Model reference · open weights

vit_large_patch16_dinov3_qkvb.lvd

Available as managed deployment Licence fee Embeddings timm Image embed 1 variants 3k dl/mo

vit_large_patch16_dinov3_qkvb.lvd is an open-weight embedding model from timm. AxForge deploys and operates it for you on dedicated EU-owned hardware — with the licence handled where one is required.

Available as managed deployment — configured and operated for you on dedicated EU hardware, quoted per deployment.

What it is

Released bytimm
TypeEmbedding models
TaskImage embed
Parameters (lead)303M
Runs withtimm
Released2025-09-17
Popularity3k downloads / month
LicenceCommercial licence needed

About

What vit_large_patch16_dinov3_qkvb.lvd is

A DINOv3 ViT model image feature encoder. Distilled on LVD-1689M from the DINOv3 ViT-7B model.

Read the full model card

Model Notes

  • The original model weights ended up with all QKV projection biases being zeroes. For timm, have disabled the QKV bias (qkv_bias=False) for the models and not loaded the zero weights. For some model sizes there are variants with qkvb in the name that have the bias enabled (qkv_bias=True), but zero, to match the behaviour of transformers and original models.
  • The original models keep RoPE periods as a persistent bfloat16 buffer. timm generates float32 periods at init. This results in some numerical differences, however the timm approach should be less problematic running on devices without bfloat16 support, and appears to work as well if not slightly better for fine-tuning. model.rope.periods = model.rope.periods.to(torch.bfloat16).to(torch.float32) will truncate the periods to bfloat16 and result in matching outputs.

Model Details

  • Model Type: Image Feature Encoder
  • Model Stats:
    • Params (M): 303.1
    • GMACs: 82.4
    • Activations (M): 90.6
    • Image size: 256 x 256
  • Original: https://github.com/facebookresearch/dinov3
  • License: DINOv3
  • Dataset: LVD-1689M
  • Papers:
    • DINOv3: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10104
    • An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scale: https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.11929v2
    • PyTorch Image Models: https://github.com/huggingface/pytorch-image-models

Model Usage

Image Classification

from urllib.request import urlopen
from PIL import Image
import timm

img = Image.open(urlopen(
    'https://huggingface.co/datasets/huggingface/documentation-images/resolve/main/beignets-task-guide.png'
))

model = timm.create_model('vit_large_patch16_dinov3_qkvb.lvd1689m', pretrained=True)
model = model.eval()

# get model specific transforms (normalization, resize)
data_config = timm.data.resolve_model_data_config(model)
transforms = timm.data.create_transform(**data_config, is_training=False)

output = model(transforms(img).unsqueeze(0))  # unsqueeze single image into batch of 1

top5_probabilities, top5_class_indices = torch.topk(output.softmax(dim=1) * 100, k=5)

Feature Map Extraction

from urllib.request import urlopen
from PIL import Image
import timm

img = Image.open(urlopen(
    'https://huggingface.co/datasets/huggingface/documentation-images/resolve/main/beignets-task-guide.png'
))

model = timm.create_model(
    'vit_large_patch16_dinov3_qkvb.lvd1689m',
    pretrained=True,
    features_only=True,
)
model = model.eval()

# get model specific transforms (normalization, resize)
data_config = timm.data.resolve_model_data_config(model)
transforms = timm.data.create_transform(**data_config, is_training=False)

output = model(transforms(img).unsqueeze(0))  # unsqueeze single image into batch of 1

for o in output:
    # print shape of each feature map in output
    # e.g.:
    #  torch.Size([1, 1024, 16, 16])
    #  torch.Size([1, 1024, 16, 16])
    #  torch.Size([1, 1024, 16, 16])

    print(o.shape)

Image Embeddings

from urllib.request import urlopen
from PIL import Image
import timm

img = Image.open(urlopen(
    'https://huggingface.co/datasets/huggingface/documentation-images/resolve/main/beignets-task-guide.png'
))

model = timm.create_model(
    'vit_large_patch16_dinov3_qkvb.lvd1689m',
    pretrained=True,
    num_classes=0,  # remove classifier nn.Linear
)
model = model.eval()

# get model specific transforms (normalization, resize)
data_config = timm.data.resolve_model_data_config(model)
transforms = timm.data.create_transform(**data_config, is_training=False)

output = model(transforms(img).unsqueeze(0))  # output is (batch_size, num_features) shaped tensor

# or equivalently (without needing to set num_classes=0)

output = model.forward_features(transforms(img).unsqueeze(0))
# output is unpooled, a (1, 261, 1024) shaped tensor

output = model.forward_head(output, pre_logits=True)
# output is a (1, num_features) shaped tensor

Model Comparison

See the associated paper for details on the evaluation protocols

Results for ViT backbones pretrained (or distilled) on web (LVD-1689M)

ModelIN-ReaLIN-RObj.NetOx.-HADE20kNYU↓DAVISNAVISPair
Global TasksDense Tasks
DINOv3 ViT-S/1687.060.450.949.547.00.40372.756.350.4
DINOv3 ViT-S+/1688.068.854.650.048.80.39975.557.155.2
DINOv3 ViT-B/1689.376.764.158.551.80.37377.258.857.2
DINOv3 ViT-L/1690.288.174.863.154.90.35279.962.361.3
DINOv3 ViT-H+/1690.390.078.664.554.80.35279.363.356.3
DINOv3 ViT-7B/1690.491.191.172.855.90.30979.764.458.7

Results for ConvNeXt backbones distilled on web (LVD-1689M)

ModelIN-ReaL @256pxIN-ReaL @512pxIN-R @256pxIN-R @512pxObj.Net @256pxObj.Net @512pxADE20kNYU↓
Global TasksDense Tasks
DINOv3 ConvNeXt Tiny86.687.773.774.152.658.742.70.448
DINOv3 ConvNeXt Small87.988.773.774.152.658.744.80.432
DINOv3 ConvNeXt Base88.589.277.278.256.261.346.30.420
DINOv3 ConvNeXt Large88.989.481.382.459.365.247.80.403

Results for ViT backbones pretrained (or distilled) on satellite (SAT-493M)

(GEO-Bench) Classification

| Model | m-BEnet | m-brick-kiln | m-eurosat | m-forestnet | m-pv4ger | m-so2sat | mean | |-------|---------|--------------|-----------|-------------|----------|-

From the published model card. Full card on the HuggingFace links in the sidebar.

How it works

How embedding models work

Your textsentence / documentEncodermaps meaningVectorlist of numbersAn embedding model turns text into a vector, so similar meanings sit close together — the basis of search and RAG.

Using it via the API

Call it like any OpenAI endpoint

Once AxForge deploys vit-large-patch16-dinov3-qkvb-lvd for you, it answers on the OpenAI-compatible API — the same base URL and keys as every other model. (vit-large-patch16-dinov3-qkvb-lvd below is illustrative; you get the exact model name on deployment.)

$ curl -sS https://api.axforge.ai/v1/embeddings \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $AXFORGE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"vit-large-patch16-dinov3-qkvb-lvd","input":"text to embed"}'

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