Can Mac mini M4 16 GB run Gemma 4 26B-A4B?
16 GB unified · 120 GB/s memory bandwidth · Gemma 4 26B-A4B has 25.8B parameters (3.8B active per token).
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈12 GB but only ≈8.5 GB is available after the OS, other apps and Open WebUI.
Why it doesn’t fit
Even its smallest practical version (3-bit) needs about 12 GB for the model, its context memory and the runtime. After macOS (≈3.5 GB), a browser with a few tabs (≈3.0 GB) and Open WebUI (≈1.0 GB), Mac mini M4 16 GB has about 8.5 GB left, so it’s 3.3 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 0.3 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
Get more memory
The same chip with 24 GB handles it: Comfortable.
Check your exact setup
These pages assume typical settings. A shorter context or a lighter chat app can change the answer.
Check Mac mini M4 16 GB
The same applies to every workload we rate (chat, coding questions, coding in a repository, agentic coding and long documents): they all need at least as much memory as chat.
Other models for Mac mini M4 16 GB
The best-rated models for chat on this machine.
- MiniCPM5 2B25–35 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 4B19–25 tok/sExcellent
- Llama 3.2 3B Instruct25–35 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 9B13–18 tok/sComfortable
- GLM-4.6V-Flash (10B)13–17 tok/sComfortable
- Qwen3 8B15–20 tok/sComfortable
Cheapest machines for Gemma 4 26B-A4B
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
- Mac mini M4 24 GB$999 · 25–35 tok/sComfortable
- Mac mini M6 24 GB$1,299 · 30–50 tok/sComfortable
- Laptop · Core Ultra 7 258V (Arc 140V) · 32 GB$1,300 · 15–25 tok/sExcellent
- Laptop · Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (Radeon 890M) · 32 GB$1,300 · 16–25 tok/sComfortable
- Mac mini M4 32 GB$1,399 · 25–35 tok/sExcellent
- MacBook Air M4 24 GB$1,399 · 25–35 tok/sComfortable
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.