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 43 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)
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 |
| IBM Quantum System Two (Chicago) | IBM | 156 | under construction |
| LUMI-IQ | CSC | 150 | planned |
| Origin Wukong-180 | Origin Quantum | 180 | operational |
| IBM Eagle | IBM | 127 | decommissioned |