onnxruntime/docs/reference/execution-providers/CUDA-ExecutionProvider.md

---
title: CUDA
parent: Execution Providers
grand_parent: Reference
nav_order: 1
---

# CUDA Execution Provider
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The CUDA Execution Provider enables hardware accelerated computation on Nvidia CUDA-enabled GPUs.


## Contents
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## Install
Pre-built binaries of ONNX Runtime with CUDA EP are published for most language bindings. Please reference [How to - Install ORT](https://www.onnxruntime.ai/docs/how-to/install.html#inference).


## Requirements
Please reference table below for official GPU packages dependencies.

|ONNX Runtime|CUDA|cuDNN|Notes|
|---|---|---|---|
|1.8|11.0.3|8.0.4 (Linux)<br/>8.0.2.39 (Windows)|libcudart 11.0.221<br/>libcufft 10.2.1.245<br/>libcurand 10.2.1.245<br/>libcublasLt 11.2.0.252<br/>libcublas 11.2.0.252<br/>libcudnn 8.0.4<br/>libcupti.so 2020.1.1|
|1.7|11.0.3|8.0.4 (Linux)<br/>8.0.2.39 (Windows)|libcudart 11.0.221<br/>libcufft 10.2.1.245<br/>libcurand 10.2.1.245<br/>libcublasLt 11.2.0.252<br/>libcublas 11.2.0.252<br/>libcudnn 8.0.4|
|1.5-1.6|10.2|8.0.3|CUDsA 11 can be built from source|
|1.2-1.4|10.1|7.6.5|Requires cublas10-10.2.1.243; cublas 10.1.x will not work|
|1.0-1.1|10.0|7.6.4|CUDA versions from 9.1 up to 10.1, and cuDNN versions from 7.1 up to 7.4 should also work with Visual Studio 2017|

For older versions, please reference the readme and build pages on the release branch.

## Build
For build instructions, please see the [BUILD page](../../how-to/build/eps.md#cuda).

## Configuration Options
The CUDA Execution Provider supports the following configuration options.

### device_id
The device ID.

Default value: 0

### gpu_mem_limit
The size limit of the device memory arena in bytes. This size limit is only for the execution provider's arena. The total device memory usage may be higher.
s: max value of C++ size_t type (effectively unlimited)

### arena_extend_strategy
The strategy for extending the device memory arena.

Value                   | Description
-|-
kNextPowerOfTwo (0)     | subsequent extensions extend by larger amounts (multiplied by powers of two)
kSameAsRequested (1)    | extend by the requested amount

Default value: kNextPowerOfTwo

### cudnn_conv_algo_search
The type of search done for cuDNN convolution algorithms.

Value           | Description
-|-
EXHAUSTIVE (0)  | expensive exhaustive benchmarking using cudnnFindConvolutionForwardAlgorithmEx
HEURISTIC (1)   | lightweight heuristic based search using cudnnGetConvolutionForwardAlgorithm_v7
DEFAULT (2)     | default algorithm using CUDNN_CONVOLUTION_FWD_ALGO_IMPLICIT_PRECOMP_GEMM

Default value: EXHAUSTIVE

### do_copy_in_default_stream
Whether to do copies in the default stream or use separate streams. The recommended setting is true. If false, there are race conditions and possibly better performance.

Default value: true

## Samples

### Python

```python
import onnxruntime as ort

model_path = '<path to model>'

providers = [
    ('CUDAExecutionProvider', {
        'device_id': 0,
        'arena_extend_strategy': 'kNextPowerOfTwo',
        'gpu_mem_limit': 2 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024,
        'cudnn_conv_algo_search': 'EXHAUSTIVE',
        'do_copy_in_default_stream': True,
    }),
    'CPUExecutionProvider',
]

session = ort.InferenceSession(model_path, providers=providers)
```

### C/C++

```c++
OrtSessionOptions* session_options = /* ... */;

OrtCUDAProviderOptions options;
options.device_id = 0;
options.arena_extend_strategy = 0;
options.gpu_mem_limit = 2 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024;
options.cudnn_conv_algo_search = OrtCudnnConvAlgoSearch::EXHAUSTIVE;
options.do_copy_in_default_stream = 1;

SessionOptionsAppendExecutionProvider_CUDA(session_options, &options);
```