Apple · M4 Max · Laptop
Best AI Models for MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (48 GB)
Runs 27–35B models well; 70B only just fits in 44.5 GB, and 120B MoE doesn't fit.
| # | Model | Speed | llmrun Score | Quant · Memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen3.8 27BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB · 21.9 t/s | 21.9 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB | |
| 2 | Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB · 21.9 t/s | 21.9 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB | |
| 3 | Gemma 4 31B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB · 18.7 t/s | 18.7 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB | |
| 4 | Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB · 75.8 t/s | 75.8 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB | |
| 5 | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s | 70.5 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB |
| # | Model | Speed | Coding Score | Quant · Memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen3.8 27BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB · 21.9 t/s | 21.9 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB | |
| 2 | Gemma 4 31B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB · 18.7 t/s | 18.7 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB | |
| 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB · 64.2 t/s | 64.2 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB | |
| 4 | Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB · 75.8 t/s | 75.8 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB | |
| 5 | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s | 70.5 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB |
| # | Model | Speed | Reasoning Score | Quant · Memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen3.8 27BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB · 21.9 t/s | 21.9 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB | |
| 2 | Gemma 4 31B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB · 18.7 t/s | 18.7 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB | |
| 3 | Qwen3.5 27BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB · 21.9 t/s | 21.9 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB | |
| 4 | Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB · 75.8 t/s | 75.8 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB | |
| 5 | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s | 70.5 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB |
| # | Model | Speed | Math Score | Quant · Memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen3.8 27BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB · 21.9 t/s | 21.9 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB | |
| 2 | Qwen3.6 27BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB · 21.9 t/s | 21.9 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB | |
| 3 | Qwen3.6 35B A3BAlibaba Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB · 64.2 t/s | 64.2 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB | |
| 4 | Gemma 4 31B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB · 18.7 t/s | 18.7 tok/s | overall | Q4_K_M · 21.7 GB |
| 5 | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s | 70.5 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB |
| # | Model | Speed ↓ | llmrun Score | Quant · Memory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Qwen3.5 4BAlibabaHow to run → Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB · 117 t/s | 117 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 3.4 GB | |
| 2 | GPT OSS 20BOpenAI Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB · 86.4 t/s | 86.4 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 13.1 GB | |
| 3 | Gemma 4 26B A4B ITGoogle Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB · 75.8 t/s | 75.8 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 16.5 GB | |
| 4 | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s | 70.5 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB | |
| 5 | Qwen3 30B A3B Thinking 2507Alibaba Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB · 66.8 t/s | 66.8 tok/s | Q4_K_M · 19.4 GB |
The MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max is one of the fastest 48 GB machines: it runs 27–35B models well. Among 48 GB machines, only the M5 Max write faster. macOS keeps about 3.5 GB, leaving 44.5 GB for models. With 34 TFLOPS it reads long prompts faster than most 48 GB machines: a 4K-token prompt takes 33 s. At its $3,999 MSRP it gives 16.1 tok/s per $1,000, 5th of the 6 machines compared here. M4 Max generation, released 2024; the newer M5 Max writes 6% faster with 2.0× the compute.
MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
- Runs 35B MoE models: Qwen3.6 35B A3B at 64.2 tok/s in 22 GB
- Room for long context: Qwen3.8 27B at Q4 uses 17.9 GB, leaving 26.6 GB free
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 9.6 tok/s
- Slow prompt reading: A 32K-token prompt on Qwen3.8 27B waits 4.4 min 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 GB120B MoE models need 70.8 GB at Q4, more than the 44.5 GB available.Or rent an RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation Edition (96 GB) from $1.34/hr →
Speed per dollar and per watt
On Qwen3.6 35B A3B (35B params, 3B active) at Q4_K_M. New means a shop price, either a street quote or the maker's own price; used is compared with used. The last two columns are the speed you get per $1,000 of price and per 100 W of power; higher is better. The MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max has no current new price, so it is shown at its MSRP.
| Machine | New price | tok/s | tok/s per $1,000 | tok/s per 100 W |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Mac Mini M432 GB | about $999 | 23.5 | 23.5 | 36.2 |
| about $2,299 | 46.5 | 20.2 | – | |
Mac Mini M4 Pro48 GB | about $2,199 | 43.2 | 19.6 | 30.9 |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra96 GB | about $3,999 | 76.6 | 19.2 | 28.4 |
| about $3,999 | 64.2 | 16.1 | – | |
| about $4,199 | 64.2 | 15.3 | – |
| Machine | Used price | tok/s | tok/s per $1,000 | tok/s per 100 W |
|---|---|---|---|---|
RTX 409024 GBBest used value | about $3,000 | 151 | 50.3 | 33.6 |
| about $2,109 | 46.5 | 22.0 | – | |
Mac Studio M3 Ultra96 GB | about $4,525 | 76.6 | 16.9 | 28.4 |
Cost per token: the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max against 24–96 GB machines and GPUs
On Qwen3.6 35B A3B (35B params, 3B active, Q4_K_M, 4K context). Speed, cost per token and power per token depend on the model.
- Machine, MSRP
- $3.95
- Power
- not published
Renting costs as much as buying after ≈4,000 hours (≈2.7 years at 4 h a day).
Each dot is a machine or GPU; hover or tap it for its numbers, click to open it. Machines without a price for the chosen basis are left out. Machines without a published power figure are left out of Per watt and costed without power. How we calculate cost per token
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.
Output speed depends on memory bandwidth (546 GB/s). Grey rows need more than the 44.5 GB available.
- 9BQwen3.5 9B · Q4_K_M · 6.6 GB60.1tok/s
- 14BQwen3 14B · Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB40.2tok/s
- 27–31BQwen3.8 27B · Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB21.9tok/s
- 35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB64.2tok/s
- 9.6tok/s
- 120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · not at 4-bitneeds 70.8 GB
Estimated speeds: Q4_K_M, 4K context, one user. How we estimate
Max generations: writing vs compute
M1 Max → M5 MaxWriting speed follows memory bandwidth and barely moved: 54.5 to 67.8 tok/s since the M1 Max. Compute, which sets how fast prompts are read, grew 3.3×. Indexed to the M1 Max; speeds on Qwen3.6 35B A3B, same 32 GB.
All 1215 models on the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max
Featured onlyBest quant that fits in 44.5 GB, ordered by llmrun Score. Fit grades how well it runs here, S best. How ranking works
| Model | Quant | VRAM | Speed | Context | Score | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4_K_M | 21.5 GB | 167.1 t/s | 262K | S98, Runs great | ||
| Q4_K_M | 16.9 GB | 23.1 t/s | 262K | B64, Decent | ||
OCC RAG 1.7BChat | Q4_K_M | 3.2 GB | 243.4 t/s | 33K | S100, Runs great | |
Sarvam 30BChatFunctions | Q4_K_M | 19.9 GB | 90.7 t/s | 131K | S90, Runs great | |
Pythia 14MChat | Q4_K_M | 0.0 GB | 38220.0 t/s | 2K | S100, Runs great | |
CAJAL 4BChat | Q4_K_M | 4.8 GB | 144.8 t/s | — | S96, Runs great | |
Tiny RemoteForCausalLMChatFunctions | BF16 | 0.5 GB | 1274.0 t/s | 131K | S100, Runs great | |
Wald 26B A4BChatReasoningFunctions | Q4_K_M | 16.5 GB | 75.8 t/s | 262K | S86, Runs great | |
BitCPM CANN 8BChat | Q4_K_M | 5.6 GB | 73.9 t/s | 33K | S86, Runs great | |
| Q4_K_M | 7.9 GB | 72.1 t/s | — | S86, Runs great | ||
LFM2.5 2.6BChatFunctions | Q4_K_M | 2.3 GB | 187.4 t/s | 131K | S99, Runs great | |
OTel LLM E4B ITChatFunctions | Q4_K_M | 3.2 GB | 130.9 t/s | 131K | S95, Runs great | |
Tmax 9BChatFunctions | Q4_K_M | 6.2 GB | 64.3 t/s | 262K | A84, Runs well | |
Cosmos Reason2 8BVisionChatReasoningFunctions | Q4_K_M | 8.4 GB | 66.0 t/s | — | S85, Runs great | |
Tiny Qwen3ForCausalLM Instruct 2507ChatFunctions | Q4_K_M | 0.5 GB | 1274.0 t/s | 262K | S100, Runs great |
Specs
- Chip
- M4 Max
- CPU cores
- 16
- GPU cores
- 40
- Unified memory
- 48 GB
- For models
- 44.5 GB (macOS keeps 3.5 GB)
- Memory bandwidth
- 546 GB/s
- FP16 (dense)
- 34.4 TFLOPS
- Neural Engine
- 38 TOPS
- Released
- 2024-11-08
- MSRP
- $3,999
MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max FAQ
Is the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (48 GB) worth it for local LLMs in 2026?
At its $3,999 MSRP it gives 16.1 tok/s per $1,000 on Qwen3.6 35B A3B, 5th of the 6 machines compared here. It runs 27–35B models well; 70B only just fits in 44.5 GB, and 120B MoE doesn't fit.
How much memory is available for AI on the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (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 16" M4 Max (48 GB) can run?
Qwen3.6 35B A3B (36.0B) is the largest at 4-bit or better: at Q4_K_M it uses 22.0 GB, 50% of the available memory, and runs at about 64.2 tok/s.
Can the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (48 GB) run Qwen3.8 27B?
Yes. Qwen3.8 27B fits at Q4_K_M, using 17.9 GB of the 44.5 GB available, and it is the best model that runs well on this machine.
Can the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (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 16" M4 Max (48 GB) take to read a long prompt?
On Qwen3.8 27B, about 33 s for a 4K-token prompt and 4.4 min for a 32K-token document before the first word appears.
Is renting a GPU cheaper than buying the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max?
An A100 (80 GB) rents from $1.00/hr. Renting costs as much as buying after ≈4,000 hours (≈2.7 years at 4 h a day).