Skip to content
Let's Comfy

Models & Files

You’ve downloaded a bunch of .safetensors files and the last thing you want is to put them in the wrong place — ComfyUI won’t recognize files that aren’t in the right directory. Below is a quick reference by file type → default directory, which ties into Introduction and Workflow.

What File Goes Where

Section titled “What File Goes Where”

  • Checkpoint (base model): The full set of model weights bundled together, usually including CLIP + VAE (though some have a mediocre built-in VAE that people swap out).
    Directory: ComfyUI/models/checkpoints

  • VAE: The small network that “translates” latent space into the RGB image you can see; sometimes downloaded separately, sometimes embedded in a checkpoint.
    Directory: ComfyUI/models/vae (standalone files go here; use Load VAE or the node to select it in the UI)

  • LoRA / LyCORIS etc.: Small fine-tuning patches that attach to a base model; relatively small file size.
    Directory: ComfyUI/models/loras

  • ControlNet: A conditioning model used to “lock down” structural constraints.
    Directory: ComfyUI/models/controlnet

  • CLIP / text encoders etc.: A small number of workflows reference these separately; common bundles also place them under a subfolder in models. Don’t worry about memorizing this yet — deal with it when you encounter it.

Exact subpaths depend on your ComfyUI installation — portable builds, bundles, and custom installs may have different root names — but the subfolder names under models are widely agreed upon in the community.

How to Know What to Download

Section titled “How to Know What to Download”
  1. Check someone else’s workflow: The author usually lists required filenames in a Note node or README — download whatever is missing.
  2. Read the model page: The author will state compatibility with SD1.5 / SDXL or other architectures — base model architecture, LoRA, and ControlNet must match; a mismatch at best does nothing, at worst throws an error.
  3. Don’t judge by file size: Bigger isn’t always better for your use case — get it running first, then optimize.

How Files Map to Nodes

Section titled “How Files Map to Nodes”
  • CheckpointLoaderSimple → reads from checkpoints
  • Load LoRA → reads from loras
  • Load ControlNet → reads from controlnet
  • Standalone VAE → reads from vae (when the workflow is set up that way)

Once you understand the pipeline, these are simply: each node pulls files from its own drawer.

Further Reading

Section titled “Further Reading”