# FGP: Feature-Gradient-Prune for Efficient Convolutional Layer Pruning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.12781 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.12781/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 37 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 19 Nov 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Grad-CAM: Visual Explanations from Deep Networks via Gradient-based Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02391/) (2016)
- [Fully Convolutional Networks for Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.4038/) (2014)
- [The Lottery Ticket Hypothesis: Finding Sparse, Trainable Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.03635/) (2018)
- [Learning both Weights and Connections for Efficient Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02626/) (2015)
- [Grad-CAM++: Improved Visual Explanations for Deep Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.11063/) (2017)
- [SNIP: Single-shot Network Pruning based on Connection Sensitivity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.02340/) (2018)
- [Learning Efficient Convolutional Networks through Network Slimming](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.06519/) (2017)
- [BiSeNet: Bilateral Segmentation Network for Real-time Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00897/) (2018)
- [Importance Estimation for Neural Network Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.10771/) (2019)
- [Filter Pruning via Geometric Median for Deep Convolutional Neural Networks Acceleration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.00250/) (2018)
- [HRank: Filter Pruning using High-Rank Feature Map](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.10179/) (2020)
- [Variational Dropout Sparsifies Deep Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1701.05369/) (2017)
- [DepGraph: Towards Any Structural Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12900/) (2023)
- [Compressing Neural Networks with the Hashing Trick](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.04788/) (2015)
- [Dynamic Channel Pruning: Feature Boosting and Suppression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.05331/) (2018)
- [DMCP: Differentiable Markov Channel Pruning for Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.03354/) (2020)
- [Approximated Oracle Filter Pruning for Destructive CNN Width Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.04748/) (2019)
- [SlimConv: Reducing Channel Redundancy in Convolutional Neural Networks by Weights Flipping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.07469/) (2020)
- [DyRep: Bootstrapping Training with Dynamic Re-parameterization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12868/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [IPPRO: Importance-based Pruning with PRojective Offset for Magnitude-indifferent Structural Pruning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.14171/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

To reduce computational overhead while maintaining model performance, model pruning techniques have been proposed. Among these, structured pruning, which removes entire convolutional channels or layers, significantly enhances computational efficiency and is compatible with hardware acceleration. However, existing pruning methods that rely solely on image features or gradients often result in the retention of redundant channels, negatively impacting inference efficiency. To address this issue, this paper introduces a novel pruning method called Feature-Gradient Pruning (FGP). This approach integrates both feature-based and gradient-based information to more effectively evaluate the importance of channels across various target classes, enabling a more accurate identification of channels that are critical to model performance. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method improves both model compactness and practicality while maintaining stable performance. Experiments conducted across multiple tasks and datasets show that FGP significantly reduces computational costs and minimizes accuracy loss compared to existing methods, highlighting its effectiveness in optimizing pruning outcomes. The source code is available at: https://github.com/FGP-code/FGP.