cuOpt - GPU-accelerated Optimization

July 2, 2026 · View on GitHub

Build Status Version Documentation Docker Hub Examples Open In Colab NVIDIA Launchable Videos and Tutorials

NVIDIA® cuOpt™ is a GPU-accelerated optimization engine that excels in linear programming (LP), quadratic programming (QP), and vehicle routing problems (VRP), with support for quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) (beta), second-order cone programming (SOCP) (beta), and mixed integer linear programming (MILP) (beta). cuOpt enables near real-time solutions for large-scale LPs with millions of variables and constraints and offers easy integration into existing modeling languages with seamless deployment across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The cuOpt MIP solver is in beta and under active development. The solver currently excels at finding high-quality feasible solutions quickly with GPU-accelerated primal heuristics. Proving feasible solutions optimal remains under active development.

cuOpt offers easy integration into existing solvers, and seamlessly extends into agent-first optimization workflows through open-source cuOpt agent skills.

The core engine is written in C++ and wrapped with a C API, Python API and Server API.

For the latest version, ensure you are on the main branch.

Latest Documentation

cuOpt Documentation

Supported APIs

cuOpt supports the following APIs:

  • C API support
    • Linear Programming (LP)
    • Quadratic Programming (QP)
    • Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming (QCQP) (beta)
    • Second-Order Cone Programming (SOCP) (beta)
    • Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) (beta)
  • C++ API support
    • cuOpt is written in C++ and includes a native C++ API. However, we do not provide documentation for the C++ API at this time. We anticipate that the C++ API will change significantly in the future. Use it at your own risk.
  • Python support
    • Routing (TSP, VRP, and PDP)
    • Linear Programming (LP)
    • Quadratic Programming (QP)
    • Quadratically Constrained Quadratic Programming (QCQP) (beta)
    • Second-Order Cone Programming (SOCP) (beta)
    • Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) (beta)
    • Algebraic modeling Python API allows users to easily build constraints and objectives
  • Server support
    • Linear Programming (LP)
    • Routing (TSP, VRP, and PDP)
    • Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) (beta)

This repo is also hosted as a COIN-OR project.

Latest Release Notes:

RELEASE-NOTES.md

Installation

CUDA/GPU requirements

  • CUDA 12.0+ or CUDA 13.0+
  • NVIDIA driver >= 525.60.13 (Linux) and >= 527.41 (Windows)
  • Volta architecture or better (Compute Capability >=7.0)

Python requirements

  • Python >=3.11, <=3.14

OS requirements

  • Only Linux is supported and Windows via WSL2
    • x86_64 (64-bit)
    • aarch64 (64-bit)

Note: WSL2 is tested to run cuOpt, but not for building.

More details on system requirements can be found here

Pip

Pip wheels are easy to install and easy to configure. Users with existing workflows who uses pip as base to build their workflows can use pip to install cuOpt.

cuOpt can be installed via pip from the NVIDIA Python Package Index. Be sure to select the appropriate cuOpt package depending on the major version of CUDA available in your environment:

For CUDA 12.x:

pip install \
  --extra-index-url=https://pypi.nvidia.com \
  nvidia-cuda-runtime-cu12==12.9.* \
  cuopt-server-cu12==26.6.* cuopt-sh-client==26.6.*

Development wheels are available as nightlies, please update --extra-index-url to https://pypi.anaconda.org/rapidsai-wheels-nightly/simple/ to install latest nightly packages.

pip install --pre \
  --extra-index-url=https://pypi.nvidia.com \
  --extra-index-url=https://pypi.anaconda.org/rapidsai-wheels-nightly/simple/ \
  cuopt-server-cu12==26.6.* cuopt-sh-client==26.6.*

For CUDA 13.x:

pip install \
  --extra-index-url=https://pypi.nvidia.com \
  cuopt-server-cu13==26.6.* cuopt-sh-client==26.6.*

Development wheels are available as nightlies, please update --extra-index-url to https://pypi.anaconda.org/rapidsai-wheels-nightly/simple/ to install latest nightly packages.

pip install --pre \
  --extra-index-url=https://pypi.nvidia.com \
  --extra-index-url=https://pypi.anaconda.org/rapidsai-wheels-nightly/simple/ \
  cuopt-server-cu13==26.6.* cuopt-sh-client==26.6.*

Conda

cuOpt can be installed with conda (via miniforge):

All other dependencies are installed automatically when cuopt-server and cuopt-sh-client are installed.

conda install -c rapidsai -c conda-forge -c nvidia cuopt-server=26.06.* cuopt-sh-client=26.06.*

We also provide nightly conda packages built from the HEAD of our latest development branch. Just replace -c rapidsai with -c rapidsai-nightly.

Container

cuOpt ships two container variants on Docker Hub — an Ubuntu-based image for general use and a Red Hat Universal Base Image 10 (UBI10) image for FIPS 140-3 compliant environments.

Ubuntu image

# For CUDA 12.x
docker pull nvidia/cuopt:latest-cu12

# For CUDA 13.x
docker pull nvidia/cuopt:latest-cu13

The latest tag is the latest stable release. To pin a specific version use <version>-cu12 / <version>-cu13 (e.g. 26.6.0-cu13). Fully-qualified tags that also pin the CUDA minor and Python version (e.g. 26.6.0-cuda13.3-py3.14) are published alongside the short tags. See the cuOpt Docker Hub page for the full list.

UBI10 image (FIPS 140-3)

Based on Red Hat Universal Base Image 10 (RHEL 10), which ships OpenSSL 3.5 validated under FIPS 140-3. Use this image in environments with strict FIPS or RHEL compliance requirements.

# For CUDA 12.x
docker pull nvidia/cuopt:latest-cu12-ubi10

# For CUDA 13.x
docker pull nvidia/cuopt:latest-cu13-ubi10

Fully-qualified tags follow the pattern <version>-cuda<X.Y>-ubi10 (e.g. 26.6.0-cuda13.3-ubi10). Nightly builds use the <version>a-cu<N>-ubi10 tag scheme. See the cuOpt Docker Hub page for the full list.

Both images include the same cuOpt packages (libcuopt, cuopt, cuopt-server, cuopt-sh-client) and expose the same server entrypoint. They are built and tested for x86-64 and ARM64.

Nightly container images for both variants are built from the HEAD of the development branch. They are tagged as <version>a-cu12 / <version>a-cu13 (Ubuntu) and <version>a-cu12-ubi10 / <version>a-cu13-ubi10 (UBI10).

More information about the cuOpt container can be found here.

Users who are using cuOpt for quick testing or research can use the cuOpt container. Alternatively, users who are planning to plug cuOpt as a service in their workflow can quickly start with the cuOpt container. But users are required to build security layers around the service to safeguard the service from untrusted users.

Build from Source and Test

Please see our guide for building cuOpt from source. This will be helpful if users want to add new features or fix bugs for cuOpt. This would also be very helpful in case users want to customize cuOpt for their own use cases which require changes to the cuOpt source code.

Release Timeline

cuOpt follows the RAPIDS release schedule and is part of the "others" category in the release timeline. The release cycle consists of:

  • Development: Active feature development and bug fixes targeting main
  • Burn Down: Focus shifts to stabilization; new features should target the next release
  • Code Freeze: Only critical bug fixes allowed; PRs require admin approval
  • Release: Final testing, tagging, and official release

For current release timelines and dates, refer to the RAPIDS Maintainers Docs.

For AI Coding Agents

See AGENTS.md for agent-specific guidelines.

Contributing Guide

Review the CONTRIBUTING.md file for information on how to contribute code and issues to the project.