What Mac should I buy for local LLMs?

Pick your use case, model, and budget. We'll show you which Macs actually work — backed by evidence, not spec-sheet fantasy.

Recommendations

Showing recommendations for Qwen 3 32B — the default for "Coding assistant". Select a specific model for tailored results.

#1

Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB

$1,599

Highest quality: runs Qwen 3 32B at Q8_0 with room to grow.

Fits atQ8_0
Speedno benchmark data
Headroom15.0 GB
Max context40k
Also fits at:Q6_KQ5_K_MQ5_0Q4_K_M
  • Costs $800 more than the Mac Mini M4 32GB.
  • Desktop only — best value per GB of RAM.
#2

Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB

$2,499

Runs Qwen 3 32B at Q8_0 with room to grow.

Fits atQ8_0
Speedno benchmark data
Headroom15.0 GB
Max context40k
Also fits at:Q6_KQ5_K_MQ5_0Q4_K_M
  • Costs $1,700 more than the Mac Mini M4 32GB.
  • Desktop only — best value per GB of RAM.
#3

Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB

$2,999

Most headroom for future models: Q8_0, 31.0 GB free.

Fits atQ8_0
Speedno benchmark data
Headroom31.0 GB
Max context95k
Also fits at:Q6_KQ5_K_MQ5_0Q4_K_M
  • Costs $2,200 more than the Mac Mini M4 32GB.
  • 31.0 GB headroom — enough to run larger models later.
  • Desktop only — best value per GB of RAM.
#4

Mac Mini M4 32GB

$799

Best value: runs Qwen 3 32B at Q5_K_M.

Fits atQ5_K_M
Speedno benchmark data
Headroom7.8 GB
Max context20k
Also fits at:Q5_0Q4_K_M
  • Desktop only — best value per GB of RAM.
#5

Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB

$1,999

Runs Qwen 3 32B at Q6_K with room to grow.

Fits atQ6_K
Speedno benchmark data
Headroom8.5 GB
Max context20k
Also fits at:Q5_K_MQ5_0Q4_K_M
  • Costs $1,200 more than the Mac Mini M4 32GB.
  • Desktop only — best value per GB of RAM.

How these recommendations work

Machines are filtered by your budget, then checked for fit: can the target model's weights plus KV cache (at 8k context) plus overhead fit within 85% of unified memory? Only quantizations at Q4_K_M quality or above are considered — below that, quality loss is too significant for most use cases.

Results are ranked by best quantization quality that fits, then by measured generation speed where benchmark data exists, then by price. Speed data comes from our lab measurements, trusted reference benchmarks, or community reports — each labeled by evidence class.

Recommendation methodology v0 — heuristic ranking based on fit, quality, speed, and price. Formal scoring system coming soon.