An $8 ESP32-S3 now runs a 28.9M-parameter model fully offline
brianrkelly · x · 2026-07-24
A developer has pushed a 28.9M-parameter language model onto an ESP32-S3 microcontroller that costs about $8.
- It runs fully offline.
- It can generate coherent short stories at around 9.5 tokens/sec.
- The post says this is over 100× larger than earlier TinyStories-scale experiments on the same chip class.
- The image confirms the device is an ESP32-S3 board.
The broader point is how far “local AI” can be stretched on ultra-cheap hardware.
Related event: $8 ESP32-S3 Microcontroller Runs LLM Offline(4 posts)→
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