Can Mac mini M5 Pro 24 GB run Llama 4 Scout (109B-A17B)?
24 GB unified · 307 GB/s memory bandwidth · Llama 4 Scout (109B-A17B) has 108.6B parameters (17B active per token).
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈47 GB but only ≈17 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 47 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 M5 Pro 24 GB has about 17 GB left, so it’s 31 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 28 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
No smaller Llama 4 model in our catalog runs well here. See the other models below.
Get more memory
The same chip with 64 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 M5 Pro 24 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 M5 Pro 24 GB
The best-rated models for chat on this machine.
- gpt-oss-20b55–90 tok/sExcellent
- MiniCPM5 2B55–90 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 4B40–65 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 9B19–30 tok/sExcellent
- Gemma 4 12B20–35 tok/sExcellent
- GLM-4.6V-Flash (10B)25–45 tok/sExcellent
Cheapest machines for Llama 4 Scout (109B-A17B)
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC / Framework Desktop · 128 GB$2,000 · 11–16 tok/sComfortable
- Mac Studio M2 Max 96 GB$3,799 · 18–25 tok/sExcellent
- MacBook Pro M3 Max 96 GB$3,999 · 14–19 tok/sComfortable
- Mac Studio M5 Max 128 GB$4,099 · 20–35 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M4 Max 128 GB$4,099 · 25–30 tok/sExcellent
- MacBook Pro M2 Max 96 GB$5,099 · 18–25 tok/sExcellent
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.