diff --git a/fs/ggml/ggml.go b/fs/ggml/ggml.go
index 3f4374cd00..56ad420e53 100644
--- a/fs/ggml/ggml.go
+++ b/fs/ggml/ggml.go
@@ -57,10 +57,28 @@ func (kv KV) EmbeddingLength() uint64 {
 	return uint64(kv.Uint("embedding_length"))
 }
 
+func (kv KV) HeadCount() []uint64 {
+	headCountDefault := uint32(1)
+	headCount := kv.UintOrArrayValueAsArray("attention.head_count", headCountDefault)
+	if len(headCount) == 1 {
+		headCountDefault = headCount[0]
+	}
+	nLayers := int(kv.BlockCount())
+	if len(headCount) > nLayers {
+		slog.Warn("got more elements of attention.head_count than layers", "len(headCount)", len(headCount), "layers", nLayers)
+	}
+	out := make([]uint64, nLayers)
+	for i := range nLayers {
+		if i >= len(headCount) {
+			out[i] = uint64(headCountDefault)
+		} else {
+			out[i] = uint64(headCount[i])
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
 func (kv KV) HeadCountMax() uint64 {
-	// TODO(drifkin): using the max value can cause an overestimation. In the
-	// future if array values become more popular, we can adapt the more invasive
-	// <https://github.com/ollama/ollama/pull/10225>
 	return uint64(kv.UintOrMaxArrayValue("attention.head_count", 1))
 }
 
@@ -68,6 +86,27 @@ func (kv KV) HeadCountMin() uint64 {
 	return uint64(kv.UintOrMinArrayValue("attention.head_count", 1))
 }
 
+func (kv KV) HeadCountKV() []uint64 {
+	headCountKVDefault := uint32(1)
+	headCountKV := kv.UintOrArrayValueAsArray("attention.head_count_kv", headCountKVDefault)
+	if len(headCountKV) == 1 {
+		headCountKVDefault = headCountKV[0]
+	}
+	nLayers := int(kv.BlockCount())
+	if len(headCountKV) > nLayers {
+		slog.Warn("got more elements of attention.head_count than layers", "len(headCountKV)", len(headCountKV), "layers", nLayers)
+	}
+	out := make([]uint64, nLayers)
+	for i := range nLayers {
+		if i >= len(headCountKV) {
+			out[i] = uint64(headCountKVDefault)
+		} else {
+			out[i] = uint64(headCountKV[i])
+		}
+	}
+	return out
+}
+
 func (kv KV) HeadCountKVMax() uint64 {
 	return uint64(kv.UintOrMaxArrayValue("attention.head_count_kv", 1))
 }
@@ -100,6 +139,26 @@ func (kv KV) ChatTemplate() string {
 	return kv.String("tokenizer.chat_template")
 }
 
+// ssm architecture parameters
+
+func (kv KV) SSMConvKernel() uint64 {
+	return uint64(kv.Uint("ssm.conv_kernel"))
+}
+
+func (kv KV) SSMInnerSize() uint64 {
+	return uint64(kv.Uint("ssm.inner_size"))
+}
+
+func (kv KV) SSMStateSize() uint64 {
+	return uint64(kv.Uint("ssm.state_size"))
+}
+
+func (kv KV) SSMGroupCount() uint64 {
+	return uint64(kv.Uint("ssm.group_count"))
+}
+
+// general types
+
 func (kv KV) String(key string, defaultValue ...string) string {
 	val, _ := keyValue(kv, key, append(defaultValue, "")...)
 	return val
@@ -131,22 +190,27 @@ func (kv KV) UintOrMinArrayValue(key string, defaultValue uint32) uint32 {
 }
 
 func (kv KV) UintOrArrayValue(key string, defaultValue uint32) (uint32, uint32) {
+	arrVal := kv.UintOrArrayValueAsArray(key, defaultValue)
+	return slices.Min(arrVal), slices.Max(arrVal)
+}
+
+func (kv KV) UintOrArrayValueAsArray(key string, defaultValue uint32) []uint32 {
 	if u32, ok := keyValue(kv, key, uint32(0)); ok {
-		return u32, u32
+		return []uint32{u32}
 	} else if u32s, ok := keyValue(kv, key, &array[uint32]{}); ok {
-		min := slices.Min(u32s.values)
-		max := slices.Max(u32s.values)
-		return min, max
+		return u32s.values
 	} else if i32s, ok := keyValue(kv, key, &array[int32]{}); ok {
-		min := slices.Min(i32s.values)
-		max := slices.Max(i32s.values)
-		if min < 0 || max < 0 {
-			slog.Warn("array values are unexpectedly negative", "key", key, "min", min, "max", max)
+		dst := make([]uint32, len(i32s.values))
+		for i, v := range i32s.values {
+			if v < 0 {
+				slog.Warn("array values are unexpectedly negative", "key", key, "i", i, "v", v)
+			}
+			dst[i] = uint32(v)
 		}
-		return uint32(min), uint32(max)
+		return dst
 	}
 
-	return defaultValue, defaultValue
+	return []uint32{defaultValue}
 }
 
 func (kv KV) Strings(key string, defaultValue ...[]string) []string {
@@ -486,7 +550,9 @@ func (f GGML) GraphSize(context, batch uint64, numParallel int, kvCacheType stri
 
 	embedding := f.KV().EmbeddingLength()
 	heads := f.KV().HeadCountMax()
+	headsArr := f.KV().HeadCount()
 	headsKV := f.KV().HeadCountKVMax()
+	headsKVArr := f.KV().HeadCountKV()
 	vocab := uint64(f.KV()["tokenizer.ggml.tokens"].(*array[string]).size)
 
 	embeddingHeads := f.KV().EmbeddingHeadCountMax()
@@ -496,12 +562,51 @@ func (f GGML) GraphSize(context, batch uint64, numParallel int, kvCacheType stri
 	layers := f.Tensors().GroupLayers()
 
 	bytesPerElement := kvCacheBytesPerElement(kvCacheType)
+
+	// Default for models unless special-cased below. These defaults mirror the
+	// cache usage in llama.cpp under the assumption that models without special
+	// cases below will use the llamarunner and caching will be handled by the
+	// llama.cpp layer.
+	//
+	// This also assumes that a layer without heads or headsKV set is recurrent
+	// which is usually the case. Some models (eg nemotronh) use "blocks" in
+	// place of layers where some are MLP blocks that don't have any cache.
+	// Models like this will need a special case below to be accurately
+	// estimated.
 	var kvTotal uint64
 	kv = make([]uint64, f.KV().BlockCount())
+	kvSizeAttn := uint64(0)
+	kvSizeRecurrent := uint64(0)
 	for i := range kv {
-		kv[i] = uint64(float64(context*(embeddingHeadsK+embeddingHeadsV)*headsKV) * bytesPerElement)
+		headsL := headsArr[i]
+		headsKVL := headsKVArr[i]
+		if headsL > 0 && headsKVL > 0 {
+			// full attention layer
+			// NOTE: Assumes uniform values for all attn layers
+			kv[i] = uint64(float64(context*(embeddingHeadsK+embeddingHeadsV)*headsKVL) * bytesPerElement)
+			kvSizeAttn += kv[i]
+		} else {
+			// recurrent layer
+			ssmDConv := f.KV().SSMConvKernel()
+			ssmDState := f.KV().SSMStateSize()
+			ssmDInner := f.KV().SSMInnerSize()
+			ssmNGroups := f.KV().SSMGroupCount()
+			nEmbdR := uint64(0)
+			if ssmDConv > 0 {
+				nEmbdR = (ssmDConv - 1) * (ssmDInner + 2*ssmNGroups*ssmDState)
+			}
+			nEmbdS := ssmDState * ssmDInner
+
+			// recurrent always uses F32 in llama.cpp backend
+			// https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp/blob/master/src/llama-model.cpp#L18644
+			bytesPerElementRecurrent := kvCacheBytesPerElement("f32")
+
+			kv[i] = (nEmbdR + nEmbdS) * uint64(bytesPerElementRecurrent)
+			kvSizeRecurrent += kv[i]
+		}
 		kvTotal += kv[i]
 	}
+	slog.Debug("default cache size estimate", "attention MiB", float32(kvSizeAttn)/(1024.*1024.), "attention bytes", kvSizeAttn, "recurrent MiB", float32(kvSizeRecurrent)/(1024.*1024.), "recurrent bytes", kvSizeRecurrent)
 
 	switch f.KV().Architecture() {
 	case "llama", "llama4":
@@ -794,6 +899,8 @@ func kvCacheBytesPerElement(cacheType string) float64 {
 		return 1 // 1/2 of fp16
 	case "q4_0":
 		return 0.5 // 1/4 of fp16
+	case "f32":
+		return 4 // f32 (default for recurrent)
 	default:
 		return 2 // f16 (default)
 	}