TRL

Align LLMs (SFT, DPO, PPO)
Fine-tuningRLHF / alignment libraryApache-2.0Runs locallyPythonAdvanced
A high count usually means the project is heavily examined. A low count usually means it is little examined — not that it is safe.
No public activity signals for this tool — it has no open repository we can measure.
OSAI Pulse ⓘ ★★★★★★★★★★ /100 signals tracked
🐳 Docker pulls 📦 PyPI downloads / month 📦 npm downloads / month 🚀 Latest release ·
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What is TRL?

TRL is Hugging Face's library for post-training and aligning language models with supervised fine-tuning, DPO and reinforcement learning methods like PPO.

Why people choose TRL

TRL at a glance

CategoryFine-tuning
TypeRLHF / alignment library
LicenseApache-2.0
Runs locallyYes
Built withPython
Skill levelAdvanced
Best forRLHF, DPO and alignment training

Open-source alternatives to TRL

Other open-source fine-tuning tools worth comparing:

UnslothFine-tune LLMs 2x faster on one GPUAxolotlConfig-driven fine-tuning for many modelsLLaMA-FactoryFine-tune 100+ models with a UIPEFTLoRA and friends from Hugging FaceTorchtunePyTorch-native post-training, hackable recipesLlama CookbookOfficial recipes to fine-tune Llamams-swiftFine-tune 500+ LLMs and VLMs

TRL head-to-head

TRL vs UnslothTRL vs AxolotlTRL vs LLaMA-FactoryTRL vs PEFTTRL vs TorchtuneTRL vs Llama CookbookTRL vs ms-swift

FAQ

Is TRL free?

TRL is free and open-source (Apache-2.0 license), so you can use, self-host and modify it at no cost.

Can I run TRL locally?

Yes. TRL is designed to run on your own machine or server, keeping your data private.

What is the best alternative to TRL?

Popular open-source alternatives include Unsloth, Axolotl, LLaMA-Factory. See the comparisons above to choose.

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