Separate loaders: diffusion model, text encoder, VAE

Why newer models come as three or four files, and which node loads each.

#In plain words

A checkpoint packs the drawing model, the text encoder and the VAE into one file. Newer families do not: their parts are large and shared between versions, so authors publish them apart. One text encoder file can serve several model versions; one VAE serves a whole family. You then load each part with its own node and join them in the graph.

#Where you meet it in a graph

Load CLIP and DualCLIPLoader have a type field that must name the family: for example wan, qwen_image, flux, hunyuan_video, sd3. Load Diffusion Model has weight_dtype: default keeps the file's own precision; the fp8 choices store the weights in 8 bits to save memory, at a small cost in quality.

Typical sets:

• Flux.1: Load Diffusion Model (flux1-dev), DualCLIPLoader with clip_l and t5xxl (type flux), Load VAE with ae.safetensors.
• Wan 2.1 / 2.2 14B: Load Diffusion Model (two for Wan 2.2), Load CLIP with umt5_xxl (type wan), Load VAE with wan_2.1_vae.
• Qwen-Image: Load Diffusion Model, Load CLIP with Qwen2.5-VL (type qwen_image), Load VAE with qwen_image_vae.
• Z-Image Turbo: Load Diffusion Model, Load CLIP with qwen_3_4b, Load VAE with ae.safetensors.

Some packs ship loaders of their own (for example GGUF loaders, or the WanVideoWrapper loaders); their outputs may have other types.

#Typical mistakes

• The wrong type on Load CLIP: the model gets meaningless numbers and draws noise or something unrelated.
• A text encoder or VAE of another family: errors about shapes ("size mismatch"), or broken colours.
• The diffusion model in checkpoints: Load Diffusion Model will not list it. Move it to diffusion_models.
• Forgetting one part: the model alone does nothing; all three must be from the same family.

#How the app helps

• Node descriptions say which folder each loader reads and which type values exist.
• The lesson Which loader for which file sorts the loaders; the video and picture-model lessons check type and the kind of each file.
• Check lists model files that are not on disk and models of different families in one path.
• In Properties, a field with a built-in note has a button What this field does next to its name; it opens the note under the field: what the field does and what to put in it.

#See also

• Checkpoint
• Text encoders
• VAE
• Model families
• Graphics card memory
• Where ComfyUI files live