Infinite Sampling: Efficient and Stable Grouped RL Training for Large Language Models
On the map: LLM reasoning → Reinforcement learning for reasoning
Abstract (arXiv)
Group-based reinforcement learning algorithms such as Group Reward Policy Optimization (GRPO) have proven effective for fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) with human feedback. However, generating and storing multiple responses per prompt incurs substantial memory overhead, especially as the sample group size increases, limiting scalability under constrained hardware. We propose Infinite Sampling, a framework that enables efficient and stable GRPO training by decoupling group size from GPU memory usage. It consists of: (1) micro sampling groups that decompose large groups into memory-feasible rounds; (2) continuous sampling that interleaves generation across groups to improve utilization; and (3) a length-aware scheduler combining token-conditioned sequence length prediction with a two-stage plan: global grouping via FPTAS and runtime refill via SJF. Experiments show that our Micro Sampling Groups reduce peak memory usage by over 50% compared to full-group decoding (e.g., from 21.55 GB to 10.64 GB on Qwen3-1.7B). Building on this, Infinite Sampling improves throughput by over 25% compared to the naive micro sampling group method, reducing decoding steps while maintaining full-length completions and memory usage. Our hybrid scheduling ensures efficient and stable GRPO training with larger groups under realistic GPU memory constraints.
Key facts. Cited by 10 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning for reasoning, one of 17 directions in LLM reasoning. Builds on 16 of its 30 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 28 Jun 2025.
Builds on
16 of 30 references.
Closest ancestors · 2
Same direction, newest first
- 2023Let's Verify Step by Step31 May
- 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms20 Jul
Other references · 14
- 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 10,109
- 2023Efficient Memory Management for Large Language Model Serving with PagedAttentioncited by 5,944
- 2022FlashAttention: Fast and Memory-Efficient Exact Attention with IO-Awarenesscited by 3,673
- 2023FlashAttention-2: Faster Attention with Better Parallelism and Work Partitioningcited by 2,598
- 2024HybridFlow: A Flexible and Efficient RLHF Frameworkcited by 2,057
- 2019ZeRO: Memory Optimizations Toward Training Trillion Parameter Modelscited by 1,301
- 2023SGLang: Efficient Execution of Structured Language Model Programscited by 1,141
- 2021ZeRO-Infinity: Breaking the GPU Memory Wall for Extreme Scale Deep Learningcited by 256
- 2024On Memorization of Large Language Models in Logical Reasoningcited by 117
- 2024Keep the Cost Down: A Review on Methods to Optimize LLM' s KV-Cache Consumptioncited by 97
- 2025StreamRL: Scalable, Heterogeneous, and Elastic RL for LLMs with Disaggregated Stream Generationcited by 61
- 2024BatchLLM: Optimizing Large Batched LLM Inference with Global Prefix Sharing and Throughput-oriented Token Batchingcited by 32
2 more
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 3; 2026: 7.
10 papers.
- 2025TreePO: Bridging the Gap of Policy Optimization and Efficacy and Inference Efficiency with Heuristic Tree-based Modelingcited by 61
- 2025Prompt Curriculum Learning for Efficient LLM Post-Trainingcited by 45
- 2026Predicting LLM Output Length via Entropy-Guided Representationscited by 9
- 2026TideRL: Boosting Agentic RL Goodput with Readiness-Aware Schedulingcited by 4
- 2025OraPO: Oracle-educated Reinforcement Learning for Data-efficient and Factual Radiology Report Generationcited by 1
- 2026Consensus Group Relative Policy Optimization for Text Generationcited by 1
- 2026F-TIS: Harnessing Diverse Models in Collaborative GRPOcited by 1
- 2026SFAD: Speculative Factuality-Aware Decodingcited by 0
- 2026HiLoRe: What to Store, Compress, or Recompute for Efficient GRPO Trainingcited by 0
- 2026Asynchronous LLM Post-Training: Group-Mass Capping and Convergence Analysiscited by 0
- 2026Asynchronous LLM Post-Training: Group-Mass Capping and Convergence Analysis1 Oct 2026
- 2026HiLoRe: What to Store, Compress, or Recompute for Efficient GRPO Training27 Sep 2026
- 2026SFAD: Speculative Factuality-Aware Decoding1 Sep 2026
- 2026TideRL: Boosting Agentic RL Goodput with Readiness-Aware Scheduling11 Aug 2026
- 2026F-TIS: Harnessing Diverse Models in Collaborative GRPO21 May 2026
- 2026Predicting LLM Output Length via Entropy-Guided Representations12 Feb 2026
- 2026Consensus Group Relative Policy Optimization for Text Generation3 Feb 2026
- 2025Prompt Curriculum Learning for Efficient LLM Post-Training1 Oct 2025
- 2025OraPO: Oracle-educated Reinforcement Learning for Data-efficient and Factual Radiology Report Generation23 Sep 2025
- 2025TreePO: Bridging the Gap of Policy Optimization and Efficacy and Inference Efficiency with Heuristic Tree-based Modeling24 Aug 2025
Similar, not cited
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- 2025GVPO: Group Variance Policy Optimization for Large Language Model Post-Training
- 2026Train Less, Learn More: Adaptive Efficient Rollout Optimization for Group-Based Reinforcement Learning
- 2026RLVR without Ineffective Samples: Group Prioritized Off-Policy Optimization for LLM Reasoning
- 2026GRPO Training Dynamics for Small Language Models
- 2026Spend Your Rollouts Where It Counts: Rollout Allocation for Group-Based RL Post-Training
- 2025Group-in-Group Policy Optimization for LLM Agent Training