Open Access

REVIEW

When Federated Learning Meets Large Language Models: Taxonomy, Challenges, and Opportunities

Shan Jiang¹, Wenxin You², Haoran Zhang³, Shichang Xuan^3,*, Jiaxing Shen⁴

1 School of Software Engineering, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, China
2 School of Art and Design, Guangzhou Institute of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China
3 College of Computer Science and Technology, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin, China
4 School of Data Science, Lingnan University, Hong Kong SAR, China

* Corresponding Author: Shichang Xuan. Email:

Computers, Materials & Continua 2026, 88(2), 1 https://doi.org/10.32604/cmc.2026.079321

Received 19 January 2026; Accepted 20 April 2026; Issue published 15 June 2026

Abstract

Large Language Models (LLMs) have been playing a transformative role in natural language understanding and generation, yet adapting LLMs to domain-specific and privacy-sensitive data remains challenging under centralized training. Federated Learning (FL) provides a promising alternative by enabling training LLMs collaboratively without sharing raw data. However, integrating FL and LLMs introduces new challenges, including model size, device heterogeneity, non-IID data, and alignment requirements. This survey offers a structured overview of the federated LLM ecosystem. We present a comprehensive taxonomy encompassing system architectures, advanced data strategies for addressing heterogeneity, and retrieval-augmented generation in federated contexts. Additionally, we review efficient adaptation methods that enable LLM tuning on resource-constrained clients and analyze data security and privacy concerns. We conclude by summarizing emerging applications in healthcare, industry, software engineering, and finance, and by outlining open problems and research opportunities for scalable, secure, and responsible federated LLM deployment.

---

Keywords

---