llmrun

Apple · M1 Max · Laptop

Best AI Models for MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max (32 GB)

Runs 27–35B models well; 70B doesn't fit in 28.5 GB.

32 GB unified28.5 GB for models400 GB/s16 TFLOPS FP162021
Memory
32 GB64 GB
Same chip in
MacBook Pro 14"Mac StudioMacBook Pro 16"

Top models by task

#ModelSpeedllmrun ScoreQuant · Memory
1
Qwen3.8 27BAlibabaHow to run →
Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
16.1 tok/sQ4_K_M · 17.9 GB
2
Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba
Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
16.1 tok/sQ4_K_M · 17.9 GB
3
Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle
Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
63.2 tok/sQ4_K_M · 16.5 GB
4
GPT OSS 20BOpenAI
Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
71.2 tok/sQ4_K_M · 13.1 GB
5
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA
Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB
64.3 tok/sQ4_K_M · 19.3 GB
See all 311 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max →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 Pro 14" M1 Max (32 GB)

The MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max is the fastest 32 GB machine: it runs 27–35B models well. macOS keeps about 3.5 GB, leaving 28.5 GB for models. Prompt reading is its weak spot: a 4K-token prompt waits 73 s before the first word on Qwen3.8 27B. M1 Max generation, released 2021; the newer M2 Max writes 0% faster with 1.4× the compute.

Speed in 32 GB#1400 GB/s
Prompt reading#416 TFLOPS
For models28.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GB
ChipM1 Maxreleased 2021

MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Runs 35B MoE models: Qwen3.6 35B A3B at 54.5 tok/s in 22 GB
  • Room for long context: Qwen3.8 27B at Q4 uses 17.9 GB, leaving 10.6 GB free

Weaknesses

  • 70B models don't fit: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct needs 51.3 GB at Q4 vs 28.5 GB usable here
  • Slow prompt reading: A 32K-token prompt on Qwen3.8 27B waits 9.7 min for the first token
  • No CUDA: vLLM, AWQ, GPTQ and FP8 builds don't run; use GGUF or MLX

Memory for models

28.5 GB of 32 GB
9B6.6 GB14B11.9 GB27–31B17.9 GB35B MoE22 GB
9B6.6 GB14B11.9 GB35B MoE22 GB
For models 28.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GBModel size at Q4

70B models need 51.3 GB at Q4, more than the 28.5 GB available. The 64 GB config fits Gemma 4 31B IT →

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 Qwen3.6 35B A3B.

Same chip, 2× the memoryMacBook Pro 14" M1 Max (64 GB)Apple · 60.5 GB for models · M1 Max
same speed▲ 32 GBno price
Same familyNewer machine, 57% slowerMac Mini M4 (32 GB)Apple · 28.5 GB for models · M4
▼ 57% speedsame memoryabout $999
Newer machine, as fastMac Studio M4 Max (36 GB)Apple · 32.5 GB for models · M4 Max
same speed▲ 4 GBabout $2,499
Newer laptop, 48% slowerMacBook Pro 14 M5Apple · 24 GB for models · M5
▼ 47% speed▼ 4.5 GBabout $1,839
Reads prompts 24× faster, 24 GB for modelsRTX 4090NVIDIA · 24 GB VRAM · GPU
▲ 24× prompts▲ 177% speed▼ 4.5 GBabout $1,599rent $0.34/hr
Reads prompts 30× faster, 32 GB for modelsRTX 5090NVIDIA · 32 GB VRAM · GPU
▲ 30× prompts▲ 291% speed▲ 3.5 GBabout $5,376rent $0.67/hr

MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (400 GB/s). Grey rows need more than the 28.5 GB available.

  1. 9BQwen3.5 9B · Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
    44.0tok/s
  2. 14BQwen3 14B · Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB
    29.5tok/s
  3. 27–31BQwen3.8 27B · Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
    16.1tok/s
  4. 35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
    54.5tok/s
  5. 70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct · does not fit
    needs 51.3 GB
  6. 120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · does not fit
    needs 70.8 GB

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

Max generations: writing vs compute

M1 Max → M5 Max
Writing speed (tok/s)Compute (TFLOPS FP16)
1×2×3×4×M1 Max2021M2 Max2023M3 Max2023M4 Max2024M5 Max2026M1 Max · 15.6 TFLOPS FP16M1 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM2 Max · 21.5 TFLOPS FP16M2 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM3 Max · 21.5 TFLOPS FP16M3 Max · 45.9 tok/s · 300 GB/sM4 Max · 25.8 TFLOPS FP16M4 Max · 55.2 tok/s · 409.6 GB/sM5 Max · 54.4 TFLOPS FP16M5 Max · 58.8 tok/s · 460 GB/sCompute 3.5×Writing +8%
1×2×3×4×M12021M22023M32023M42024M52026M1 Max · 15.6 TFLOPS FP16M1 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM2 Max · 21.5 TFLOPS FP16M2 Max · 54.5 tok/s · 400 GB/sM3 Max · 21.5 TFLOPS FP16M3 Max · 45.9 tok/s · 300 GB/sM4 Max · 25.8 TFLOPS FP16M4 Max · 55.2 tok/s · 409.6 GB/sM5 Max · 54.4 TFLOPS FP16M5 Max · 58.8 tok/s · 460 GB/sCompute 3.5×Writing +8%

Writing speed follows memory bandwidth and barely moved: 54.5 to 58.8 tok/s since the M1 Max. Compute, which sets how fast prompts are read, grew 3.5×. Indexed to the M1 Max; speeds on Qwen3.6 35B A3B, same 32 GB.

All 1106 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max

Featured only

Best quant that fits in 28.5 GB, ordered by llmrun Score. Fit grades how well it runs here, S best. How ranking works

LLM models compatible with MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max (32 GB) — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
ModelVRAMScoreFit
Llama 3.1 70B LatamGPT SFT 1.0
70.6B·IQ2_M·11.3 t/s·4K ctx
25.4 GBC38, Usable
Qwen2.5 7B
7.6B·Q4_K_M·56.1 t/s·131K ctx
5.8 GBA82, Runs well
SmolLM 1.7B
1.7B·Q4_K_M·161.8 t/s·2K ctx
1.7 GBS97, Runs great
Qwen2.5 0.5B
494M·Q4_K_M·451.6 t/s·33K ctx
0.8 GBS100, Runs great
OLMo 2 1124 7B Instruct
7.3B·Q4_K_M·48.7 t/s·4K ctx
6.8 GBA79, Runs well
Deepseek Coder 33B Instruct
33.3B·Q4_K_M·13.4 t/s·16K ctx
24.5 GBB45, Decent
Qwen3 Next 80B A3B Thinking
81.3B·IQ2_M·61.1 t/s·262K ctx
27.9 GBC44, Usable
Vlt5 Base Keywords
275M·BF16·459.0 t/s
1.6 GBS100, Runs great
Chatglm2 6B
6B·Q4_K_M·70.7 t/s·33K ctx
6.3 GBS86, Runs great
SmolLM2 360M
362M·Q4_K_M·466.7 t/s·8K ctx
0.8 GBS100, Runs great
Nemotron Mini 4B Instruct
4B·Q4_K_M·94.3 t/s·4K ctx
3.2 GBS90, Runs great
Qwen2 7B Instruct
7.6B·Q4_K_M·56.1 t/s·33K ctx
5.8 GBA82, Runs well
Starcoder2 15B
16.0B·Q4_K_M·27.9 t/s·16K ctx
11.2 GBA69, Runs well
Qwen3 4B Abliterated
4.0B·Q4_K_M·105.7 t/s
4.8 GBS92, Runs great
Llama 3.2 1B
1.2B·Q4_K_M·341.5 t/s
2.3 GBS100, Runs great

MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max specs

Specs

Chip
M1 Max
CPU cores
10
GPU cores
24
Unified memory
32 GB
For models
28.5 GB (macOS keeps 3.5 GB)
Memory bandwidth
400 GB/s
FP16 (dense)
15.6 TFLOPS
Neural Engine
11 TOPS
Released
2021-10-26

MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max FAQ

How much memory is available for AI on the MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max (32 GB)?

About 28.5 GB of the 32 GB. macOS keeps roughly 3.5 GB for itself and other apps.

What is the largest model the MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max (32 GB) can run?

Qwen3.6 35B A3B (36.0B) at Q4_K_M uses 22.0 GB, 77% of the available memory, and runs at about 54.5 tok/s.

Can the MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max (32 GB) run 70B models?

No. Llama 3.3 70B Instruct needs 51.3 GB at Q4, more than the 28.5 GB available.

How long does the MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max (32 GB) take to read a long prompt?

On Qwen3.8 27B, about 73 s for a 4K-token prompt and 9.7 min for a 32K-token document before the first word appears.

Is renting a GPU cheaper than buying the MacBook Pro 14" M1 Max?

An RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell (32 GB) rents from $0.34/hr.

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