Model Merging in LLMs, MLLMs, and Beyond: Methods, Theories, Applications, and Opportunities

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Abstract
Model merging is an efficient empowerment technique in the machine learning community that does not require the collection of raw training data and does not require expensive computation. As model merging becomes increasingly prevalent across various fields, it is crucial to understand the available model merging techniques comprehensively. However, there is a significant gap in the literature regarding a systematic and thorough review of these techniques. This survey provides a comprehensive overview of model merging methods and theories, their applications in various domains and settings, and future research directions. Specifically, we first propose a new taxonomic approach that exhaustively discusses existing model merging methods. Secondly, we discuss the application of model merging techniques in large language models, multimodal large language models, and more than ten machine learning subfields, including continual learning, multi-task learning, few-shot learning, and so on. Finally, we highlight the remaining challenges of model merging and discuss future research directions. A comprehensive list of papers about model merging is available at https://github.com/EnnengYang/Awesome-Model-Merging-Methods-Theories-Applications .
Funding Information
  • National Natural Science Foundation of China (62576364, 62576083, 62432003, U25A20431, 62411540034)
  • Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (CJGJZD20240729141505007)
  • Shenzhen Basic Research Key Project (JCYJ20241202124430041)
  • China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2025M781535)
  • Manufacturing, Trade and Connectivity (MTC) Industry Alignment Fund-Pre-Positioning (M23L4a0001)
  • MTC Programmatic (M23L9b0052)

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