GGUF vs GPTQ vs AWQ vs EXL2: LLM Model Formats Explained (2026)

Technical guides have been published comparing common large language model file formats including GGUF, GPTQ, AWQ, EXL2, and EXL3. The information explains how these formats manage weight quantization and hardware compatibility to help users select the appropriate file type for specific computing environments like Mac hardware or consumer GPUs.