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.

48 GB unified44.5 GB for models546 GB/s34 TFLOPS FP162024

Buy$3,999

Memory

36 GB48 GB$3,999 64 GB$4,199 128 GB

Same chip in

MacBook Pro 16"$3,999 Mac StudioMacBook Pro 14"

What LLMs can the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max run?

#	Model	Speed	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	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s	70.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB

#	Model	Speed	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	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s	70.5 tok/s	Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB

#	Model	Speed	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	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA 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	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB · 70.5 t/s	70.5 tok/s		Q4_K_M · 19.3 GB

#	Model	Speed ↓	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	NVIDIA Nemotron 3.5 Lightning 30B A3B BF16NVIDIA 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

See all 367 models on the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max →Bars = traction for models without a Score yet

About the MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (48 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.

Speed in 48 GB#2546 GB/s

Prompt reading#234 TFLOPS

For models44.5 GBmacOS keeps 3.5 GB

ChipM4 Maxreleased 2024

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 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.Or rent an RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Max-Q Workstation Edition (96 GB) from $1.00/hr →

Speed per dollar and per watt

NewUsed

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
MacBook Pro 14 M5 Pro64 GB	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
MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max48 GB	about $3,999	64.2	16.1	–
MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max64 GB	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
MacBook Pro 14 M5 Pro64 GB	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.

NewUsed

Speed$ per 1M tokens

24–36 GB48–64 GB96–128 GBthis laptopat MSRP

Cost per 1M output tokenson Qwen3.6 35B A3B · card over 3 years + power

$3.95

Machine, MSRP: $3.95
Power: not published

3-year cost of ownership$3,999

Or rent an H100 in the cloud$2.20/hr

Renting costs as much as buying after ≈1,800 hours (≈1.2 years at 4 h a day).

Power$/kWhUseh/dayKeepyears

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

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, 12 GB less memoryMacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (36 GB)Apple · 32.5 GB for models · M4 Max

▼ 14% speed▼ 12 GBno price

Same family Same chip, 16 GB more memory for $200 moreMacBook Pro 16" M4 Max (64 GB)Apple · 60.5 GB for models · M4 Max

same speed▲ $200 more▲ 16 GB$4,199

Same family Machine, 33% slowerMac Mini M4 Pro (48 GB)Apple · 44.5 GB for models · M4 Pro

▼ 33% speedsame memory$2,199

Newer laptop, 28% slowerMacBook Pro 14 M5 ProApple · 60.5 GB for models · M5 Pro

▼ 28% speed▲ 16 GB$2,299

Machine, 63% slowerMac Mini M4 (32 GB)Apple · 28.5 GB for models · M4

▼ 63% speed▼ 16 GB$999

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

▲ 135% speed▼ 20.5 GB$1,599rent $0.34/hr

MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max tokens per second by model size

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 GB
60.1tok/s
14BQwen3 14B · Q4_K_M · 11.9 GB
40.2tok/s
27–31BQwen3.8 27B · Q4_K_M · 17.9 GB
21.9tok/s
35B MoEQwen3.6 35B A3B · Q4_K_M · 22.0 GB
64.2tok/s
70BLlama 3.3 70B Instruct · Q3_K_L · 44.5 GB tight · Q3_K_L
9.6tok/s
120B MoEGPT OSS 120B · not at 4-bit
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)

Writing 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 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 16" M4 Max (48 GB) — ranked by Score, recency and Fit
Model	Quant	VRAM	Speed	Context	Fit
Lucie 7B6.7BChat Q4_K_M·83.3 t/s	Q4_K_M	6.5 GB15%	83.3 t/s	32K	S88, Runs great
Ling 3.0 Flash127.5BChatFunctions IQ2_M·74.2 t/s	IQ2_M	44.1 GB99%	74.2 t/s	262K	C44, Usable
Qwen2.5 Coder 7B Instruct7.6BChatCodeFunctions Q4_K_M·76.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	5.8 GB13%	76.6 t/s	33K	S87, Runs great
DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 7B7.6BChatReasoningFunctions Q4_K_M·76.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	5.8 GB13%	76.6 t/s	131K	S87, Runs great
Ring Flash 2.0102.9BChat IQ3_XS·76.3 t/s	IQ3_XS	43.8 GB98%	76.3 t/s	33K	C44, Usable
TinyLLama V05MChat Q4_K_M·38220.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.0 GB0%	38220.0 t/s	2K	S100, Runs great
Mistral Small 24B Instruct 250123.6BChat Q4_K_M·25.7 t/s	Q4_K_M	17.8 GB40%	25.7 t/s	33K	A66, Runs well
Gpt2 Xl1.6BChat Q4_K_M·360.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	1.1 GB2%	360.6 t/s	1K	S100, Runs great
Pythia 1.4B1.5BChat Q4_K_M·382.2 t/s	Q4_K_M	1 GB2%	382.2 t/s	2K	S100, Runs great
Gemma 3 4B Pt4.3BVision Q4_K_M·134.6 t/s	Q4_K_M	5 GB11%	134.6 t/s	—	S95, Runs great
NeuralDaredevil 8B Abliterated8.0BChat Q4_K_M·70.9 t/s	Q4_K_M	6.2 GB14%	70.9 t/s	8K	S86, Runs great
HF Moshiko7.8BChat BF16·22.6 t/s	BF16	17.4 GB39%	22.6 t/s	3K	B63, Decent
Llama 68M68MChat Q4_K_M·9555.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	0.0 GB0%	9555.0 t/s	2K	S100, Runs great
EXAONE 3.5 2.4B Instruct2.4BChat Q4_K_M·240.4 t/s	Q4_K_M	3.4 GB8%	240.4 t/s	33K	S100, Runs great
GOT OCR2 0716MVision Q4_K_M·411.0 t/s	Q4_K_M	2.3 GB5%	411.0 t/s	33K	S100, Runs great

MacBook Pro 16" M4 Max specs

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 H100 (80 GB) rents from $2.20/hr. Renting costs as much as buying after ≈1,800 hours (≈1.2 years at 4 h a day).

24 GB GPUs All Macs Laptops Mac Studio M5 Max MacBook Pro 14" M5 Max MacBook Pro 16" M5 Max MacBook Pro 14" M3 Max Mac Studio M4 Max Best coding LLMs All hardware