Learning Rate Finder

For training deep neural networks, selecting a good learning rate is essential for both better performance and faster convergence. Even optimizers such as Adam that are self-adjusting the learning rate can benefit from more optimal choices.

To reduce the amount of guesswork concerning choosing a good initial learning rate, a learning rate finder can be used. As described in this paper a learning rate finder does a small run where the learning rate is increased after each processed batch and the corresponding loss is logged. The result of this is a lr vs. loss plot that can be used as guidance for choosing a optimal initial lr.

Warning

For the moment, this feature only works with models having a single optimizer. LR support for DDP is not implemented yet, it is comming soon.

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Using Lightning’s built-in LR finder

In the most basic use case, this feature can be enabled during trainer construction with Trainer(auto_lr_find=True). When .fit(model) is called, the LR finder will automatically run before any training is done. The lr that is found and used will be written to the console and logged together with all other hyperparameters of the model.

# default: no automatic learning rate finder
trainer = Trainer(auto_lr_find=False)

This flag sets your learning rate which can be accessed via self.lr or self.learning_rate.

class LitModel(LightningModule):

    def __init__(self, learning_rate):
        self.learning_rate = learning_rate

    def configure_optimizers(self):
        return Adam(self.parameters(), lr=(self.lr or self.learning_rate))

# finds learning rate automatically
# sets hparams.lr or hparams.learning_rate to that learning rate
trainer = Trainer(auto_lr_find=True)

To use an arbitrary value set it as auto_lr_find

# to set to your own hparams.my_value
trainer = Trainer(auto_lr_find='my_value')

Under the hood, when you call fit it runs the learning rate finder before actually calling fit.

# when you call .fit() this happens
# 1. find learning rate
# 2. actually run fit
trainer.fit(model)

If you want to inspect the results of the learning rate finder before doing any actual training or just play around with the parameters of the algorithm, this can be done by invoking the lr_find method of the trainer. A typical example of this would look like

model = MyModelClass(hparams)
trainer = Trainer()

# Run learning rate finder
lr_finder = trainer.lr_find(model)

# Results can be found in
lr_finder.results

# Plot with
fig = lr_finder.plot(suggest=True)
fig.show()

# Pick point based on plot, or get suggestion
new_lr = lr_finder.suggestion()

# update hparams of the model
model.hparams.lr = new_lr

# Fit model
trainer.fit(model)

The figure produced by lr_finder.plot() should look something like the figure below. It is recommended to not pick the learning rate that achives the lowest loss, but instead something in the middle of the sharpest downward slope (red point). This is the point returned py lr_finder.suggestion().

The parameters of the algorithm can be seen below.

class pytorch_lightning.trainer.lr_finder.TrainerLRFinderMixin

Bases: abc.ABC

_run_lr_finder_internally(model)

Call lr finder internally during Trainer.fit()

abstract fit(*args)

Warning: this is just empty shell for code implemented in other class.

abstract init_optimizers(*args)

Warning: this is just empty shell for code implemented in other class.

Return type

Tuple[List, List, List]

lr_find(model, train_dataloader=None, val_dataloaders=None, min_lr=1e-08, max_lr=1, num_training=100, mode='exponential', early_stop_threshold=4.0, num_accumulation_steps=None)

lr_find enables the user to do a range test of good initial learning rates, to reduce the amount of guesswork in picking a good starting learning rate.

Parameters

• model (LightningModule) – Model to do range testing for

• train_dataloader (Optional[DataLoader]) – A PyTorch DataLoader with training samples. If the model has a predefined train_dataloader method this will be skipped.

• min_lr (float) – minimum learning rate to investigate

• max_lr (float) – maximum learning rate to investigate

• num_training (int) – number of learning rates to test

• mode (str) – search strategy, either ‘linear’ or ‘exponential’. If set to ‘linear’ the learning rate will be searched by linearly increasing after each batch. If set to ‘exponential’, will increase learning rate exponentially.

• early_stop_threshold (float) – threshold for stopping the search. If the loss at any point is larger than early_stop_threshold*best_loss then the search is stopped. To disable, set to None.

• num_accumulation_steps – deprepecated, number of batches to calculate loss over. Set trainer argument accumulate_grad_batches instead.

Example:

# Setup model and trainer
model = MyModelClass(hparams)
trainer = pl.Trainer()

# Run lr finder
lr_finder = trainer.lr_find(model, ...)

# Inspect results
fig = lr_finder.plot(); fig.show()
suggested_lr = lr_finder.suggestion()

# Overwrite lr and create new model
hparams.lr = suggested_lr
model = MyModelClass(hparams)

# Ready to train with new learning rate
trainer.fit(model)

abstract restore(*args)

Warning: this is just empty shell for code implemented in other class.

abstract save_checkpoint(*args)

Warning: this is just empty shell for code implemented in other class.