llmrun

Apple · M4 · Laptop

Best AI Models for MacBook Pro 14" M4 (24 GB)

Runs 27–31B models at 5 tok/s; 9B and 14B fit but are slow (13 and 9 tok/s), and 70B doesn't fit in 20.5 GB.

24 GB unified20.5 GB for models120 GB/s9 TFLOPS FP162024
Memory
16 GBabout $1,59924 GB32 GB
Same chip in
MacBook Pro 14"Mac MiniMacBook Air 13"about $1,399MacBook Air 15"iMac 24"iPad Pro 13"

Top models by task

#ModelSpeedllmrun ScoreQuant · Memory
1
Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogleHow to run →
Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
25.8 tok/sQ4_K_M · 16.5 GB
2
Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba
Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
13.2 tok/sQ4_K_M · 6.6 GB
3
GPT OSS 20BOpenAI
Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
28.1 tok/sQ4_K_M · 13.1 GB
4
Qwen3 8BAlibaba
Q4_K_M · 7.6 GB
15.2 tok/sQ4_K_M · 7.6 GB
5
Ling 3.0 TinyInclusion AI
Q4_K_M · 5.5 GB
62.8 tok/sQ4_K_M · 5.5 GB
See all 293 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M4 →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" M4 (24 GB)

The MacBook Pro 14" M4 is a 24 GB laptop with more memory than speed: it runs 27–31B models at 5 tok/s. Among 24 GB machines, only the M5 Pro, M4 Pro and M5 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 21 s before the first word on Gemma 4 26B A4B IT. M4 generation, released 2024; the newer M5 writes 28% faster with 1.9× the compute.

Speed in 24 GB#4120 GB/s
Prompt reading#49 TFLOPS
For models20.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GB
ChipM4released 2024

MacBook Pro 14" M4 strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

  • Runs 35B MoE models: Qwen3.6 35B A3B at 25.7 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 4.8 tok/s
  • Slow prompt reading: A 32K-token prompt on Gemma 4 26B A4B IT waits 2.8 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 Pro 14" M4 (16 GB)Apple · 12.5 GB for models · M4
same speed▼ 8 GBabout $1,599
Same familySame chip, 8 GB more memoryMacBook Pro 14" M4 (32 GB)Apple · 28.5 GB for models · M4
same speed▲ 8 GBno price
Same family127% faster, same memoryMac Mini M4 Pro (24 GB)Apple · 20.5 GB for models · M4 Pro
▲ 127% speedsame memoryabout $1,599
28% faster, 3.5 GB more memoryMacBook Pro 14 M5Apple · 24 GB for models · M5
▲ 28% speed▲ 3.5 GBabout $1,839
242% faster, 12 GB more memoryMac Studio M4 Max (36 GB)Apple · 32.5 GB for models · M4 Max
▲ 242% speed▲ 12 GBabout $2,499
Reads prompts 4× faster, 48 GB for modelsMacBook Pro 14 M5 ProApple · 48 GB for models · M5 Pro
▲ 4× prompts▲ 156% speed▲ 27.5 GBabout $2,299

MacBook Pro 14" M4 tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (120 GB/s). Grey rows need more than the 20.5 GB available.

  1. 9BQwen3.5 9B · Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
    13.2tok/s
  2. 14BQwen3 14B · Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB slow
    8.8tok/s
  3. 27–31BQwen3.8 27B · Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB slow
    4.8tok/s
  4. 35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · IQ4_XS · 19.8 GB tight · IQ4_XS
    25.7tok/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

Chip generations: writing vs compute

M1 → M5
Writing speed (tok/s)Compute (TFLOPS FP16)
1×2×3×4×M12021M22023M32023M42024M52025M1 · 5.2 TFLOPS FP16M1 · 7.5 tok/s · 68.3 GB/sM2 · 7.2 TFLOPS FP16M2 · 11.0 tok/s · 100 GB/sM3 · 7 TFLOPS FP16M3 · 11.3 tok/s · 102.4 GB/sM4 · 8.6 TFLOPS FP16M4 · 13.2 tok/s · 120 GB/sM5 · 16 TFLOPS FP16M5 · 16.9 tok/s · 153.6 GB/sCompute 3.1×Writing +125%
1×2×3×4×M12021M22023M32023M42024M52025M1 · 5.2 TFLOPS FP16M1 · 7.5 tok/s · 68.3 GB/sM2 · 7.2 TFLOPS FP16M2 · 11.0 tok/s · 100 GB/sM3 · 7 TFLOPS FP16M3 · 11.3 tok/s · 102.4 GB/sM4 · 8.6 TFLOPS FP16M4 · 13.2 tok/s · 120 GB/sM5 · 16 TFLOPS FP16M5 · 16.9 tok/s · 153.6 GB/sCompute 3.1×Writing +125%

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 1068 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M4

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 Pro 14" M4 (24 GB) — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
ModelVRAMScoreFit
Qwen2 0.5B
494M·Q4_K_M·135.5 t/s·131K ctx
0.8 GBS96, Runs great
Qwen2.5 Math 1.5B
1.5B·Q4_K_M·65.6 t/s·4K ctx
1.3 GBS85, Runs great
OLMo 2 1124 7B Instruct
7.3B·Q4_K_M·14.6 t/s·4K ctx
6.8 GBB54, Decent
CodeLlama 7B HF
6.7B·Q4_K_M·15.5 t/s·16K ctx
12.9 GBB55, Decent
Qwen2.5 7B
7.6B·Q4_K_M·16.8 t/s·131K ctx
5.8 GBB56, Decent
Mistral Small Instruct 2409
22.2B·Q4_K_M·5.9 t/s·33K ctx
17.4 GBC36, Usable
Chatglm2 6B
6B·Q4_K_M·21.2 t/s·33K ctx
6.3 GBB61, Decent
Qwen 1 8B
1.8B·Q4_K_M·69.4 t/s·8K ctx
1.9 GBS86, Runs great
Starcoder
15.8B·Q4_K_M·8.0 t/s
13.6 GBB45, Decent
Qwen2 7B Instruct
7.6B·Q4_K_M·16.8 t/s·33K ctx
5.8 GBB56, Decent
Phi 3 Medium 128k Instruct
14.0B·Q4_K_M·9.2 t/s·131K ctx
12.0 GBB47, Decent
Deepseek Coder 7B Instruct V1.5
6.9B·Q4_K_M·15.4 t/s·4K ctx
6.5 GBB55, Decent
Phi 3 Mini 128k Instruct
3.8B·Q4_K_M·24.7 t/s·131K ctx
9.0 GBA65, Runs well
Shieldgemma 2B
2.6B·Q4_K_M·48.6 t/s
3.6 GBA79, Runs well
Yi 6B
6.1B·Q4_K_M·20.6 t/s·4K ctx
4.2 GBB60, Decent

MacBook Pro 14" M4 specs

Specs

Chip
M4
CPU cores
10
GPU cores
10
Unified memory
24 GB
For models
20.5 GB (macOS keeps 3.5 GB)
Memory bandwidth
120 GB/s
FP16 (dense)
8.6 TFLOPS
Neural Engine
38 TOPS
Released
2024-11-08

MacBook Pro 14" M4 FAQ

How much memory is available for AI on the MacBook Pro 14" M4 (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 Pro 14" M4 (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 25.7 tok/s.

Can the MacBook Pro 14" M4 (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 Pro 14" M4 (24 GB) take to read a long prompt?

On Gemma 4 26B A4B IT, about 21 s for a 4K-token prompt and 2.8 min for a 32K-token document before the first word appears.

Is renting a GPU cheaper than buying the MacBook Pro 14" M4?

An RTX A5000 (24 GB) rents from $0.23/hr.

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