Can MacBook Pro M4 16 GB run Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct?
16 GB unified · 120 GB/s memory bandwidth · Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct has 81.3B parameters (3B active per token).
Short answer
No. It doesn't fit in memory.
Needs ≈34 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 34 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 M4 16 GB has about 8.5 GB left, so it’s 26 GB short.
Ways to make it work
Close everything else
Not enough on its own: with every other app closed it’s still about 23 GB short.
Pick a smaller model from the same family
No smaller Qwen3-Next model in our catalog runs well here. See the other models below.
Get more memory
You’d want at least 42 GB of memory in total. The machines below are the cheapest that run it comfortably.
Check your exact setup
These pages assume typical settings. A shorter context or a lighter chat app can change the answer.
Check MacBook Pro 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 MacBook Pro 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 Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B Instruct
Hardware rated comfortable or better for chat, lowest price first.
- Desktop PC · Ryzen 9 9950X (no GPU) · 64 GB DDR5$1,400 · 15–25 tok/sComfortable
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC / Framework Desktop · 64 GB$1,600 · 80–110 tok/sComfortable
- Ryzen AI Max+ 395 mini PC / Framework Desktop · 128 GB$2,000 · 55–75 tok/sExcellent
- Mac mini M4 Pro 64 GB$2,199 · 70–100 tok/sExcellent
- Mac Studio M1 Max 64 GB$2,399 · 100–140 tok/sExcellent
- Mac mini M5 Pro 64 GB$2,499 · 65–110 tok/sExcellent
Different tool, context size or workload?
These pages use typical settings. The full check models your exact setup.