Apple · M5 · Laptop

Best AI Models for MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB)

Runs 9B models well and fits 35B MoE; 14B and 27–31B fit but are slow (11 and 6 tok/s), and 70B doesn't fit in 20.5 GB.

24 GB unified20.5 GB for models153.6 GB/s16 TFLOPS FP162026

Memory

Same chip in

MacBook Air 13"MacBook Pro 14-inch$1,839 MacBook Air 15"iPad Pro 13"MacBook Pro 14"

What LLMs can the MacBook Air 13" M5 run?

#	Model	Speed	Quant · Memory
1	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogleHow to run → Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	31.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
2	Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB	16.9 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
3	GPT OSS 20BOpenAI Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	34.6 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
4	Qwen3 8BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 7.6 GB	19.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 7.6 GB
5	Ling 3.0 TinyInclusion AI Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB	74.1 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB

#	Model	Speed	Coding Score	Quant · Memory
1	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogleHow to run → Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	31.7 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
2	GPT OSS 20BOpenAI Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	34.6 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
3	Llama 3.1 8B InstructMeta Q4_K_M · 7.9 GB	20.3 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 7.9 GB
4	Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB	16.9 tok/s	overall	Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
5	Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB	33.0 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · Memory
1	Qwen3.5 9BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB	16.9 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
2	GPT OSS 20BOpenAI Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	34.6 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
3	Llama 3.1 8B InstructMeta Q4_K_M · 7.9 GB	20.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 7.9 GB
4	Llama 3.2 1B InstructMeta Q4_K_M · 2.3 GB	131 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 2.3 GB
5	Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB	33.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB

#	Model	Speed ↓	Quant · Memory
1	GPT OSS 20BOpenAIHow to run → Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	34.6 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
2	Ling 3.0 TinyInclusion AI Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB	74.1 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB
3	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	31.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
4	Qwen3 8BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 7.6 GB	19.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 7.6 GB
5	Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB	16.9 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · Memory
1	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogleHow to run → Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	31.7 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
2	Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB	16.9 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
3	Gemma 3 4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB	37.9 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 5.0 GB
4	Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB	33.0 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB
5	MiMo V2.6 Distill Qwen 9BXiaomi Q4_K_M · 6.5 GB	17.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 6.5 GB

See all 293 models on the MacBook Air 13" M5 →Bars = traction for models without a Score yet
Task rankings use that task's benchmarks, topped up from Overall when short; bars mark well-known models with no Score yet.

About the MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB)

The MacBook Air 13" M5 is a mid-range 24 GB laptop: it runs 9B models well and fits 35B MoE. Among 24 GB machines, only the M5 Pro and M4 Pro write faster. macOS keeps about 3.5 GB, leaving 20.5 GB for models. Prompt reading is its weak spot: a 4K-token prompt waits 11 s before the first word on Gemma 4 26B A4B IT. M5 generation, released 2026.

Speed in 24 GB#3154 GB/s

Prompt reading#316 TFLOPS

For models20.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GB

ChipM5released 2026

MacBook Air 13" M5 strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Runs 35B MoE models: Qwen3.6 35B A3B at 31.1 tok/s in 19.8 GB

Weaknesses

70B models don't fit: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct needs 51.3 GB at Q4 vs 20.5 GB usable here
Slow on large dense models: Qwen3.8 27B at 6.2 tok/s
Slow prompt reading: A 32K-token prompt on Gemma 4 26B A4B IT waits 1.5 min for the first token
No CUDA: vLLM, AWQ, GPTQ and FP8 builds don't run; use GGUF or MLX

Memory for models

20.5 GB of 24 GB

9B6.6 GB14B11.9 GB27–31B17.9 GB35B MoE19.8 GB

9B6.6 GB14B11.9 GB35B MoE19.8 GB

For models 20.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GBModel size at Q4

70B models need 51.3 GB at Q4, more than the 20.5 GB available. The 32 GB config fits Qwen3.8 27B →

Similar devices and alternatives

Other memory sizes of the same machine first, then machines and GPUs people weigh against it, each with the one reason it is worth a look. Speeds on Qwen3.5 9B.

Same chip, 8 GB less memoryMacBook Air 13" M5 (16 GB)Apple · 12.5 GB for models · M5

same speed▼ 8 GBno price

Same family Same chip, 8 GB more memoryMacBook Air 13" M5 (32 GB)Apple · 28.5 GB for models · M5

same speed▲ 8 GBno price

Same family 78% faster, same memoryMac Mini M4 Pro (24 GB)Apple · 20.5 GB for models · M4 Pro

▲ 78% speedsame memory$1,599

167% faster, 12 GB more memoryMac Studio M4 Max (36 GB)Apple · 32.5 GB for models · M4 Max

▲ 167% speed▲ 12 GB$2,499

100% faster, 27.5 GB more memoryMacBook Pro 14 M5 ProApple · 48 GB for models · M5 Pro

▲ 100% speed▲ 27.5 GB$2,299

Reads prompts 23× faster, 24 GB for modelsRTX 4090NVIDIA · 24 GB VRAM · GPU

▲ 23× prompts▲ 510% speed▲ 3.5 GB$1,599rent $0.34/hr

MacBook Air 13" M5 tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (154 GB/s). Grey rows need more than the 20.5 GB available.

9BQwen3.5 9B · Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
16.9tok/s
14BQwen3 14B · Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB
11.3tok/s
27–31BQwen3.8 27B · Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB slow
6.2tok/s
35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · IQ4_XS · 19.8 GB tight · IQ4_XS
31.1tok/s
70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct · does not fit
needs 51.3 GB
120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · does not fit
needs 70.8 GB

Estimated speeds: Q4_K_M, 4K context, one user. How we estimate

Chip generations: writing vs compute

M1 → M5

Writing speed (tok/s)Compute (TFLOPS FP16)

Writing speed follows memory bandwidth and barely moved: 7.5 to 16.9 tok/s since the M1. Compute, which sets how fast prompts are read, grew 3.1×. Indexed to the M1; speeds on Qwen3.5 9B, same 16 GB.

All 293 models on the MacBook Air 13" M5

Featured only

Best quant that fits in 20.5 GB, ordered by llmrun Score. Fit grades how well it runs here, S best. How ranking works

LLM models compatible with MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB) — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
Model	Quant	VRAM	Speed	Context	Fit
Qwen3.8 27B27.8BVisionFunctions 27.8B·Q4_K_M·6.2 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	17.9 GB87%	6.2 t/s	262K	C34, Usable
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT25.8BVisionFunctions 25.8B·Q4_K_M·31.7 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	16.5 GB80%	31.7 t/s	262K	A71, Runs well
Qwen3.6 35B A3B36.0BVisionFunctions 36.0B·IQ4_XS·31.1 t/s·262K ctx	IQ4_XS	19.8 GB97%	31.1 t/s	262K	B45, Decent
Qwen3.5 9B9.7BVisionFunctions 9.7B·Q4_K_M·16.9 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	6.6 GB32%	16.9 t/s	262K	B56, Decent
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF1631.6BChatFunctions 31.6B·Q4_K_M·41.9 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	19.3 GB94%	41.9 t/s	262K	B55, Decent
GPT OSS 20B20.9BChatFunctions 20.9B·Q4_K_M·34.6 t/s·131K ctx	Q4_K_M	13.1 GB64%	34.6 t/s	131K	A73, Runs well
Qwen3.5 4B4.7BVisionFunctions 4.7B·Q4_K_M·33.0 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	3.4 GB17%	33.0 t/s	262K	A72, Runs well
Muse Glimmer 30B29.8BVision 29.8B·Q4_K_M·5.9 t/s·131K ctx	Q4_K_M	19.6 GB96%	5.9 t/s	131K	D18, Barely runs
Gemma 4 31B IT31.3BVisionFunctions 31.3B·IQ4_XS·5.8 t/s·262K ctx	IQ4_XS	19.8 GB96%	5.8 t/s	262K	D18, Barely runs
JEV 27B VL27.8BVisionFunctions 27.8B·Q4_K_M·6.2 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	17.9 GB87%	6.2 t/s	262K	C34, Usable
GLM 4.7 Flash31.2BChatFunctions 31.2B·Q4_K_M·27.3 t/s·203K ctx	Q4_K_M	19.9 GB97%	27.3 t/s	203K	C42, Usable
Ling 3.0 Tiny7.9BChatFunctions 7.9B·Q4_K_M·74.1 t/s·131K ctx	Q4_K_M	5.5 GB27%	74.1 t/s	131K	S86, Runs great
MiniCPM5 2B2.5BChatFunctions 2.5B·Q4_K_M·56.6 t/s·131K ctx	Q4_K_M	2.5 GB12%	56.6 t/s	131K	A82, Runs well
LFM2.5 8B A1B8.5BChatFunctions 8.5B·Q4_K_M·66.9 t/s·128K ctx	Q4_K_M	5.6 GB27%	66.9 t/s	128K	S85, Runs great
Ornith 1.0 35B35.1BChatFunctions 35.1B·Q4_K_S·34.7 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_S	20.2 GB99%	34.7 t/s	262K	C43, Usable

MacBook Air 13" M5 specs

Specs

Chip: M5
CPU cores: 10
GPU cores: 10
Unified memory: 24 GB
For models: 20.5 GB (macOS keeps 3.5 GB)
Memory bandwidth: 153.6 GB/s
FP16 (dense): 16 TFLOPS
Neural Engine: 38 TOPS
Released: 2026-03-11

MacBook Air 13" M5 FAQ

How much memory is available for AI on the MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB)?

About 20.5 GB of the 24 GB. macOS keeps roughly 3.5 GB for itself and other apps.

What is the largest model the MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB) can run?

Qwen3.6 35B A3B (36.0B) at IQ4_XS uses 19.8 GB, 97% of the available memory, and runs at about 31.1 tok/s.

Can the MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB) run Gemma 4 26B A4B IT?

Yes. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT fits at Q4_K_M, using 16.5 GB of the 20.5 GB available, and it is the best model that runs well on this machine.

Can the MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB) run 70B models?

No. Llama 3.3 70B Instruct needs 51.3 GB at Q4, more than the 20.5 GB available.

How long does the MacBook Air 13" M5 (24 GB) take to read a long prompt?

On Gemma 4 26B A4B IT, about 11 s for a 4K-token prompt and 1.5 min for a 32K-token document before the first word appears.

Is renting a GPU cheaper than buying the MacBook Air 13" M5?

An RTX A5000 (24 GB) rents from $0.16/hr.

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