Can MacBook Pro M3 Max 36 GB run GLM-4.5-Air (106B-A12B)?
36 GB unified · 300 GB/s memory bandwidth · GLM-4.5-Air (106B-A12B) has 110.5B parameters (12B active per token).
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈48 GB but only ≈28 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 48 GB for the model, its context memory and the runtime. After macOS (≈3.6 GB), a browser with a few tabs (≈3.0 GB) and Open WebUI (≈1.0 GB), MacBook Pro M3 Max 36 GB has about 28 GB left, so it’s 20 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 17 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
Get more memory
The same chip with 96 GB handles it: Excellent.
Check your exact setup
These pages assume typical settings. A shorter context or a lighter chat app can change the answer.
Check MacBook Pro M3 Max 36 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 MacBook Pro M3 Max 36 GB
The best-rated models for chat on this machine.
- Qwen3.6 35B-A3B80–110 tok/sExcellent
- Gemma 4 26B-A4B55–70 tok/sExcellent
- LFM2.5 24B-A2B110–150 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 35B-A3B80–110 tok/sExcellent
- gpt-oss-20b65–90 tok/sExcellent
- GLM-4.7-Flash (30B-A3B)75–100 tok/sExcellent
Cheapest machines for GLM-4.5-Air (106B-A12B)
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC / Framework Desktop · 128 GB$2,000 · 17–25 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M2 Max 96 GB$3,799 · 25–35 tok/sExcellent
- MacBook Pro M3 Max 96 GB$3,999 · 19–25 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M5 Max 128 GB$4,099 · 25–45 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M4 Max 128 GB$4,099 · 25–35 tok/sExcellent
- MacBook Pro M2 Max 96 GB$5,099 · 25–35 tok/sExcellent
Same chip, other memory: 96 GB
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.