diff --git a/studio/backend/core/export/export.py b/studio/backend/core/export/export.py
index a6f67c5ba..966e045b1 100644
--- a/studio/backend/core/export/export.py
+++ b/studio/backend/core/export/export.py
@@ -569,6 +569,27 @@ class ExportBackend:
                     shutil.rmtree(str(sub), ignore_errors = True)
                     logger.info(f"Cleaned up subdirectory: {sub.name}")
 
+                # For non-PEFT models, save_pretrained_gguf redirects to the
+                # checkpoint path, leaving a *_gguf directory in outputs/.
+                # Relocate any GGUFs from there and clean it up.
+                if self.current_checkpoint:
+                    ckpt = Path(self.current_checkpoint)
+                    gguf_dir = ckpt.parent / f"{ckpt.name}_gguf"
+                    if gguf_dir.is_dir():
+                        for src in gguf_dir.glob("*.gguf"):
+                            dest = os.path.join(abs_save_dir, src.name)
+                            shutil.move(str(src), dest)
+                            logger.info(f"Relocated GGUF: {src.name} → {abs_save_dir}/")
+                        # Also relocate Ollama Modelfile if present
+                        modelfile = gguf_dir / "Modelfile"
+                        if modelfile.is_file():
+                            shutil.move(
+                                str(modelfile), os.path.join(abs_save_dir, "Modelfile")
+                            )
+                            logger.info(f"Relocated Modelfile → {abs_save_dir}/")
+                        shutil.rmtree(str(gguf_dir), ignore_errors = True)
+                        logger.info(f"Cleaned up intermediate GGUF dir: {gguf_dir}")
+
                 # Write export metadata so the Chat page can identify the base model
                 self._write_export_metadata(abs_save_dir)
 
diff --git a/studio/backend/models/models.py b/studio/backend/models/models.py
index f721bbbf7..daa8eec90 100644
--- a/studio/backend/models/models.py
+++ b/studio/backend/models/models.py
@@ -41,6 +41,10 @@ class ModelCheckpoints(BaseModel):
         None,
         description = "LoRA rank (r) if applicable",
     )
+    is_quantized: bool = Field(
+        False,
+        description = "Whether the model uses BNB quantization (e.g. bnb-4bit)",
+    )
 
 
 class CheckpointListResponse(BaseModel):
diff --git a/studio/backend/routes/models.py b/studio/backend/routes/models.py
index 60be0559d..e70576244 100644
--- a/studio/backend/routes/models.py
+++ b/studio/backend/routes/models.py
@@ -1092,6 +1092,7 @@ async def list_checkpoints(
                 base_model = metadata.get("base_model"),
                 peft_type = metadata.get("peft_type"),
                 lora_rank = metadata.get("lora_rank"),
+                is_quantized = metadata.get("is_quantized", False),
             )
             for model_name, checkpoints, metadata in raw_models
         ]
diff --git a/studio/backend/tests/test_transformers_version.py b/studio/backend/tests/test_transformers_version.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f3dae537c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/studio/backend/tests/test_transformers_version.py
@@ -0,0 +1,190 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: AGPL-3.0-only
+# Copyright 2026-present the Unsloth AI Inc. team. All rights reserved. See /studio/LICENSE.AGPL-3.0
+
+"""Tests for transformers version detection with local checkpoint fallbacks."""
+
+import json
+import pytest
+from pathlib import Path
+from unittest.mock import patch
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# We need to be able to import the module under test.  The studio backend
+# uses relative-style imports (``from utils.…``), so we add the backend
+# directory to *sys.path* if it is not already there.
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+import sys
+
+_BACKEND_DIR = str(Path(__file__).resolve().parent.parent)
+if _BACKEND_DIR not in sys.path:
+    sys.path.insert(0, _BACKEND_DIR)
+
+# Stub the custom logger before importing the module under test so it
+# doesn't fail on the ``from loggers import get_logger`` line.
+import types as _types
+
+_loggers_stub = _types.ModuleType("loggers")
+_loggers_stub.get_logger = lambda name: __import__("logging").getLogger(name)
+sys.modules.setdefault("loggers", _loggers_stub)
+
+from utils.transformers_version import (
+    _resolve_base_model,
+    _check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5,
+    _tokenizer_class_cache,
+    needs_transformers_5,
+)
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# _resolve_base_model — config.json fallback
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class TestResolveBaseModel:
+    """Tests for _resolve_base_model() local config fallbacks."""
+
+    def test_adapter_config_takes_priority(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """adapter_config.json should be preferred over config.json."""
+        adapter_cfg = {"base_model_name_or_path": "meta-llama/Llama-3-8B"}
+        config_cfg = {"_name_or_path": "different/model"}
+        (tmp_path / "adapter_config.json").write_text(json.dumps(adapter_cfg))
+        (tmp_path / "config.json").write_text(json.dumps(config_cfg))
+
+        result = _resolve_base_model(str(tmp_path))
+        assert result == "meta-llama/Llama-3-8B"
+
+    def test_config_json_fallback_model_name(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """config.json model_name should resolve when no adapter_config."""
+        config_cfg = {"model_name": "Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B"}
+        (tmp_path / "config.json").write_text(json.dumps(config_cfg))
+
+        result = _resolve_base_model(str(tmp_path))
+        assert result == "Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B"
+
+    def test_config_json_fallback_name_or_path(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """config.json _name_or_path should resolve as secondary fallback."""
+        config_cfg = {"_name_or_path": "Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B"}
+        (tmp_path / "config.json").write_text(json.dumps(config_cfg))
+
+        result = _resolve_base_model(str(tmp_path))
+        assert result == "Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B"
+
+    def test_model_name_takes_priority_over_name_or_path(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """model_name should be preferred over _name_or_path."""
+        config_cfg = {
+            "model_name": "Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B",
+            "_name_or_path": "some/other-model",
+        }
+        (tmp_path / "config.json").write_text(json.dumps(config_cfg))
+
+        result = _resolve_base_model(str(tmp_path))
+        assert result == "Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B"
+
+    def test_config_json_skips_self_referencing(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """config.json should be ignored if model_name == the checkpoint path."""
+        config_cfg = {"model_name": str(tmp_path)}
+        (tmp_path / "config.json").write_text(json.dumps(config_cfg))
+
+        result = _resolve_base_model(str(tmp_path))
+        # Should fall through, not return the self-referencing path
+        assert result == str(tmp_path)
+
+    def test_no_config_files(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """Returns original name when no config files are present."""
+        result = _resolve_base_model(str(tmp_path))
+        assert result == str(tmp_path)
+
+    def test_plain_hf_id_passthrough(self):
+        """Plain HuggingFace model IDs pass through unchanged."""
+        result = _resolve_base_model("meta-llama/Llama-3-8B")
+        assert result == "meta-llama/Llama-3-8B"
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# _check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5 — local file check
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class TestCheckTokenizerConfigNeedsV5:
+    """Tests for local tokenizer_config.json fallback."""
+
+    def setup_method(self):
+        _tokenizer_class_cache.clear()
+
+    def test_local_tokenizer_config_v5(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """Local tokenizer_config.json with v5 tokenizer should return True."""
+        tc = {"tokenizer_class": "TokenizersBackend"}
+        (tmp_path / "tokenizer_config.json").write_text(json.dumps(tc))
+
+        result = _check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5(str(tmp_path))
+        assert result is True
+
+    def test_local_tokenizer_config_v4(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """Local tokenizer_config.json with standard tokenizer should return False."""
+        tc = {"tokenizer_class": "LlamaTokenizerFast"}
+        (tmp_path / "tokenizer_config.json").write_text(json.dumps(tc))
+
+        result = _check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5(str(tmp_path))
+        assert result is False
+
+    def test_local_file_skips_network(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """When local file exists, no network request should be made."""
+        tc = {"tokenizer_class": "LlamaTokenizerFast"}
+        (tmp_path / "tokenizer_config.json").write_text(json.dumps(tc))
+
+        with patch("urllib.request.urlopen") as mock_urlopen:
+            result = _check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5(str(tmp_path))
+            mock_urlopen.assert_not_called()
+        assert result is False
+
+    def test_result_is_cached(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """Subsequent calls should use the cache."""
+        tc = {"tokenizer_class": "TokenizersBackend"}
+        (tmp_path / "tokenizer_config.json").write_text(json.dumps(tc))
+
+        key = str(tmp_path)
+        _check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5(key)
+        assert key in _tokenizer_class_cache
+        assert _tokenizer_class_cache[key] is True
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# needs_transformers_5 — integration-level
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+class TestNeedsTransformers5:
+    """Integration tests for the top-level needs_transformers_5() function."""
+
+    def setup_method(self):
+        _tokenizer_class_cache.clear()
+
+    def test_qwen35_substring(self):
+        assert needs_transformers_5("Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B") is True
+
+    def test_qwen3_30b_a3b_substring(self):
+        assert needs_transformers_5("Qwen/Qwen3-30B-A3B-Instruct-2507") is True
+
+    def test_ministral_substring(self):
+        assert needs_transformers_5("mistralai/Ministral-3-8B-Instruct-2512") is True
+
+    def test_llama_does_not_need_v5(self):
+        """Standard models should not trigger v5."""
+        # Patch network call to avoid real fetch
+        with patch(
+            "utils.transformers_version._check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5",
+            return_value = False,
+        ):
+            assert needs_transformers_5("meta-llama/Llama-3-8B") is False
+
+    def test_local_checkpoint_resolved_via_config(self, tmp_path: Path):
+        """A local checkpoint with config.json pointing to Qwen3.5 should need v5."""
+        config_cfg = {"model_name": "Qwen/Qwen3.5-9B"}
+        (tmp_path / "config.json").write_text(json.dumps(config_cfg))
+
+        # _resolve_base_model is called by ensure_transformers_version,
+        # but needs_transformers_5 just does substring matching.
+        # We test the full resolution chain here:
+        resolved = _resolve_base_model(str(tmp_path))
+        assert needs_transformers_5(resolved) is True
diff --git a/studio/backend/utils/models/checkpoints.py b/studio/backend/utils/models/checkpoints.py
index a7cb80f33..b6b2e11c2 100644
--- a/studio/backend/utils/models/checkpoints.py
+++ b/studio/backend/utils/models/checkpoints.py
@@ -76,6 +76,18 @@ def scan_checkpoints(
                 elif config_file.exists():
                     cfg = json.loads(config_file.read_text())
                     metadata["base_model"] = cfg.get("_name_or_path")
+
+                # Detect BNB quantization from config.json (present in both cases)
+                if config_file.exists():
+                    if "cfg" not in dir():
+                        cfg = json.loads(config_file.read_text())
+                    quant_cfg = cfg.get("quantization_config")
+                    if (
+                        isinstance(quant_cfg, dict)
+                        and quant_cfg.get("quant_method") == "bitsandbytes"
+                    ):
+                        metadata["is_quantized"] = True
+                        logger.info("Detected BNB-quantized model: %s", item.name)
             except Exception:
                 pass
 
diff --git a/studio/backend/utils/transformers_version.py b/studio/backend/utils/transformers_version.py
index 60b43500c..d8724de72 100644
--- a/studio/backend/utils/transformers_version.py
+++ b/studio/backend/utils/transformers_version.py
@@ -92,6 +92,24 @@ def _resolve_base_model(model_name: str) -> str:
         except Exception as exc:
             logger.debug("Could not read %s: %s", adapter_cfg_path, exc)
 
+    # --- config.json fallback (works for both LoRA and full fine-tune) ------
+    config_json_path = local_path / "config.json"
+    if config_json_path.is_file():
+        try:
+            with open(config_json_path) as f:
+                cfg = json.load(f)
+            # Unsloth writes "model_name"; HF writes "_name_or_path"
+            base = cfg.get("model_name") or cfg.get("_name_or_path")
+            if base and base != str(local_path):
+                logger.info(
+                    "Resolved checkpoint '%s' → base model '%s' (via config.json)",
+                    model_name,
+                    base,
+                )
+                return base
+        except Exception as exc:
+            logger.debug("Could not read %s: %s", config_json_path, exc)
+
     # --- Only try the heavier fallback for local directories ----------------
     if local_path.is_dir():
         try:
@@ -126,6 +144,27 @@ def _check_tokenizer_config_needs_v5(model_name: str) -> bool:
     if model_name in _tokenizer_class_cache:
         return _tokenizer_class_cache[model_name]
 
+    # --- Check local tokenizer_config.json first ---------------------------
+    local_path = Path(model_name)
+    local_tc = local_path / "tokenizer_config.json"
+    if local_tc.is_file():
+        try:
+            with open(local_tc) as f:
+                data = json.load(f)
+            tokenizer_class = data.get("tokenizer_class", "")
+            result = tokenizer_class in _TRANSFORMERS_5_TOKENIZER_CLASSES
+            if result:
+                logger.info(
+                    "Local check: %s uses tokenizer_class=%s (requires transformers 5.x)",
+                    model_name,
+                    tokenizer_class,
+                )
+            _tokenizer_class_cache[model_name] = result
+            return result
+        except Exception as exc:
+            logger.debug("Could not read %s: %s", local_tc, exc)
+
+    # --- Fall back to fetching from HuggingFace ----------------------------
     import urllib.request
 
     url = f"https://huggingface.co/{model_name}/raw/main/tokenizer_config.json"
diff --git a/studio/frontend/src/features/export/api/export-api.ts b/studio/frontend/src/features/export/api/export-api.ts
index 5c01845cf..aff56c3e6 100644
--- a/studio/frontend/src/features/export/api/export-api.ts
+++ b/studio/frontend/src/features/export/api/export-api.ts
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ export interface ModelCheckpoints {
   base_model?: string | null;
   peft_type?: string | null;
   lora_rank?: number | null;
+  is_quantized?: boolean;
 }
 
 export interface CheckpointListResponse {
diff --git a/studio/frontend/src/features/export/components/method-picker.tsx b/studio/frontend/src/features/export/components/method-picker.tsx
index 9d55b9e4d..78cec2cd7 100644
--- a/studio/frontend/src/features/export/components/method-picker.tsx
+++ b/studio/frontend/src/features/export/components/method-picker.tsx
@@ -18,9 +18,13 @@ import { EXPORT_METHODS, type ExportMethod } from "../constants";
 interface MethodPickerProps {
   value: ExportMethod | null;
   onChange: (v: ExportMethod) => void;
+  /** Methods that should be shown but disabled (greyed out, not clickable). */
+  disabledMethods?: ExportMethod[];
+  /** Optional reason shown in a tooltip on disabled methods. */
+  disabledReason?: string;
 }
 
-export function MethodPicker({ value, onChange }: MethodPickerProps) {
+export function MethodPicker({ value, onChange, disabledMethods = [], disabledReason }: MethodPickerProps) {
   return (
     <div data-tour="export-method" className="flex flex-col gap-3">
       <span className="flex items-center gap-1.5 text-xs font-medium text-muted-foreground">
@@ -50,16 +54,21 @@ export function MethodPicker({ value, onChange }: MethodPickerProps) {
       <div className="grid grid-cols-3 gap-3">
         {EXPORT_METHODS.map((m) => {
           const selected = value === m.value;
-          return (
+          const isDisabled = disabledMethods.includes(m.value);
+
+          const card = (
             <button
               key={m.value}
               type="button"
-              onClick={() => onChange(m.value)}
+              disabled={isDisabled}
+              onClick={() => !isDisabled && onChange(m.value)}
               className={cn(
                 "flex items-start gap-3 rounded-xl p-4 text-left ring-1 transition-all",
-                selected
-                  ? "ring-2 ring-primary bg-primary/5"
-                  : "ring-border hover:-translate-y-0.5 hover:shadow-sm",
+                isDisabled
+                  ? "ring-border opacity-40 cursor-not-allowed"
+                  : selected
+                    ? "ring-2 ring-primary bg-primary/5"
+                    : "ring-border hover:-translate-y-0.5 hover:shadow-sm",
               )}
             >
               <div
@@ -125,6 +134,17 @@ export function MethodPicker({ value, onChange }: MethodPickerProps) {
               </div>
             </button>
           );
+
+          if (isDisabled && disabledReason) {
+            return (
+              <Tooltip key={m.value}>
+                <TooltipTrigger asChild={true}>{card}</TooltipTrigger>
+                <TooltipContent>{disabledReason}</TooltipContent>
+              </Tooltip>
+            );
+          }
+
+          return card;
         })}
       </div>
     </div>
diff --git a/studio/frontend/src/features/export/export-page.tsx b/studio/frontend/src/features/export/export-page.tsx
index ed3802295..edf5b666a 100644
--- a/studio/frontend/src/features/export/export-page.tsx
+++ b/studio/frontend/src/features/export/export-page.tsx
@@ -122,6 +122,7 @@ export function ExportPage() {
   // Derive training info from selected model's API metadata
   const baseModelName = selectedModelData?.base_model ?? "—";
   const isAdapter = !!selectedModelData?.peft_type;
+  const isQuantized = !!selectedModelData?.is_quantized;
   const loraRank = selectedModelData?.lora_rank ?? null;
   const trainingMethodLabel = selectedModelData?.peft_type
     ? "LoRA / QLoRA"
@@ -132,6 +133,17 @@ export function ExportPage() {
     setCheckpoint(null);
   }, [selectedModelIdx]);
 
+  // Auto-reset export method if incompatible with the selected model type
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (!isAdapter && (exportMethod === "merged" || exportMethod === "lora")) {
+      setExportMethod(null);
+    }
+    // Quantized non-PEFT models can't export to any format
+    if (!isAdapter && isQuantized && exportMethod !== null) {
+      setExportMethod(null);
+    }
+  }, [isAdapter, isQuantized, exportMethod]);
+
   const handleMethodChange = (method: ExportMethod) => {
     setExportMethod(method);
     if (method !== "gguf") {
@@ -465,7 +477,24 @@ export function ExportPage() {
                 </div>
               </div>
 
-              <MethodPicker value={exportMethod} onChange={handleMethodChange} />
+              <MethodPicker
+                value={exportMethod}
+                onChange={handleMethodChange}
+                disabledMethods={
+                  !isAdapter && isQuantized
+                    ? ["merged", "lora", "gguf"]
+                    : !isAdapter
+                      ? ["merged", "lora"]
+                      : []
+                }
+                disabledReason={
+                  !isAdapter && isQuantized
+                    ? "Pre-quantized (BNB 4-bit) models cannot be exported without LoRA adapters"
+                    : !isAdapter
+                      ? "Not available for full fine-tune checkpoints (no LoRA adapters)"
+                      : undefined
+                }
+              />
 
               <AnimatePresence>
                 {exportMethod === "gguf" && (
diff --git a/unsloth/save.py b/unsloth/save.py
index 6e38d1e95..1759d86fb 100644
--- a/unsloth/save.py
+++ b/unsloth/save.py
@@ -1976,15 +1976,46 @@ def unsloth_save_pretrained_gguf(
         fix_bos_token, old_chat_template = fix_tokenizer_bos_token(tokenizer)
 
     # Step 4: Save/merge model to 16-bit format
-    print(
-        f'Unsloth: Merging model weights to {"mxfp4" if is_gpt_oss else "16-bit"} format...'
+    is_peft_model = isinstance(self, PeftModelForCausalLM) or isinstance(
+        self, PeftModel
     )
-    try:
-        # Call unsloth_generic_save directly (it's in the same file)
-        unsloth_generic_save(**arguments)
 
-    except Exception as e:
-        raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to save/merge model: {e}")
+    if is_peft_model:
+        print(
+            f'Unsloth: Merging model weights to {"mxfp4" if is_gpt_oss else "16-bit"} format...'
+        )
+        try:
+            # Call unsloth_generic_save directly (it's in the same file)
+            unsloth_generic_save(**arguments)
+
+        except Exception as e:
+            raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to save/merge model: {e}")
+    else:
+        # Non-PEFT model — checkpoint files already exist on disk.
+        # Point save_to_gguf at the original checkpoint path instead of
+        # re-saving to a temporary "model" subdirectory.
+        original_path = getattr(self.config, "_name_or_path", None)
+        if original_path and os.path.isdir(original_path):
+            print(
+                f"Unsloth: Model is not a PEFT model. Using existing checkpoint at {original_path}"
+            )
+            save_directory = original_path
+            # Persist tokenizer fixes (e.g. BOS token stripping) to disk
+            # so the GGUF converter picks up the corrected chat template.
+            if tokenizer is not None:
+                tokenizer.save_pretrained(save_directory)
+        else:
+            # Fallback: save the in-memory model to save_directory
+            print(
+                "Unsloth: Model is not a PEFT model. Saving directly without LoRA merge..."
+            )
+            os.makedirs(save_directory, exist_ok = True)
+            try:
+                self.save_pretrained(save_directory)
+                if tokenizer is not None:
+                    tokenizer.save_pretrained(save_directory)
+            except Exception as e:
+                raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to save model: {e}")
 
     if is_processor:
         tokenizer = tokenizer.tokenizer