Meta's open-source Llama AI models hit 1.2B downloads
30 Apr 2025

Meta has revealed that its family of open-source AI models, called Llama, has reached a major milestone of 1.2 billion downloads.

The number was shared by Chris Cox, Meta's Chief Product Officer, at the first-ever LlamaCon developer conference.

The new number shows an increase from the last reported one billion downloads in mid-March this year.

Rapid growth and user engagement
Expansion

Cox further revealed that the Llama ecosystem is growing rapidly, with thousands of developers contributing to tens of thousands of derivative models.

These models are being downloaded hundreds of thousands times every month.

He also announced that Meta's AI assistant powered by Llama models has reached around a billion users, showing a significant level of user engagement with these AI technologies.

Competition in the AI space
Rivalry

Despite the impressive growth of Meta's Llama ecosystem, Cox admitted that the company is facing stiff competition from other major players in the AI industry.

This admission comes on the heels of Alibaba's recent launch of Qwen3, a family of models that are highly competitive across various AI benchmarks.

The competitive landscape underscores the rapidly evolving nature of artificial intelligence technology and its development.