Can MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18 GB run Qwen2.5-Coder 32B Instruct?
18 GB unified · 150 GB/s memory bandwidth · Qwen2.5-Coder 32B Instruct has 32.8B parameters.
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈17 GB but only ≈11 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 17 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), MacBook Pro M3 Pro 18 GB has about 11 GB left, so it’s 6.4 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 3.4 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
Get more memory
The same chip with 36 GB handles it: Acceptable.
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 Pro 18 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 Pro 18 GB
The best-rated models for chat on this machine.
- MiniCPM5 2B35–45 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3.5 4B25–30 tok/sExcellent
- Llama 3.2 3B Instruct30–45 tok/sExcellent
- Qwen3 8B19–25 tok/sExcellent
- Gemma 4 E4B20–30 tok/sExcellent
- DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8B19–25 tok/sExcellent
Cheapest machines for Qwen2.5-Coder 32B Instruct
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
- Desktop PC · GeForce RTX 3090 · 32 GB RAM$1,700 · 25–35 tok/sExcellent
- Desktop PC · Radeon RX 7900 XTX · 32 GB RAM$1,800 · 30–40 tok/sExcellent
- Desktop PC · GeForce RTX 3090 · 64 GB RAM$1,828 · 25–35 tok/sExcellent
- Desktop PC · Radeon RX 7900 XTX · 64 GB RAM$1,928 · 30–40 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M1 Max 32 GB$1,999 · 12–17 tok/sComfortable
- Mac Studio M2 Max 32 GB$2,199 · 12–17 tok/sComfortable
Same chip, other memory: 36 GB
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.