mct-nightly 2.4.2.20251002.523
A Model Compression Toolkit for neural networks
Requires Python: >=3.9

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      <a href="https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/" target="_blank">
        <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sony/model_optimization/refs/heads/main/docsrc/images/mctHeader1-cropped.svg" width="1000"></a>
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<p align="center">
  <a href="#getting-started">Getting Started</a> •
  <a href="#tutorials-and-examples">Tutorials</a> •
  <a href="#high-level-features-and-techniques">High level features and techniques</a> •
  <a href="#resources">Resources</a> • 
  <a href="#contributions">Community</a> •
  <a href="#license">License</a>
</p>
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## <div align="center">Getting Started</div>
### Quick Installation
Pip install the model compression toolkit package in a Python>=3.9 environment with PyTorch>=2.3 or Tensorflow>=2.14.
```
pip install model-compression-toolkit
```
For installing the nightly version or installing from source, refer to the [installation guide](https://github.com/SonySemiconductorSolutions/mct-model-optimization/blob/main/INSTALLATION.md).

**Important note**: In order to use MCT, you’ll need to provide a pre-trained floating point model (PyTorch/Keras) as an input.

### Tutorials and Examples 

Our [tutorials](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/README.md) section will walk you through the basics of the MCT tool, covering various compression techniques for both Keras and PyTorch models. 
Access interactive notebooks for hands-on learning with popular models/tasks or move on to [Resources](#resources) section.

### Supported Quantization Methods</div>  
MCT supports various quantization methods as appears below. 
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<p align="center">

  Quantization Method  | Complexity | Computational Cost | API | Tutorial 
-------------------- | -----------|--------------------|---------|--------
PTQ (Post Training Quantization)  | Low | Low (~1-10 CPU minutes) | [PyTorch API](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/methods/pytorch_post_training_quantization.html) / [Keras API](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/methods/keras_post_training_quantization.html) | <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/pytorch/example_pytorch_post_training_quantization.ipynb"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Pytorch-green"/></a> <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/keras/example_keras_post-training_quantization.ipynb"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Keras-green"/></a>
GPTQ (parameters fine-tuning using gradients)  | Moderate | Moderate (~1-3 GPU hours) | [PyTorch API](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/methods/pytorch_gradient_post_training_quantization.html) / [Keras API](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/methods/keras_gradient_post_training_quantization.html) | <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/pytorch/example_pytorch_mobilenet_gptq.ipynb"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/PyTorch-green"/></a> <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/keras/example_keras_mobilenet_gptq.ipynb"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Keras-green"/></a> 
QAT (Quantization Aware Training)  | High | High (~12-36 GPU hours) | [QAT API](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/index.html#qat) | <a href="https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/keras/example_keras_qat.ipynb"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Keras-green"/></a>

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For each flow, **Quantization core** utilizes various algorithms and hyper-parameters for optimal [hardware-aware](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/model_compression_toolkit/target_platform_capabilities/README.md) quantization results. 
For further details, please see [Supported features and algorithms](#high-level-features-and-techniques). 

 **Required input**: Pre-trained floating point model (PyTorch/Keras)
 
 **Optional input**: Representative dataset - can be either provided by the user, or generated utilizing the [Data Generation](#data-generation-) capability

<div align="center">
<p align="center">

<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sony/model_optimization/refs/heads/main/docsrc/images/mctDiagram_clean.svg" width="800">
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## <div align="center">High level features and techniques</div>

MCT offers a range of powerful features to optimize models for efficient edge deployment. These supported features include:

### Quantization Core Features

🏆 **Mixed-precision search** [![Open In Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg)](https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/pytorch/example_pytorch_mixed_precision_ptq.ipynb). Assigning optimal quantization bit-width per layer (for weights/activations) 

📈 **Graph optimizations**. 
Transforming the model to be best fitted for quantization process.

🔎 **Quantization parameter search** [![Open In Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg)](https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/keras/example_keras_activation_threshold_search.ipynb). Minimizing expected quantization-noise during thresholds search using methods such as MSE, No-Clipping and MAE.

🧮 **Advanced quantization algorithms** [![Open In Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg)](https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/keras/example_keras_activation_z_score_threshold.ipynb). Enhancing quantization performance for advanced cases is available with some algorithms that can be applied, such as Shift negative correction, Outliers filtering and clustering.
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### Hardware-aware optimization 

🎯 **TPC (Target Platform Capabilities)**. Describes the target hardware’s constrains, for which the model optimization is targeted. See [TPC Readme](./model_compression_toolkit/target_platform_capabilities/README.md) for more information.
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### Data-free quantization (Data Generation) [![Open In Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg)](https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/pytorch/example_pytorch_data_generation.ipynb)
Generates synthetic images based on the statistics stored in the model's batch normalization layers, according to your specific needs, for when image data isn’t available. See [Data Generation Library](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/model_compression_toolkit/data_generation/README.md) for more.
The specifications of the method are detailed in the paper: _"**Data Generation for Hardware-Friendly Post-Training Quantization**"_ [5].
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### Structured Pruning [![Open In Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg)](https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/pytorch/example_pytorch_pruning_mnist.ipynb)
Reduces model size/complexity and ensures better channels utilization by removing redundant input channels from layers and reconstruction of layer weights. Read more ([Pytorch API](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/methods/pytorch_pruning_experimental.html) / [Keras API](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/methods/keras_pruning_experimental.html)).
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### **Debugging and Visualization**
**🎛️ Network Editor (Modify Quantization Configurations)** [![Open In Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg)](https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/keras/example_keras_network_editor.ipynb). 
Modify your model's quantization configuration for specific layers or apply a custom edit rule (e.g adjust layer's bit-width) using MCT’s network editor.

**🖥️ Visualization**. Observe useful information for troubleshooting the quantized model's performance using TensorBoard. [Read more](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/guidelines/visualization.html).

**🔑 XQuant (Explainable Quantization)** [![Open In Colab](https://colab.research.google.com/assets/colab-badge.svg)](https://colab.research.google.com/github/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/tutorials/notebooks/mct_features_notebooks/pytorch/example_pytorch_xquant.ipynb). Get valuable insights regarding the quality and success of the quantization process of your model. The report includes histograms and similarity metrics between the original float model and the quantized model in key points of the model. The report can be visualized using TensorBoard.

**🔑 XQuant Extension Tool.** Calculates the error for each layer by comparing the float model and quantized model, using both models along with the quantization log. The results are presented in reports. It identifies the causes of the detected errors and recommends appropriate improvement measures for each cause. [Read more](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/guidelines/XQuant_Extension_Tool.html) [Troubleshoot Manual](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/docs_troubleshoot/index.html)

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### Enhanced Post-Training Quantization (EPTQ)
As part of the GPTQ capability, we provide an advanced optimization algorithm called EPTQ.
The specifications of the algorithm are detailed in the paper: _"**EPTQ: Enhanced Post-Training Quantization via Hessian-guided Network-wise Optimization**"_ [4].
More details on how to use EPTQ via MCT can be found in the [GPTQ guidelines](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/model_compression_toolkit/gptq/README.md).

## <div align="center">Resources</div>
* [User Guide](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/index.html)  contains detailed information about MCT and guides you from installation through optimizing models for your edge AI applications.

* MCT's [API Docs](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/) is separated per quantization methods:  

  * [Post-training quantization](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/index.html#ptq) | PTQ API docs
  * [Gradient-based post-training quantization](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/index.html#gptq) | GPTQ API docs
  * [Quantization-aware training](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/api/api_docs/index.html#qat) | QAT API docs
    
* [Debug](https://sonysemiconductorsolutions.github.io/mct-model-optimization/guidelines/visualization.html) – modify optimization process or generate an explainable report
  
* [Release notes](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/releases)


## <div align="center">Supported Versions</div>

Currently, MCT is being tested on various Python, Pytorch and TensorFlow versions:
<details id="supported-versions">
  <summary>Supported Versions Table</summary>

|                                                                                                                                                                                                                   | PyTorch 2.3                                                                                                                                                                                                              | PyTorch 2.4                                                                                                                                                                                                              | PyTorch 2.5                                                                                                                                                                                                              | PyTorch 2.6                                                                                                                                                                                                              |
|-------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Python 3.9  | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch23.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch23.yml)   | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch24.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch24.yml)   | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch25.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch25.yml)   | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch26.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_pytorch26.yml)   |
| Python 3.10 | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch23.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch23.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch24.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch24.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch25.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch25.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch26.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_pytorch26.yml) |
| Python 3.11 | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch23.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch23.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch24.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch24.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch25.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch25.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch26.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_pytorch26.yml) |
| Python 3.12 | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch23.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch23.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch24.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch24.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch25.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch25.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch26.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python312_pytorch26.yml) |

|             | TensorFlow 2.14                                                                                                                                                                                                        | TensorFlow 2.15                                                                                                                                                                                                        |
|-------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Python 3.9  | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_keras214.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_keras214.yml)   | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_keras215.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python39_keras215.yml)   |
| Python 3.10 | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_keras214.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_keras214.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_keras215.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python310_keras215.yml) |
| Python 3.11 | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_keras214.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_keras214.yml) | [![Run Tests](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_keras215.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/actions/workflows/run_tests_python311_keras215.yml) |

</details>

## <div align="center">Results</div>

<p align="center">
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sony/model_optimization/refs/heads/main/docsrc/images/Classification.png" width="200">
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sony/model_optimization/refs/heads/main/docsrc/images/SemSeg.png" width="200">
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sony/model_optimization/refs/heads/main/docsrc/images/PoseEst.png" width="200">
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sony/model_optimization/refs/heads/main/docsrc/images/ObjDet.png" width="200">

MCT can quantize an existing 32-bit floating-point model to an 8-bit fixed-point (or less) model without compromising accuracy. 
Below is a graph of [MobileNetV2](https://pytorch.org/vision/main/models/generated/torchvision.models.mobilenet_v2.html) accuracy on ImageNet vs average bit-width of weights (X-axis), using **single-precision** quantization, **mixed-precision** quantization, and mixed-precision quantization with GPTQ. 

<p align="center">
<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sony/model_optimization/refs/heads/main/docsrc/images/torch_mobilenetv2.png" width="800">

For more results, please see [1]


### Pruning Results

Results for applying pruning to reduce the parameters of the following models by 50%:

| Model           | Dense Model Accuracy | Pruned Model Accuracy |
|-----------------|----------------------|-----------------------|
| ResNet50 [2]    | 75.1                 | 72.4                  |
| DenseNet121 [3] | 74.44                | 71.71                 |

## <div align="center">Troubleshooting and Community</div>

If you encountered a large accuracy degradation with MCT, check out the [Quantization Troubleshooting](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/tree/main/quantization_troubleshooting.md)
for common pitfalls and some tools to improve the quantized model's accuracy.

Check out the [FAQ](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/tree/main/FAQ.md) for common issues. 

You are welcome to ask questions and get support on our [issues section](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/issues) and manage community discussions under the [discussions section](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/discussions).


## <div align="center">Contributions</div>
We'd love your input! MCT would not be possible without help from our community, and welcomes contributions from anyone! 

*Checkout our [Contribution guide](https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md) for more details.

Thank you 🙏 to all our contributors!

## <div align="center">License</div>
MCT is licensed under Apache License Version 2.0. By contributing to the project, you agree to the license and copyright terms therein and release your contribution under these terms.

<a href="https://github.com/sony/model_optimization/blob/main/LICENSE.md"><img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache%202.0-blue" /></a>

## <div align="center">References</div>

[1] Habi, H.V., Peretz, R., Cohen, E., Dikstein, L., Dror, O., Diamant, I., Jennings, R.H. and Netzer, A., 2021. [HPTQ: Hardware-Friendly Post Training Quantization. arXiv preprint](https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.09113).

[2] [Keras Applications](https://keras.io/api/applications/)

[3] [TORCHVISION.MODELS](https://pytorch.org/vision/stable/models.html) 

[4] Gordon, O., Cohen, E., Habi, H.V., Netzer, A. (2025). [EPTQ: Enhanced Post-Training Quantization via Hessian-guided Network-wise Optimization – ECCV 2024 Workshops](https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-91979-4_13)

[5] Dikstein, L., Lapid, A., Netzer, A., & Habi, H. V., 2024. [Data Generation for Hardware-Friendly Post-Training Quantization, Accepted to IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV) 2025](https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/WACV2025/papers/Dikstein_Data_Generation_for_Hardware-Friendly_Post-Training_Quantization_WACV_2025_paper.pdf)