Machine answer

Best local LLMs for MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 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 M5 Max 128GB 16-inch: Qwen3.6-27B. Use Fit and Bench to verify how much headroom remains once you move past the default answer.

Silicon Score currently tracks 27 direct benchmark rows for this exact machine across 17 models. Latest direct evidence date: April 17, 2026. Model catalog current through April 22, 2026; benchmark corpus through April 27, 2026.

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Best local LLMs for this Mac

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

MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 16-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.Frontier watch: Gemma 4 31B, Qwen3.6-27B, Qwen3.6-35B-A3B +1 are current ranking candidates; sparse rows stay labeled until first-party evidence lands.22 historical baseline rows hiddenBaselines

Current frontier watch

Fresh releases stay visible, but sparse evidence remains explicit.

Gemma 4 31B

released 2026-04-02 · 4 benchmark rows · 1 Apple Silicon field source · first-party measurement queued · M4 Ultra 256 GB batch planned

Best field report is 18.0 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Qwen3.6-27B

released 2026-04-22 · 1 benchmark row · 3 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · M4 Ultra 256 GB batch planned

Best field report is 17.3 tok/s; keep ranking movement provisional until Bench evidence hardens.

Qwen3.6-35B-A3B

released 2026-04-15 · 4 benchmark rows · 6 Apple Silicon field sources · first-party measurement queued · M4 Ultra 256 GB batch planned

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

Mistral Small 4 119B

released 2026-03-16 · 3 benchmark rows · 1 runtime/source note · first-party measurement queued · M4 Ultra 256 GB batch planned

No Apple Silicon field speed reports yet. First-party measurement is queued. The official card does not publish Apple Silicon throughput, memory pressure, prompt-processing, or quantized-context behavior, and the late May 4 search refresh found no qualifying Mistral Small 4 Apple Silicon practitioner row.

Rank	Model	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Evidence	Headroom	Context	Why it ranks here
1	Gemma 4 31B30.7B parameters	290	8bit	26.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 26.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	91.4 GB	87k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 26.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 91.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
2	Qwen3.5-27B27B parameters	283	8bit	31.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 31.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	100.4 GB	262k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 31.6 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 100.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
3	Qwen3.6-27B27B parameters	280	8bit	16.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 16.6 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	100.4 GB	262k	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. 100.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
4	Devstral Small 2 24B24B parameters	274	8bit	23.4 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 23.4 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	103.9 GB	262k	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. 103.9 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
5	Qwen3.6-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total	252	8bit	55.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 55.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	94.3 GB	262k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 55.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 94.3 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
6	Mistral Small 4 119B6.5B active / 119B total	193	Q6_K	42.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 42.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	32.1 GB	32k	Recent frontier candidate in the current catalog. Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. 42.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 32.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
7	Gemma 4 26B-A4B3.8B active / 25.2B total	252	8bit	50.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 50.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	102.2 GB	262k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 50.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 102.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
8	Nemotron Cascade 2 30B-A3B3B active / 30B total	250	8bit	28.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 28.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	99.2 GB	1000k	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. 99.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
9	Qwen3.5-35B-A3B3B active / 35B total	249	8bit	57.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 57.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	94.3 GB	262k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 57.6 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 94.3 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
10	GLM-4.7-Flash3B active / 30B total	247	8bit	58.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 58.0 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	92.2 GB	90k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 58.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 92.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
11	Nemotron-3-Nano-30B-A3B3.5B active / 30B total	246	8bit	43.7 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 43.7 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	99.2 GB	1000k	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. 99.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
12	Magistral Small24B parameters	242	8bit	Measure it	Best available	Fit-firstFirst-party M5 batch queued	103.9 GB	41k	8bit is the highest practical quality here. Speed still needs direct speed coverage. 103.9 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
13	Gemma 4 E4B8B parameters	230	8bit	128.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 128.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	119.4 GB	131k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 128.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 119.4 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
14	Qwen3.5-9B9B parameters	223	8bit	15.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 15.0 tok/s · llama.cpp · Estimated	llama.cpp	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	118.1 GB	262k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 15.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with llama.cpp backend as the best runtime hint. 118.1 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
15	Qwen3.5-122B-A10B10B active / 122B total	197	Q6_K	60.6 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 60.6 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedBitter Mill import queued	33.6 GB	165k	Recent model release in the current catalog. Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. 60.6 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 33.6 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
16	Qwen3-Coder-Next3B active / 80B total	192	8bit	74.3 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 74.3 tok/s · MLX · Community row	MLX	Community rowFirst-party M5 batch queued	52.2 GB	262k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 74.3 tok/s benchmark-backed on MLX backend. 52.2 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
17	GLM-4.5-Air12B active / 106B total	190	8bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	27.3 GB	55k	8bit is the highest practical quality here. 18.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with LM Studio wrapper on mixed as the best runtime hint. 27.3 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
18	Gemma 4 E2B5.1B parameters	170	8bit	158.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 158.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	122.5 GB	131k	Recent model release in the current catalog. 8bit is the highest practical quality here. 158.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with MLX backend as the best runtime hint. 122.5 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.
19	gpt-oss 120B5.1B active / 117B total	164	Q6_K	7.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: Q6_K · 7.0 tok/s · Ollama · Estimated	Ollama	EstimatedFirst-party M5 batch queued	37.6 GB	131k	Q6_K is the highest practical quality here. 7.0 tok/s estimated from nearby benchmark coverage, with Ollama wrapper on llama.cpp as the best runtime hint. 37.6 GB headroom leaves workable context margin.

Machine

128GBUnified memory

$5,399MSRP

macbook_proForm factor

m5-maxChip