Canonical Rankings

Best Macs for this model

Gemma 4 26B-A4B ranked across the Mac lineup at the best practical quantization, using the best available runtime evidence.

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28 ranked MacsUse the strongest current runtime evidence for each row.Static paths cover only canonical model pages; sort and quantization stay as query state.

Rank	Mac	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Fits	Evidence	Price	Why it ranks here
1	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	456	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$7,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 230.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2	Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB	392	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$6,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 166.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	328	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 102.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch	328	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$5,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 102.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB	296	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 70.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6	Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB	264	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 38.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7	MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch	264	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 38.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8	Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB	248	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$1,599	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 22.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch	248	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 22.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10	Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB	248	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 22.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch	248	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 22.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch	248	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 22.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch	248	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$3,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 22.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14	Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB	236	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$1,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 10.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch	236	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$2,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 10.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch	236	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$3,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 10.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17	Mac Mini M4 32GB	232	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$799	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 6.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
18	MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch	232	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$1,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 6.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
19	MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch	232	8bit	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$1,699	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 6.2 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
20	Mac Mini M4 16GB	187	Q3_K_L	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$499	Q3_K_L is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
21	MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch	187	Q3_K_L	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$1,099	Q3_K_L is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
22	MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch	187	Q3_K_L	40.0 tok/s	MLX	Fits	Estimated	$1,299	Q3_K_L is the current best practical quantization. 40.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 3.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
23	Mac Mini M4 24GB	176	6bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$599	6bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
24	MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch	176	6bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,299	6bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
25	Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB	176	6bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,399	6bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
26	MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch	176	6bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,499	6bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
27	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch	176	6bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$1,999	6bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
28	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch	176	6bit	28.0 tok/s	Ollama	Fits	Estimated	$2,499	6bit is the current best practical quantization. 28.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 4.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.

Gemma 4 26B-A4B — ranking first, raw rows below

Start with the ranked Mac table above. Use the rest of this page to inspect raw Apple Silicon coverage and model metadata.

Quantizations observed: Q4_K - Medium

3Benchmark rows

3Chip tiers covered

50.0Fastest avg tok/s (M5 Max (128 GB))

—Minimum RAM observed

What this page answers best

Fastest published result is 50.0 tok/s on M5 Max (128 GB) at Q4_K - Medium. Published runtimes include MLX, Ollama. Start with Rankings for the decision, then use the raw rows below to audit the evidence.

Evidence state: 3 linked reference rows and no Silicon Score Lab rows yet.

Published runtimes here: MLX, Ollama.

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Catalog record

25.2BTotal params

3.8BActive params

262,144Context window

2026-04-02Release date

What this model is, and what Apple Silicon users are actually seeing

Official model cards tell you what the model is for and which software stacks it targets. Field reality below shows how much Apple Silicon evidence we have so far.

Official brief

Gemma is a family of open models built by Google DeepMind. Gemma 4 models are multimodal, handling text and image input (with audio supported on small models) and generating text output. This release includes open-weights models in both pre-trained and instruction-tuned variants.

Official source · Raw model card

agentscodingreasoningvisual-understanding

Runtime support mentioned

llama.cppTransformers

Official takeaways

No Thinking Content in History: In multi-turn conversations, the historical model output should only include the final response. Thoughts from previous model turns must not be added before the next user turn begins.
Web Documents: A diverse collection of web text ensures the model is exposed to a broad range of linguistic styles, topics, and vocabulary. The training dataset includes content in over 140 languages.
Code: Exposing the model to code helps it to learn the syntax and patterns of programming languages, which improves its ability to generate code and understand code-related questions.
Mathematics: Training on mathematical text helps the model learn logical reasoning, symbolic representation, and to address mathematical queries.

Official model cards describe intent, capabilities, and supported stacks. They do not prove Apple Silicon speed by themselves.

Field reality on Apple Silicon

Gemma 4 26B-A4B: 4 Apple Silicon field reports; best reported generation ~109.5 tok/s; best reported prompt processing ~843.8 tok/s; seen on MacBook Pro M4 PRO 24GB, M5 24GB; via oMLX.

3Benchmark rows

4Field reports

2Practitioner signals

Sparse BenchmarksEvidence status

What practitioners keep saying

The oMLX page reports Gemma 4 26B-A4B 4bit on an M4 Pro 24GB MacBook Pro at 1024 tokens context with 646.6 tok/s prompt processing and 65.7 tok/s generation.
The same page reports 14.2GB peak memory at 1024 tokens context and a 4x batch result of 109.5 tok/s generation, which is a useful reproduction target for local agent workloads.
The oMLX page reports gemma-4-26b-a4b-it 4bit on an M5 10-core 24GB Mac at 4096 tokens context with 843.8 tok/s prompt processing, 38.7 tok/s generation, and 14.9GB peak memory.

Runtime mentions in the field

oMLX

Hardware mentioned in reports

24GBM4M4 ProMacMacBookMacBook Pro

What would improve confidence

Capture Practitioner Runtime Notes
Queue Lab Verification If Hardware Available
Reproduce Field Performance Signal
Upgrade To First Party Measurement

Current published coverage

Published chip coverage includes M5 Max (128 GB), M4 Max (48 GB), M4 Pro (24 GB). Fastest published row is 50.0 tok/s on M5 Max (128 GB) at Q4_K - Medium.

M5 Max (128 GB)M4 Max (48 GB)M4 Pro (24 GB)

Related Gemma 4 models with published pages: Gemma 4 31B

Raw benchmark rows for Gemma 4 26B-A4B

Rows stay below the ranking because this page is answer-first. Use them to inspect exact chips, quantizations, runtimes, and sources.

Chip	Quant	RAM req.	Context	Avg tok/s	Prompt tok/s	Runtime	Source
M5 Max (128 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	50.0 tok/s	—	MLX	ref
M4 Max (48 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	40.0 tok/s	—	MLX	ref
M4 Pro (24 GB)	Q4_K - Medium	—	—	28.0 tok/s	—	Ollama	ref

Chips with published results for Gemma 4 26B-A4B

M5 Max (128 GB)M4 Max (48 GB)M4 Pro (24 GB)

Data

benchmarks.json — full dataset · models.json — model summaries · benchmarks.csv — CSV export

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