Installation Guide

Complete guide to installing GGUF Loader on Windows, macOS, and Linux

Beginner 5 minutes

This guide will help you install GGUF Loader 2.2.0 on your system. Want to see what GGUF Loader can do first? Explore the features on our homepage.

📋 System Requirements

OS: Windows 10/11, Linux (x86_64), or macOS
RAM: 4 GB minimum (8 GB+ recommended for larger models)
Storage: 2 GB free space for the app, plus room for model files
GPU: Optional — CPU-only works everywhere; NVIDIA CUDA is supported on Windows and Linux
Python: Not required for the installers (everything is bundled)

🚀 Quick Installation

The prebuilt installers bundle Python, PySide6, and llama.cpp — you do not need Python installed.

Windows

Download GGUFLoader_v2.2.0_CPU.exe (~69 MB) from the releases page. This is the CPU-only build that works on any PC.
Have an NVIDIA GPU with CUDA? Grab GGUFLoader_v2.2.0_GPU.exe (~854 MB) instead for GPU acceleration.
Double-click the downloaded file and run it. No installation wizard — the app starts immediately.

⚠️ Windows SmartScreen: The first launch may show “Windows protected your PC”. Click More info → Run anyway. This is normal for unsigned open-source binaries.

Linux (x86_64)

Download GGUFLoader_v2.2.0_linux_x86_64_CPU (~121 MB) from the releases page.
Make it executable and run:
```
chmod +x GGUFLoader_v2.2.0_linux_x86_64_CPU
./GGUFLoader_v2.2.0_linux_x86_64_CPU
```
No installation needed — the app starts directly. Everything (Python, PySide6, llama.cpp) is bundled.

macOS

No prebuilt installer is published yet. Run from source (below) — everything works on macOS.

Run from Source (any platform)

For development, or to run on an unsupported platform:

git clone https://github.com/GGUFloader/gguf-loader.git
cd gguf-loader
pip install -r requirements.txt
python main.py

✅ Verify Your Installation

Run GGUFLoader_v2.2.0_CPU.exe --version (Windows) or ./GGUFLoader_v2.2.0_linux_x86_64_CPU --version (Linux) — it prints GGUF Loader version 2.2.0 and exits.