If you’ve been eager to explore AI models but felt held back by hardware limitations, Microsoft’s new release might just change the game for you. BitNet b1.58 2B4T, the first 1-bit model with 2 billion parameters, is developed to run efficiently even on CPUs like Apple’s M2. What makes BitNet special isn’t just its compact size, it’s the way it works. Instead of relying on full-precision weights, BitNet compresses them into just three values: -1, 0, and 1. This minimalist design dramatically reduces memory usage and speeds up inference, without sacrificing the performance you’d expect from models trained on trillions of tokens. In benchmark tests, it even outperforms out giants like Meta’s Llama, Google’s Gemma, and Alibaba’s Qwen in tasks like math reasoning and physical commonsense, proving that innovative design can beat raw size.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to install BitNet locally in just a few simple steps. You can follow the same steps for both GPU or CPU-based installation.
Prerequisites
The minimum system requirements for this use case are:
Step-by-step process to install and run BitNet-b1.58-2B-4T locally
For the purpose of this tutorial, we’ll use a GPU-powered Virtual Machine by NodeShift since it provides high compute Virtual Machines at a very affordable cost on a scale that meets GDPR, SOC2, and ISO27001 requirements. Also, it offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easier for beginners to get started with Cloud deployments. However, feel free to use any cloud provider of your choice and follow the same steps for the rest of the tutorial.
Step 1: Setting up a NodeShift Account
Visit app.nodeshift.com and create an account by filling in basic details, or continue signing up with your Google/GitHub account.
If you already have an account, login straight to your dashboard.
Step 2: Create a GPU Node
After accessing your account, you should see a dashboard (see image), now:
- Navigate to the menu on the left side.
- Click on the GPU Nodes option.
- Click on Start to start creating your very first GPU node.
These GPU nodes are GPU-powered virtual machines by NodeShift. These nodes are highly customizable and let you control different environmental configurations for GPUs ranging from H100s to A100s, CPUs, RAM, and storage, according to your needs.
Step 3: Selecting configuration for GPU (model, region, storage)
- For this tutorial, we’ll be using the RTX 4090 GPU; however, you can choose any GPU of your choice based on the prerequisites.
- Similarly, we’ll opt for 100 GB storage by sliding the bar. You can also select the region where you want your GPU to reside from the available ones.
Step 4: Choose GPU Configuration and Authentication method
- After selecting your required configuration options, you’ll see the available GPU nodes in your region and according to (or very close to) your configuration. In our case, we’ll choose a 1x RTX 4090 24GB GPU node with 12vCPUs/63GB RAM/100GB SSD.
2. Next, you’ll need to select an authentication method. Two methods are available: Password and SSH Key. We recommend using SSH keys, as they are a more secure option. To create one, head over to our official documentation.
Step 5: Choose an Image
The final step would be to choose an image for the VM, which in our case is Nvidia Cuda, where we’ll deploy and run the inference of our model.
That’s it! You are now ready to deploy the node. Finalize the configuration summary, and if it looks good, click Create to deploy the node.
Step 6: Connect to active Compute Node using SSH
- As soon as you create the node, it will be deployed in a few seconds or a minute. Once deployed, you will see a status Running in green, meaning that our Compute node is ready to use!
- Once your GPU shows this status, navigate to the three dots on the right and click on Connect with SSH. This will open a pop-up box with the Host details. Copy and paste that in your local terminal to connect to the remote server via SSH.
As you copy the details, follow the below steps to connect to the running GPU VM via SSH:
- Open your terminal, paste the SSH command, and run it.
2. In some cases, your terminal may take your consent before connecting. Enter ‘yes’.
3. A prompt will request a password. Type the SSH password, and you should be connected.
Output:
Next, If you want to check the GPU details, run the following command in the terminal:
!nvidia-smi
Step 7: Set up the project environment with dependencies
- Create a virtual environment using Anaconda.
conda create -n bitnet python=3.11 && conda activate bitnet
Output:
2. Once you’re inside the environment, install project dependencies as mentioned in below.
pip install torch
pip install git+https://github.com/shumingma/transformers.git
pip install git+https://github.com/huggingface/accelerate
pip install huggingface_hub
Output:
3. Install and run jupyter notebook.
conda install -c conda-forge --override-channels notebook -y
conda install -c conda-forge --override-channels ipywidgets -y
jupyter notebook --allow-root
Output:
4. If you’re on a remote machine (e.g., NodeShift GPU), you’ll need to do SSH port forwarding in order to access the jupyter notebook session on your local browser.
Run the following command in your local terminal after replacing:
<YOUR_SERVER_PORT> with the PORT allotted to your remote server (For the NodeShift server – you can find it in the deployed GPU details on the dashboard).
<PATH_TO_SSH_KEY> with the path to the location where your SSH key is stored.
<YOUR_SERVER_IP> with the IP address of your remote server.
ssh -L 8888:localhost:8888 -p <YOUR_SERVER_PORT> -i <PATH_TO_SSH_KEY> root@<YOUR_SERVER_IP>
Output:
After this copy the URL you received in your remote server:
And paste this on your local browser to access the Jupyter Notebook session.
Step 8: Download and Run the model
- Open a Python notebook inside Jupyter.
2. Download model checkpoints.
import torch
from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoTokenizer
model_id = "microsoft/bitnet-b1.58-2B-4T"
# Load tokenizer and model
tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(model_id)
model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained(
model_id,
torch_dtype=torch.bfloat16
)
Output:
4. Finally, run the model with your desired prompt.
prompt = "How can we make fuel from plastic?"
messages = [
{"role": "system", "content": "You are a helpful AI assistant."},
{"role": "user", "content": prompt},
]
chat_input = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(messages, tokenize=True, add_generation_prompt=True, return_tensors="pt").to(model.device)
# Generate response
chat_outputs = model.generate(chat_input, max_new_tokens=500)
response = tokenizer.decode(chat_outputs[0][chat_input.shape[-1]:], skip_special_tokens=True) # Decode only the response part
print("\nAssistant Response:", response)
Output:
Conclusion
BitNet b1.58 2B4T represents a powerful step toward bringing lightweight, efficient AI models that don’t compromise on performance. With its 1-bit architecture and 2 billion parameters, it delivers fast, memory-friendly inference even on everyday hardware, making cutting-edge AI more accessible than ever. Whether you’re running it on a CPU or GPU, the installation process is super simple. And if you’re looking for a seamless cloud-based environment to deploy BitNet without worrying about setup or infrastructure, NodeShift Cloud offers the ideal platform, optimized for both experimentation and scale, so you can focus on building, not configuring.
