Machine answer

Best local LLMs for MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch in 2026

Name: MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch
Brand: Apple
Price: 1499 USD
Availability: InStock

Use this page when your real query is the exact machine, not a generic “best Mac” article. The ranking below is machine-specific, and the supporting links show where the evidence is benchmark-backed, sparse, or still fit-limited.

Current coding-biased answer for MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch: Qwen3.6-27B. Use Fit and Bench to verify how much headroom remains once you move past the default answer.

0 benchmarks on this exact machine across 0 models. Catalog current through April 22, 2026.

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Best local LLMs for this Mac

16 current modelsCatalog current through April 22, 2026Benchmark evidence through April 27, 2026

MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch ranked for coding with a most capable bias, using the best available runtime evidence. focused on the current market set.

Mac

Capability

Bias

Runtime

Use the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.Largest fit: Qwen3.6-35B-A3B at Q4_K_M (3B active / 35B total)Fastest read: Qwen3.5-4B at 148.0 tok/s on MLXRanking evidence: Qwen3.6-27B, Qwen3.6-35B-A3B, Gemma 4 26B-A4B +1 are current candidates; sparse rows stay labeled until first-party evidence lands.Next featured Mac: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB planned for June 2026; current default changes after arrival validation and clean first-party evidence.22 historical baseline rows hiddenBaselines

Current ranking evidence

Fresh releases stay visible, but sparse evidence remains explicit.

Qwen3.6-27B

released 2026-04-22 · 5 official specs captured · 1 benchmark row · 9 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 85.5 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Bench: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

released 2026-04-15 · 5 official specs captured · 4 benchmark rows · 15 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 203.1 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Bench: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Gemma 4 26B-A4B

released 2026-04-02 · 6 official specs captured · 4 benchmark rows · 6 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 75.1 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Bench: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Gemma 4 E4B

released 2026-04-02 · 5 official specs captured · 5 benchmark rows · 5 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Best field report is 76.8 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Bench: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch planned

Rank	Model	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Evidence	Headroom	Context	Why it ranks here
1	Qwen3.6-27B27B parameters	254	Q5_K_M	16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	3.6 GB	8k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. Q5_K_M is the highest practical quality here. 16.6 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 3.6 GB headroom is tight.
2	Qwen3.5-27B27B parameters	250	Q5_K_M	16.1 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q5_K_M · 16.1 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	3.6 GB	8k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. Q5_K_M is the highest practical quality here. 16.1 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 3.6 GB headroom is tight.
3	Devstral Small 2 24B24B parameters	248	Q6_K	23.4 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 23.4 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	3.9 GB	10k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. 23.4 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 3.9 GB headroom is tight.
4	Qwen3.6-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total	220	Q4_K_M	32.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q4_K_M · 32.0 tok/s · Ollama · Trusted reference	Ollama	Trusted referenceFirst-party M5 batch queued	4.2 GB	16k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. Q4_K_M is the highest practical quality here. 32.0 tok/s benchmark-backed on Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp. 4.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
5	Gemma 4 26B-A4B3.8B active / 25.2B total	226	6bit	28.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 6bit · 28.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	4.0 GB	10k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 6bit is the highest practical quality here. 28.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 4.0 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
6	Gemma 4 E4B8B parameters	221	8bit	78.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 78.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	15.4 GB	131k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 78.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 15.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
7	Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B3B active / 30B total	220	5bit	22.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 22.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	5.6 GB	49k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 5bit is the highest practical quality here. 22.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 5.6 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
8	Qwen3.5-9B9B parameters	220	8bit	92.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 92.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	14.1 GB	94k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 92.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 14.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
9	Qwen3.5-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total	217	Q4_K_M	52.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q4_K_M · 52.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	4.2 GB	16k	Recent model release in the current catalog. Q4_K_M is the highest practical quality here. 52.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 4.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
10	Ministral 3 14B14B parameters	217	8bit	40.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 40.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	9.2 GB	45k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 40.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 9.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
11	Magistral Small24B parameters	216	Q6_K	Measure it	Best available	Fit-firstFirst-party M5 batch queued	3.9 GB	10k	Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. Speed still needs direct speed coverage. 3.9 GB headroom is tight.
12	Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B3.5B active / 30B total	216	5bit	43.7 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 5bit · 43.7 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	5.6 GB	49k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 5bit is the highest practical quality here. 43.7 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 5.6 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
13	Ministral 3 8B8B parameters	214	8bit	72.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 72.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	15.0 GB	96k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 72.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 15.0 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
14	gpt-oss 20B3.6B active / 21B total	194	Q6_K	Measure it	MLX	Fit-firstFirst-party M5 batch queued	7.1 GB	84k	Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. Speed still needs direct speed coverage. 7.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
15	Gemma 4 E2B5.1B parameters	165	8bit	95.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 95.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	18.5 GB	131k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 95.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 18.5 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
16	Qwen3.5-4B4B parameters	161	8bit	148.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 148.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	18.8 GB	133k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 148.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 18.8 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.

Machine

24GBUnified memory

$1,499MSRP

macbook_airForm factor

M4Chip

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