers 80-95% accuracy on most benchmarks after selective 2-bit quantization of MLP gate/up layers while delivering 7.5-23.3% throughput improvement.

  7. XPERT: Expert Knowledge Transfer for Effective Training of Language Models

    cs.CL 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    XPERT extracts and reuses cross-domain expert knowledge from pre-trained MoE LLMs via inference analysis and tensor decomposition to improve performance and convergence in downstream language model training.

  8. EdgeRazor: A Lightweight Framework for Large Language Models via Mixed-Precision Quantization-Aware Distillation

    cs.LG 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    EdgeRazor delivers 1.58-1.88 bit quantized LLMs that outperform 2-3 bit baselines by up to 11.3 points while using 4-10x less training compute than leading QAT methods.

  9. Rethinking 1-bit Optimization Leveraging Pre-trained Large Language Models

    cs.CL 2025-08 conditional novelty 6.0

    A progressive training scheme with binary-aware initialization and dual-scaling allows pre-trained LLMs to be converted to high-performance 1-bit models without training from scratch.

  10. Sampling-Aware Quantization for Diffusion Models

    cs.CV 2025-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0

    A quantization technique for diffusion models that aligns sampling trajectories to preserve high-order sampler performance under quantization noise.

  11. Efficient Reasoning on the Edge

    cs.LG 2026-03 accept novelty 5.5

    LoRA adapters, budget-forced GRPO, dynamic switching, parallel verification and FPTQuant enable practical chain-of-thought reasoning on quantized Qwen2.5-7B for edge devices.

  12. Quantize with Confidence? An Empirical Study of Quantization for Code Generation

    cs.SE 2026-07 conditional novelty 5.0

    4-bit quantization of code LLMs mostly preserves pass@1, but AQLM matches or beats full precision while QuIP# degrades most on complex prompts; sensitivity is model-dependent.

  13. LC-QAT: Data-Efficient 2-Bit QAT for LLMs via Linear-Constrained Vector Quantization

    cs.CL 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    LC-QAT is a 2-bit weight-only vector quantization aware training framework for LLMs that uses linear-constrained affine mappings to achieve data-efficient optimization and outperform prior QAT methods.

  14. GNMR: Runtime Stability Control for Low-Precision Large Language Model Training

    cs.LG 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    GNMR is a gradient-norm-based controller that maps local stability signals to budgeted recovery actions to stabilize low-precision LLM training while preserving quality.

  15. HCInfer: An Efficient Inference System via Error Compensation for Resource-Constrained Devices

    cs.LG 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    HCInfer recovers up to 5.2% accuracy over compressed LLMs and delivers 10.4x speedup versus full-precision models by offloading compensation parameters to CPU with async execution on resource-limited hardware.

  16. TACO: Efficient Communication Compression of Intermediate Tensors for Scalable Tensor-Parallel LLM Training

    cs.DC 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    TACO compresses tensor-parallel intermediate tensors with an adaptive FP8 scheme and fused kernels, yielding up to 1.87X throughput gains on GPT and Qwen models with near-lossless accuracy.

  17. EdgeRazor: A Lightweight Framework for Large Language Models via Mixed-Precision Quantization-Aware Distillation

    cs.LG 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    EdgeRazor uses structural mixed-precision quantization, layer-adaptive feature distillation, and entropy-aware KL divergence to achieve 1.88-bit LLMs that outperform prior 2-bit and 3-bit baselines with 4-10x lower tr...

  18. BPDQ: Bit-Plane Decomposition Quantization on a Variable Grid for Large Language Models

    cs.LG 2026-02 unverdicted novelty 5.0

    BPDQ creates variable quantization grids from bit-planes and scalar coefficients, refined iteratively with second-order data to minimize output error, enabling 2-bit serving of Qwen2.5-72B on one RTX 3090 at 83.85% GS...

  19. Constraint-Driven Model Optimization: An Industry Framework for Selecting Compression and Acceleration Techniques in Modern Machine Learning Systems

    cs.LG 2026-07 conditional novelty 4.0

    A decision framework mapping five production constraints to established model-optimization techniques, synthesized from 25+ cited papers, with four worked industry pipelines.

  20. On the Expressive Power of Weight Quantization in Large Language Models

    cs.LG 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 4.0

    Weight-quantized LLMs retain universal approximation up to 1.58 bits with expressive collapse below it and polynomial degradation in capacity as bit count falls.

  21. Network Edge Inference for Large Language Models: Principles, Techniques, and Opportunities

    cs.DC 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 3.0

    A survey synthesizing challenges, system architectures, model optimizations, deployment methods, and resource management techniques for large language model inference at the network edge.

  22. A Survey on Knowledge Distillation of Large Language Models

    cs.CL 2024-02 accept novelty 3.0

    A comprehensive survey of knowledge distillation for LLMs structured around algorithms, skill enhancement, and vertical applications, highlighting data augmentation as a key enabler.

  23. Personal LLM Agents: Insights and Survey about the Capability, Efficiency and Security

    cs.HC 2024-01 unverdicted novelty 3.0

    This survey discusses key components and challenges for Personal LLM Agents and reviews solutions for their capability, efficiency, and security.

  24. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Agentic AI: From Foundations to Systems

    cs.AI 2026-06 unverdicted novelty 2.0

    A comprehensive reference book organizing existing techniques for agentic AI systems across LLM substrate, reasoning, agent design patterns, inter-agent coordination, and production deployment.

  25. LLM-Powered AI Agent Systems and Their Applications in Industry

    cs.AI 2025-05 unverdicted novelty 2.0

    A survey categorizing LLM-powered agent systems into software-based, physical, and hybrid types, covering industrial applications and challenges such as latency and security.

  26. Optimizing Large Language Models: Metrics, Energy Efficiency, and Case Study Insights

    cs.LG 2025-04 unverdicted novelty 2.0

    Quantization and local inference reduce LLM energy consumption and emissions by up to 45% in a presented case study.

  27. A Comprehensive Overview of Large Language Models

    cs.CL 2023-07 unverdicted novelty 2.0

    A survey paper providing an overview of Large Language Models, their background, and recent advances in the field.

  28. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Agentic AI: From Foundations to Systems

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