Best field report is 28.0 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.
Bench: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch plannedMachine answer
Best local LLMs for MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch in 2026
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 Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-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.
Best local LLMs for this Mac
MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch ranked for coding with a most capable bias, using the best available runtime evidence. focused on the current market set.
Current ranking evidence
Fresh releases stay visible, but sparse evidence remains explicit.
Best field report is 85.5 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.
Bench: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch plannedBest field report is 203.1 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.
Bench: Mac Studio M4 Ultra 256GB batch plannedBest field report is 75.1 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 | Gemma 4 31B30.7B parameters | 266 | 6bit | 22.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 6bit · 22.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated | MLX | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 6.6 GB | 9k | Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 6bit is the highest practical quality here. 22.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 6.6 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 2 | Qwen3.6-27B27B parameters | 265 | 8bit | 16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated | Ollama | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 8.4 GB | 20k | Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit 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. 8.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 3 | Devstral Small 2 24B24B parameters | 262 | 8bit | 23.4 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 23.4 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated | llama.cpp | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 11.9 GB | 51k | Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 23.4 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 11.9 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 4 | Qwen3.5-27B27B parameters | 261 | 8bit | 16.1 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.1 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated | llama.cpp | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 8.4 GB | 20k | Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 16.1 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 8.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 5 | Qwen3.6-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total | 230 | Q6_K | 48.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 48.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated | MLX | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 8.1 GB | 44k | Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. 48.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 8.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 6 | Gemma 4 26B-A4B3.8B active / 25.2B total | 238 | 8bit | 40.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 40.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated | MLX | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 10.2 GB | 29k | Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 40.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 10.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 7 | Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B3B active / 30B total | 233 | 8bit | 28.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 28.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated | Ollama | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 7.2 GB | 44k | Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit 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. 7.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 8 | Gemma 4 E4B8B parameters | 230 | 8bit | 78.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 78.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated | Ollama | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 27.4 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 Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 27.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 9 | Magistral Small24B parameters | 230 | 8bit | Measure it | Best available | Fit-firstFirst-party M5 batch queued | 11.9 GB | 41k | 8bit is the highest practical quality here. Speed still needs direct speed coverage. 11.9 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 10 | Qwen3.5-9B9B parameters | 230 | 8bit | 35.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 35.0 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated | llama.cpp | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 26.1 GB | 178k | Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 35.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 26.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 11 | Ministral 3 14B14B parameters | 229 | 8bit | 40.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 40.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated | Ollama | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 21.2 GB | 112k | 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. 21.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 12 | Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B3.5B active / 30B total | 229 | 8bit | 43.7 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 43.7 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated | llama.cpp | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 7.2 GB | 44k | Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 43.7 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 7.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 13 | Qwen3.5-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total | 227 | Q6_K | 52.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 52.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated | MLX | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 8.1 GB | 44k | Recent model release in the current catalog. Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. 52.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 8.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 14 | GLM-4.7-Flash3B active / 30B total | 224 | 6bit | 58.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 6bit · 58.0 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated | llama.cpp | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 7.2 GB | 10k | Recent model release in the current catalog. 6bit is the highest practical quality here. 58.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 7.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 15 | Ministral 3 8B8B parameters | 223 | 8bit | 72.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 72.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated | Ollama | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 27.0 GB | 175k | 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. 27.0 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 16 | gpt-oss 20B3.6B active / 21B total | 208 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fit-firstFirst-party M5 batch queued | 15.6 GB | 131k | 8bit is the highest practical quality here. Speed still needs direct speed coverage. 15.6 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 17 | Gemma 4 E2B5.1B parameters | 170 | 8bit | 95.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 95.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated | Ollama | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 30.5 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. 30.5 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
| 18 | Qwen3.5-4B4B parameters | 167 | 8bit | 148.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 148.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated | MLX | EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued | 30.8 GB | 216k | 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. 30.8 GB headroom leaves workable context margin. |
Machine
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