IRx-mini
The smallest member of the IRx family: a private, offline AI chat assistant made to run on phones with just 4GB of RAM. Everything runs on your device — no internet connection, no account, and nothing you type ever leaves your phone.
The IRx family
All four run fully offline — nothing you type ever leaves your device.
| Model | Download | Best for | Phones & tablets (GGUF) | Mac (MLX) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IRx-mini | ~1.1GB | The smallest. Simple, quick answers on phones with just 4GB of RAM | irx-mini-GGUF | irx-mini |
| IRx-1 | ~1.2GB | Fast, quick everyday answers on almost any phone | irx-1-GGUF | irx-1 |
| ⭐ IRx-2 — Best Overall | ~2.7GB | The best balance of answer quality and speed | irx-2-GGUF | irx-2 |
| IRx-2 Pro | ~5.3GB | The most detailed, long-form answers and long conversations | irx-2-pro-GGUF | irx-2-pro |
Not sure which to pick? Start with ⭐ IRx-2. Choose IRx-mini for a 4GB-RAM phone, IRx-1 for fast everyday answers on most phones, and IRx-2 Pro for the richest answers on a device with 12GB+ RAM.
See them side by side: the IRx board compares all four models, shows their measured speed live, and has an animated step-by-step setup guide for PocketPal on iPhone and Android.
What IRx-mini does best
IRx-mini is the smallest member of the family, made for phones with only 4GB of RAM. It gives short, simple answers, quick explanations and everyday help, fully offline, on phones that can't fit the larger models.
| Who | Example things to ask |
|---|---|
| Farmers | "When should I water tomato plants?" · "Write a short message to my buyer." |
| Students | "What is photosynthesis? Explain simply." · "5 quick quiz questions on fractions." |
| Shop & small business owners | "Write a one-line offer for my shop." · "How do I calculate 15% profit?" |
| Software developers | "What does HTTP error 404 mean?" |
| Travellers | "Make a short packing list for 2 days." |
| Everyday life | "Convert 25°C to Fahrenheit." · "Suggest a quick breakfast." |
Why a model for 4GB phones?
Many phones in use today, especially budget Android phones and older models, have only 4GB of RAM. The phone's own system and background apps already use a large part of that, so an AI model has to be small to load and run reliably — the larger IRx models are simply too big for these phones.
IRx-mini is built for exactly that:
- Small enough to fit. About 1.1GB to download and roughly 1.3GB of memory while running, leaving room for the phone's system and other apps.
- Works with no internet. Useful where connectivity is weak, slow or expensive — on farms, in villages, while travelling, or on a limited data plan. Nothing is sent to the cloud, so there are no data costs and no waiting on a network.
- Private. Everything stays on the phone.
- Light on storage and battery. A small model loads quickly and does less work per answer.
The trade-off is depth: IRx-mini gives shorter, simpler answers and makes more mistakes than the larger models. If your phone has 8GB+ RAM, ⭐ IRx-2 will give much better answers.
Measured on the same Mac CPU: IRx-mini generates about 89 tokens/s — the fastest of the family (IRx-1: about 51 in the same test).
Usage (Mac, MLX)
pip install mlx-lm
from mlx_lm import load, generate
from mlx_lm.sample_utils import make_sampler
model, tokenizer = load("ikppramesh/irx-mini")
messages = [{"role": "user", "content": "How do I convert Celsius to Fahrenheit?"}]
prompt = tokenizer.apply_chat_template(messages, add_generation_prompt=True)
print(generate(model, tokenizer, prompt=prompt, max_tokens=1024,
sampler=make_sampler(temp=0.7, top_p=0.95)))
No system prompt is required: IRx-mini's identity is trained into the model, and the built-in chat template always keeps thinking mode off. Sample at a non-zero temperature
(e.g. temp=0.7). On a phone or tablet, use the
GGUF build.
Limitations
- Not a frontier-scale model — it won't match large hosted AI services on very hard multi-step reasoning, deep coding problems or breadth of world knowledge.
- Facts can be wrong. Like any small offline model it can state things confidently that aren't true — double-check anything important, such as prices, medicines and doses, laws, and local farming advice (seed varieties, chemical quantities, weather).
- Not a replacement for professionals — medical, legal and financial answers are general information only.
- Limited news knowledge. IRx-mini was trained on headlines up to 3 October 2026, but at this size it recalls news poorly and may even give the wrong cutoff date. For recent news, use ⭐ IRx-2 or check a news source.
- Don't enable native tool/function-calling in chat apps — never trained; plain chat is reliable.
Changelog
- 2026-10-03 — Rebuilt: no more looping on long answers. The first release could
repeat a phrase endlessly on long, structured answers such as day-by-day trip
itineraries in PocketPal, whose default repeat penalty is off. IRx-mini is now built on
a stronger 1B base:
- Long answers: tested with trip itineraries (Lakshadweep, Kerala, Rajasthan) with the repeat penalty off and on, plus repeated 8-turn chats: no loops.
- Size and speed: the download is about 1.1GB (was 0.8GB), still a fit for 4GB-RAM phones, and it is faster: about 89 tokens/s on the Mac CPU test (was 60–74).
- Answer quality: answers are noticeably more complete and better structured, including code.
- Identity: IRx-mini's name and creator are now trained into the model, with no system prompt added to your messages.
- News: the built-in news digest was removed from IRx-mini, because at this size the long prompt pulled answers off-topic. News recall is limited (see Limitations).
- Updating: delete the old IRx-mini in your app and download it again.
- 2026-10-03 — First release, trained on news up to 3 October 2026 from 18 sources (see the news update notes on the other IRx cards). Built with the IRx pipeline's fixes: fine-tune merged into the full-precision base and quantized once with an importance matrix, thinking mode always off, identity built in. Passed the automated pre-publish check: repeated 8-turn conversations with the repeat penalty off and the app's thinking request on — no loops, no copied answers, no hidden reasoning, correct identity.
License
Apache 2.0. IRx-mini is a derivative fine-tuned model — full Apache 2.0 terms apply as with any work under this license.