Quantum/Machines/IBM Heron
USA · operational · Superconducting circuits
IBM Heron
IBM Heron is a superconducting circuits quantum computer operated by IBM in USA. It has 156 physical qubits. It ranks 7 of 53 superconducting machines in this table by physical qubit count. 15 sourced specs are in the spec sheet. 5 published benchmark or milestone records are listed below, each marked by who measured it.
Also known as IBM Quantum Heron, Heron r1, r2, r3
IBM's tunable-coupler processor family: r1 (December 2023, 133 qubits), r2 (July 2024, 156 qubits with TLS mitigation) and r3 (July 2025, 156 qubits). IBM's compute-resources page lists six Heron cloud devices (ibm_boston, ibm_kingston, ibm_pittsburgh, ibm_fez, ibm_marrakesh, ibm_aachen) with 332 physical qubits each; the 133-qubit ibm_torino was retired 2026-04-01. Heron also runs inside the IBM Quantum System Two installations listed separately here. Benchmark figures are IBM's own.
Spec sheet
Technical details as the builder or a paper states them, each with its own source. A blank is a fact we could not source, not a zero. Fidelity and coherence figures are in the benchmark table below.
| Spec | Value | Basis | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Heron r1 (133 qubits), Heron r2 and r3 (156 qubits) | Vendor reported | IBM dates r1 to December 2023, r2 to July 2024 (adds TLS mitigation) and r3 to July 2025 (manufacturing improvements). | quantum.cloud.ibm.comibm.com |
| Qubit type | Fixed-frequency transmon with tunable couplers | Vendor reported | IBM says fixed-frequency qubits with tunable couplers; the word transmon comes from a third-party study on ibm_pittsburgh (Heron r3). | ibm.comarxiv.org |
| Topology | Heavy-hex lattice, 156 qubits (r2 and r3) | Vendor reported | IBM docs describe r2 as redesigned into a heavy-hexagonal lattice; an independent benchmarking study on ibm_pittsburgh (r3) states the same. | quantum.cloud.ibm.comarxiv.org |
| Max connectivity | 3 | Independent | Independent study notes each qubit on the heavy-hex lattice of ibm_pittsburgh has at most three neighbours. | arxiv.org |
| Native gates | CZ, ID, RZ, SX, X (r1 also RZZ) | Independent | Two third-party papers list the Heron basis set; the first notes Heron r1 backends also expose RZZ. | arxiv.orgarxiv.org |
| Single-qubit gate time | 32 ns | Vendor reported | Single-qubit gate duration used on Heron r3 devices in the same IBM Research and Algorithmiq preprint. | arxiv.org |
| Two-qubit gate time | 96 ns | Vendor reported | CZ duration used on Heron r3 (ibm_boston, ibm_pittsburgh) in an IBM Research and Algorithmiq preprint of July 2026; a third-party survey reported a 68 ns median CZ on ibm_fez (r2) in July 2024. | arxiv.org |
| Cooling and environment | Dilution refrigerator | Independent | Third-party paper places Heron devices in dilution refrigerators; IBM lab page describes the same fridge class for IBM chips generally. | arxiv.orgresearch.ibm.com |
| Operating temperature | 15 mK | Independent | Third-party paper says Heron devices operate near 15 mK; IBM lab page says its fridges hold chips at 15 mK in general. | arxiv.orgresearch.ibm.com |
| Software | Qiskit, Qiskit Runtime | Vendor reported | IBM docs access QPUs through QiskitRuntimeService; the independent study ran Heron r3 with Qiskit Runtime V2 primitives. | quantum.cloud.ibm.comarxiv.org |
| Cloud platforms | IBM Quantum Platform (us-east and eu-de regions) | Vendor reported | Compute resources page lists six Heron devices as of October 2026: ibm_boston, ibm_kingston, ibm_pittsburgh, ibm_fez, ibm_marrakesh, ibm_aachen. | quantum.cloud.ibm.com |
| Access and pricing | Cloud queue: Open Plan free (10 min per month), Pay-As-You-Go from $96 per minute, Flex from $72, Premium from $48 | Vendor reported | IBM pricing page lists platform-wide plans and does not say which QPUs each plan includes; on-premises system is by quote. | ibm.comquantum.cloud.ibm.com |
| Predecessor | IBM Eagle | Vendor reported | IBM compared Heron to its previous flagship Eagle (up to 5 times lower error); the docs describe Heron as an Eagle-sized upgrade to the 33-qubit Egret. | newsroom.ibm.comquantum.cloud.ibm.com |
| Successor | IBM Nighthawk | Vendor reported | IBM docs say Nighthawk leverages the Heron technology stack (couplers, signal delivery, coherence) with more connectivity. | quantum.cloud.ibm.comibm.com |
| Roadmap | Flamingo to link two Heron r2 chips with l-couplers, then Crossbill (m-couplers) and Kookaburra (2026) | Vendor reported | From the IBM Quantum Developer Conference 2024 blog; IBM roadmap of November 2025 headlines Nighthawk and Loon instead. | ibm.com |
Published benchmark figures
These are numbers the builder or a paper reports for this machine, not results from a common test. The basis column says who measured them. What the metrics mean and why they are not comparable across technologies.
| Metric | Value | Measured | Basis | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circuit layer operations per second (CLOPS) | 340,000 | 2026-10 | Vendor reported | ibm_boston (Heron r3) and ibm_kingston (Heron r2) both listed at 340K | quantum.cloud.ibm.com |
| Error per layered gate (EPLG) | 0.2921% | 2026-10 | Vendor reported | Best 2Q error (layered) column, ibm_boston (Heron r3). IBM tech page quotes 3.7E-3 for the Heron family. | quantum.cloud.ibm.com |
| Readout fidelity | 99.6094% | 2026-10 | Vendor reported | From median readout error 3.906E-3 on ibm_boston (Heron r3) | quantum.cloud.ibm.com |
| Two-qubit gate fidelity | 99.9385% | 2026-10 | Vendor reported | Best single-coupler 2Q error 6.149E-4 on ibm_boston (Heron r3); not a device median | quantum.cloud.ibm.com |
Milestone claims
- IBM and Algorithmiq claimed quantum advantage on Heron processors: simulation of heterogeneous quantum matter, using noise manipulation and error mitigation. (2026-07-30, vendor reported) newsroom.ibm.com
Timeline
- 2023-12-04: Announced
- 2023-12: First operational
- 2026-10-04: Status checked: operational
More from IBM
- IBM Eagle (decommissioned, 127 qubits)
- IBM Osprey (decommissioned, 433 qubits)
- IBM Condor (operational, 1,121 qubits)
- IBM Nighthawk (operational, 120 qubits)
- IBM Loon (operational)
- IBM Quantum System Two (Yorktown Heights) (operational)
- IBM Quantum Starling (planned)
- IBM Quantum System Two (Chicago) (under construction, 156 qubits)
- IBM Quantum System Two (Amaravati) (under construction, 156 qubits)
- IBM Quantum System One (Bromont) (operational, 127 qubits)
Comparable superconducting machines
Closest in physical qubit count within the same technology. Counts of different qubit types are not interchangeable across technologies.
| Machine | Operator | Qubits | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| RIKEN IBM Quantum System Two | RIKEN | 156 | operational |
| IBM-Euskadi Quantum System Two | IBM-Euskadi Quantum Computational Center | 156 | operational |
| Cleveland Clinic IBM Quantum System One | Cleveland Clinic | 156 | operational |
| IBM Quantum System Two (Chicago) | IBM | 156 | under construction |
| IBM Quantum System Two (Amaravati) | IBM | 156 | under construction |
| LUMI-IQ | CSC | 150 | planned |