Apple · M5 Pro · Laptop

Best AI Models for MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro (48 GB)

Runs 14B and 35B MoE models well; dense 27–31B fits but is slow at 12 tok/s, and 70B only just fits in 44.5 GB.

48 GB unified44.5 GB for models307 GB/s32 TFLOPS FP162026

Memory

Same chip in

MacBook Pro 14"MacBook Pro 14-inch$2,299 Mac MiniMacBook Pro 16"

Top models by task

#	Model	Speed	Quant · Memory
1	Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB	46.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
2	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	53.2 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
3	Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507Alibaba Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB	52.2 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB
4	GPT OSS 20BOpenAI Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	59.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
5	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB	58.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · Memory
1	Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB	46.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
2	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	53.2 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
3	GPT OSS 20BOpenAI Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	59.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
4	Llama 3.1 8B InstructMeta Q4_K_M · 7.9 GB	40.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 7.9 GB
5	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB	58.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · Memory
1	Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB	46.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
2	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	53.2 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
3	Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB	33.8 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
4	GPT OSS 20BOpenAI Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	59.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
5	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB	58.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB

#	Model	Speed	Quant · Memory
1	Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB	46.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
2	Qwen3.8 27BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB	12.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
3	Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB	12.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
4	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB	58.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB
5	GLM 4.7 FlashZ.ai Q4_K_M · 19.9 GB	43.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.9 GB

#	Model	Speed ↓	Quant · Memory
1	GPT OSS 20BOpenAIHow to run → Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB	59.3 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB
2	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB	58.4 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB
3	Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB	53.2 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB
4	Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507Alibaba Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB	52.2 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB
5	Qwen3 30B A3B Instruct 2507Alibaba Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB	52.2 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB

See all 335 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro →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" M5 Pro (48 GB)

The MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro is a 48 GB laptop with more memory than speed: it runs 14B and 35B MoE models well. Among 48 GB machines, only the M5 Max, M4 Max and M3 Max write faster. macOS keeps about 3.5 GB, leaving 44.5 GB for models. Prompt reading is its weak spot: a 4K-token prompt waits 6.0 s before the first word on Qwen3.6 35B A3B. M5 Pro generation, released 2026.

Speed in 48 GB#4307 GB/s

Prompt reading#332 TFLOPS

For models44.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GB

ChipM5 Proreleased 2026

MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro strengths and weaknesses

Strengths

Runs 35B MoE models: Qwen3.6 35B A3B at 46.5 tok/s in 22 GB

Weaknesses

120B MoE models don't fit: GPT OSS 120B needs 70.8 GB at Q4 vs 44.5 GB usable here
Slow on large dense models: Llama 3.3 70B Instruct at 5.4 tok/s, Qwen3.8 27B at 12.3 tok/s
Slow prompt reading: A 32K-token prompt on Qwen3.6 35B A3B waits 48.0 s for the first token
No CUDA: vLLM, AWQ, GPTQ and FP8 builds don't run; use GGUF or MLX

Memory for models

44.5 GB of 48 GB

9B6.6 GB14B11.9 GB27–31B17.9 GB35B MoE22 GB70B44.5 GB

35B MoE22 GB70B44.5 GB

For models 44.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GBModel size at Q4

120B MoE models need 70.8 GB at Q4, more than the 44.5 GB available.

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, 24 GB less memoryMacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro (24 GB)Apple · 20.5 GB for models · M5 Pro

same speed▼ 24 GBno price

Same family 78% faster, same memoryMacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (48 GB)Apple · 44.5 GB for models · M4 Max

▲ 78% speedsame memory$3,999

Machine, 11% slowerMac Mini M4 Pro (48 GB)Apple · 44.5 GB for models · M4 Pro

▼ 11% speedsame memory$2,199

Machine, 61% slowerMac Mini M4 (32 GB)Apple · 28.5 GB for models · M4

▼ 61% speed▼ 16 GB$999

167% faster, 27.5 GB more memoryMac Studio M3 Ultra (96 GB)Apple · 72 GB for models · M3 Ultra

▲ 167% speed▲ 27.5 GB$3,999

3.0× faster if your models fit in 24 GBRTX 4090NVIDIA · 24 GB VRAM · GPU

▲ 205% speed▼ 20.5 GB$1,599rent $0.34/hr

MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro tokens per second by model size

Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (307 GB/s). Grey rows need more than the 44.5 GB available.

9BQwen3.5 9B · Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB
33.8tok/s
14BQwen3 14B · Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB
22.6tok/s
27–31BQwen3.8 27B · Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
12.3tok/s
35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
46.5tok/s
70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct · Q3_K_L · 44.5 GB tight · Q3_K_L
5.4tok/s
120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · does not fit
needs 70.8 GB

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

Pro generations: writing vs compute

M1 Pro → M5 Pro

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

Writing speed follows memory bandwidth and barely moved: 22.0 to 33.8 tok/s since the M1 Pro. Compute, which sets how fast prompts are read, grew 3.1×. Indexed to the M1 Pro; speeds on Qwen3.5 9B, same 32 GB.

All 335 models on the MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro

Featured only

Best quant that fits in 44.5 GB, ordered by llmrun Score. Fit grades how well it runs here, S best. How ranking works

LLM models compatible with MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro (48 GB) — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
Model	Quant	VRAM	Speed	Context	Fit
Qwen3.8 27B27.8BVisionFunctions 27.8B·Q4_K_M·12.3 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	17.9 GB40%	12.3 t/s	262K	B51, Decent
Qwen3.6 35B A3B36.0BVisionFunctions 36.0B·Q4_K_M·46.5 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	22.0 GB50%	46.5 t/s	262K	A78, Runs well
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT25.8BVisionFunctions 25.8B·Q4_K_M·53.2 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	16.5 GB37%	53.2 t/s	262K	A81, Runs well
NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF1631.6BChatFunctions 31.6B·Q4_K_M·58.4 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	19.3 GB43%	58.4 t/s	262K	A83, Runs well
Muse Glimmer 30B29.8BVision 29.8B·Q4_K_M·11.7 t/s·131K ctx	Q4_K_M	19.6 GB44%	11.7 t/s	131K	B50, Decent
GLM 4.7 Flash31.2BChatFunctions 31.2B·Q4_K_M·43.5 t/s·203K ctx	Q4_K_M	19.9 GB45%	43.5 t/s	203K	A77, Runs well
Gemma 4 31B IT31.3BVisionFunctions 31.3B·Q4_K_M·10.5 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	21.7 GB49%	10.5 t/s	262K	B49, Decent
JEV 27B VL27.8BVisionFunctions 27.8B·Q4_K_M·12.3 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	17.9 GB40%	12.3 t/s	262K	B51, Decent
MiniCPM5 2B2.5BChatFunctions 2.5B·Q4_K_M·113.1 t/s·131K ctx	Q4_K_M	2.5 GB6%	113.1 t/s	131K	S94, Runs great
Ornith 1.5 35B A3B36.0BChatFunctions 36.0B·Q4_K_M·46.5 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	22.0 GB50%	46.5 t/s	262K	A78, Runs well
Ling 3.0 Tiny7.9BChatFunctions 7.9B·Q4_K_M·109.3 t/s·131K ctx	Q4_K_M	5.5 GB12%	109.3 t/s	131K	S93, Runs great
Qwen3.5 9B9.7BVisionFunctions 9.7B·Q4_K_M·33.8 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	6.6 GB15%	33.8 t/s	262K	A73, Runs well
MiMo V2.6 Distill Qwen 9B9.4BVisionCodeFunctions 9.4B·Q4_K_M·34.6 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	6.5 GB15%	34.6 t/s	262K	A73, Runs well
Ornith 1.0 35B35.1BChatFunctions 35.1B·Q4_K_M·52.4 t/s·262K ctx	Q4_K_M	21.5 GB48%	52.4 t/s	262K	A81, Runs well
LFM2.5 8B A1B8.5BChatFunctions 8.5B·Q4_K_M·101.3 t/s·128K ctx	Q4_K_M	5.6 GB13%	101.3 t/s	128K	S92, Runs great

MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro specs

Specs

Chip: M5 Pro
CPU cores: 18
GPU cores: 20
Unified memory: 48 GB
For models: 44.5 GB (macOS keeps 3.5 GB)
Memory bandwidth: 307 GB/s
FP16 (dense): 32.3 TFLOPS
Neural Engine: 38 TOPS
Released: 2026-03-11

MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro FAQ

How much memory is available for AI on the MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro (48 GB)?

About 44.5 GB of the 48 GB. macOS keeps roughly 3.5 GB for itself and other apps.

What is the largest model the MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro (48 GB) can run?

Qwen3.6 35B A3B (36.0B) at Q4_K_M uses 22.0 GB, 50% of the available memory, and runs at about 46.5 tok/s.

Can the MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro (48 GB) run 120B MoE models?

No. GPT OSS 120B needs 70.8 GB at Q4, more than the 44.5 GB available.

How long does the MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro (48 GB) take to read a long prompt?

On Qwen3.6 35B A3B, about 6.0 s for a 4K-token prompt and 48 s for a 32K-token document before the first word appears.

Is renting a GPU cheaper than buying the MacBook Pro 14" M5 Pro?

An RTX A6000 (48 GB) rents from $0.40/hr.

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