Simulators overview

Overview

IBM Quantum features a collection of high-performance simulators for prototyping quantum circuits and algorithms, and exploring their performance under realistic device noise models.

To view available simulators, on the upper left corner of the screen, click the Application switcher ( switcher ), select Compute resources to view the Compute resources page, then click the Simulators tab.

The default choice of simulator should be the simulator_statevector as it is a general-purpose solution method. The following simulation methods are currently available, and support a maximum of 300 circuits and 8192 shots per job.

Simulator timeout limit

To prevent the simulators from processing jobs that would otherwise not finish processing in a reasonable amount of time, jobs sent to the simulators are limited to run times under 10,000 seconds (~2.75 hours).

Statevector

Type: Schrödinger wavefunction
Name: simulator_statevector

Simulates a quantum circuit by computing the wavefunction of the qubit’s statevector as gates and instructions are applied. Supports general noise modeling.

Qubits: 32
Noise modeling: Yes

Supported gates / instructions

['u1', 'u2', 'u3', 'u', 'p', 'r', 'rx', 'ry', 'rz', 'id',
'x', 'y', 'z', 'h', 's', 'sdg', 'sx', 't', 'tdg', 'swap',
'cx', 'cy', 'cz', 'csx', 'cp', 'cu1', 'cu2', 'cu3', 'rxx',
'ryy', 'rzz', 'rzx', 'ccx', 'cswap', 'mcx', 'mcy', 'mcz',
'mcsx', 'mcp', 'mcu1', 'mcu2', 'mcu3', 'mcrx', 'mcry',
'mcrz', 'mcr', 'mcswap', 'unitary', 'diagonal',
'multiplexer', 'initialize', 'kraus', 'roerror', 'delay']

Stabilizer

Type: Clifford
Name: simulator_stabilizer

An efficient simulator of Clifford circuits. Can simulate noisy evolution if the noise operators are also Clifford gates.

Qubits: 5000
Noise modeling: Yes (Clifford only)

Supported gates / instructions

['cx', 'cy', 'cz', 'id', 'x', 'y', 'z', 'h',
's', 'sdg', 'sx', 'swap', 'delay', 'roerror']

Extended stabilizer

Type: Extended Clifford (e.g., Clifford+T)
Name: simulator_extended_stabilizer

Approximates the action of a quantum circuit using a ranked-stabilizer decomposition. The number of non-Clifford gates determines the number of stabilizer terms.

Qubits: 63
Noise modeling: No

Supported gates / instructions

['u0', 'u1', 'cx', 'cz', 'id', 'x', 'y', 'z', 'h',
't', 'tdg', 's', 'sdg', 'sx', 'swap', 'p', 'ccx', 'ccz',
'delay', 'roerror']

MPS

Type: Matrix Product State
Name: simulator_mps

A tensor-network simulator that uses a Matrix Product State (MPS) representation for the state that is often more efficient for states with weak entanglement.

Qubits: 100
Noise modeling: No

Supported gates / instructions

['unitary', 't', 'tdg', 'id', 'cp', 'u1', 'u2', 'u3', 'u',
'cx', 'cz', 'x', 'y', 'z', 'h', 's', 'sdg', 'sx', 'swap',
'p', 'ccx', 'delay', 'roerror']

QASM

Type: General, context-aware
Name: ibmq_qasm_simulator

A general-purpose simulator for simulating quantum circuits both ideally and subject to noise modeling. The simulation method is automatically selected based on the input circuits and parameters.

Qubits: 32
Noise modeling: Yes

Supported gates / instructions

['u1', 'u2', 'u3', 'u', 'p', 'r', 'rx', 'ry', 'rz', 'id',
'x', 'y', 'z', 'h', 's', 'sdg', 'sx', 't', 'tdg', 'swap',
'cx', 'cy', 'cz', 'csx', 'cp', 'cu1', 'cu2', 'cu3', 'rxx',
'ryy', 'rzz', 'rzx', 'ccx', 'cswap', 'mcx', 'mcy', 'mcz',
'mcsx', 'mcp', 'mcu1', 'mcu2', 'mcu3', 'mcrx', 'mcry',
'mcrz', 'mcr', 'mcswap', 'unitary', 'diagonal',
'multiplexer', 'initialize', 'kraus', 'roerror', 'delay']