What LLMs can MacBook Air M4 16 GB run?
16 GB unified, 120 GB/s memory bandwidth, about $999. Every open model in our catalog, rated by the engine for chat and for agentic coding.
Runs well (11)
Fast enough and with memory to spare for everyday chat.
| Model | Chat | Agentic coding | Quant | Chat speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MiniCPM5 2BOpenBMBOpen source | Excellent | Acceptable | Q8_0 | 25–35 tok/s |
| Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Excellent | Borderline | 6-bit | 19–25 tok/s |
| Llama 3.2 3B InstructMetaOpen weights (restricted) | Excellent | Technically Runs | 6-bit | 25–35 tok/s |
| Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Comfortable | Borderline | 4-bit | 13–18 tok/s |
| GLM-4.6V-Flash (10B)Z.aiOpen source | Comfortable | Technically Runs | 4-bit | 13–17 tok/s |
| Qwen3 8BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Comfortable | Does Not Fit | 4-bit | 15–20 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 E4BGoogleOpen source | Comfortable | Borderline | 5-bit | 13–18 tok/s |
| DeepSeek-R1-0528-Qwen3-8BDeepSeekOpen source | Comfortable | Does Not Fit | 4-bit | 15–20 tok/s |
| Gemma 4 12BGoogleOpen source | Comfortable | Technically Runs | 3-bit | 14–19 tok/s |
| Llama 3.1 8B InstructMetaOpen weights (restricted) | Comfortable | Does Not Fit | 4-bit | 15–20 tok/s |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 7B InstructAlibaba QwenOpen source | Comfortable | Borderline | 5-bit | 14–18 tok/s |
Loads, but not recommended (2)
Technically runs. Expect a frustrating experience.
| Model | Chat | Agentic coding | Quant | Chat speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qwen3 14BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Borderline | Does Not Fit | 3-bit | 11–15 tok/s |
| Phi-4 (14B)MicrosoftOpen source | Borderline | Does Not Fit | 3-bit | 11–15 tok/s |
Doesn't fit or isn't supported (35)
Not enough usable memory, or the runtime can't run it here.
| Model | Chat | Agentic coding | Quant | Chat speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash (748B-A16B)DeepSeekOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Kolibri-1 (78B-A3.5B)Aleph AlphaOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| LFM2.5 24B-A2BLiquid AI | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Muse Spark Open 816B-A42BMeta | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B-A9BNVIDIA | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Nemotron 3.5 Super VL 120B-A12BNVIDIA | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Reflection Beam (501B-A23B)Reflection AIOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Step 5 Preview 600B-A27BStepfun | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| GLM-5.3 (753B-A40B)Z.ai | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| GLM-5.3-Flash (320B-A18B)Z.aiOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Muse Glimmer (30B)MetaOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| DeepSeek-V4-Flash (284B-A13B)DeepSeekOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogleOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Gemma 4 31BGoogleOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3.6 35B-A3BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Mistral Small 4 (119B-A6.5B)Mistral AIOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3.5 122B-A10BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3.5 27BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3.5 35B-A3BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| GLM-4.7-Flash (30B-A3B)Z.aiOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Devstral Small 2 (24B)Mistral AIOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3-Next 80B-A3B InstructAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| gpt-oss-120bOpenAIOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| gpt-oss-20bOpenAIOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| GLM-4.5-Air (106B-A12B)Z.aiOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3 30B-A3B Instruct 2507Alibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3-Coder 30B-A3B InstructAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Mistral Small 3.2 (24B)Mistral AIOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Llama 4 Scout (109B-A17B)MetaOpen weights (restricted) | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen3 32BAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Gemma 3 27BGoogleOpen weights (restricted) | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Llama 3.3 70B InstructMetaOpen weights (restricted) | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
| Qwen2.5-Coder 32B InstructAlibaba QwenOpen source | Does Not Fit | Does Not Fit | — | — |
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