Canonical Rankings

Best Macs for this model

GLM-4.5-Air ranked across the Mac lineup at the best practical quantization, using the best available runtime evidence. Model picker is focused on current-market choices.

Model

Quantization

Sort

Runtime

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

Rank	Mac	Score	Quant	Tok/s	Runtime	Fits	Headroom	Context	Evidence	Price	Why it ranks here
1	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	437	8bit	54.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 54.0 tok/s · MLX · Estimated	MLX	Fits	155.3 GB	131k	Estimated	$7,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 54.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 155.3 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
2	Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB	229	8bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	91.3 GB	131k	Estimated	$6,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 91.3 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
3	Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB	165	8bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	27.3 GB	55k	Estimated	$4,499	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 27.3 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
4	MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 16-inch	165	8bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	27.3 GB	55k	Estimated	$5,399	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 27.3 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
5	MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch	165	8bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 8bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	27.3 GB	55k	Estimated	$5,999	8bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 27.3 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
6	Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB	152	6bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 6bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	20.0 GB	40k	Estimated	$3,999	6bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 20.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
7	Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB	136	MXFP4	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: MXFP4 · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.6 GB	8k	Estimated	$2,999	MXFP4 is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
8	MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch	136	MXFP4	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: MXFP4 · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.6 GB	8k	Estimated	$4,499	MXFP4 is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
9	Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB	105	3bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.0 GB	19k	Estimated	$1,599	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
10	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch	105	3bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.0 GB	19k	Estimated	$2,499	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
11	Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB	105	3bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.0 GB	19k	Estimated	$2,499	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
12	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch	105	3bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.0 GB	19k	Estimated	$2,999	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
13	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch	105	3bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.0 GB	19k	Estimated	$3,499	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
14	MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch	105	3bit	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: 3bit · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	9.0 GB	19k	Estimated	$3,999	3bit is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 9.0 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
15	Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB	104	IQ2_K_S	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: IQ2_K_S · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	8.1 GB	24k	Estimated	$1,999	IQ2_K_S is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
16	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch	104	IQ2_K_S	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: IQ2_K_S · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	8.1 GB	24k	Estimated	$2,999	IQ2_K_S is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
17	MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch	104	IQ2_K_S	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: IQ2_K_S · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	8.1 GB	24k	Estimated	$3,499	IQ2_K_S is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 8.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
18	Mac Mini M4 32GB	101	IQ2_XS	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: IQ2_XS · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	5.4 GB	12k	Estimated	$799	IQ2_XS is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
19	MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch	101	IQ2_XS	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: IQ2_XS · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	5.4 GB	12k	Estimated	$1,499	IQ2_XS is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
20	MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch	101	IQ2_XS	18.0 tok/s Fastest evidence path: IQ2_XS · 18.0 tok/s · LM Studio · Estimated	LM Studio	Fits	5.4 GB	12k	Estimated	$1,699	IQ2_XS is the current best practical quantization. 18.0 tok/s is estimated from nearby benchmark coverage. 5.4 GB headroom remains at this quantization.
21	Mac Mini M4 16GB	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-380.8 GB	—	Estimated	$499	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on Mac Mini M4 16GB at the current practical quantization.
22	Mac Mini M4 24GB	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-372.8 GB	—	Estimated	$599	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on Mac Mini M4 24GB at the current practical quantization.
23	MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-380.8 GB	—	Estimated	$1,099	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch at the current practical quantization.
24	MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-372.8 GB	—	Estimated	$1,299	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch at the current practical quantization.
25	MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-380.8 GB	—	Estimated	$1,299	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch at the current practical quantization.
26	Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-372.8 GB	—	Estimated	$1,399	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB at the current practical quantization.
27	MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-372.8 GB	—	Estimated	$1,499	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch at the current practical quantization.
28	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-372.8 GB	—	Estimated	$1,999	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch at the current practical quantization.
29	MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch	0	F32	—	LM Studio	No	-372.8 GB	—	Estimated	$2,499	GLM-4.5-Air does not fit on MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch at the current practical quantization.

GLM-4.5-Air — 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: 4bit

5Benchmark rows

2Chip tiers covered

54.0Fastest avg tok/s (M3 Ultra (256 GB))

60.3 GBMinimum RAM observed

Quick take

Fastest published result is 54.0 tok/s on M3 Ultra (256 GB) at 4bit. Smallest published fit is 60.3 GB on M3 Ultra (256 GB). Longest published context on this page is 62k. Published runtimes include LM Studio, MLX. Start with Rankings for the decision, then use the raw rows below to audit the evidence.

Based on 5 external benchmarks; no lab runs yet.

Published runtimes: LM Studio, MLX.

Need the best Mac for this model? Use Buy Need a setup-first answer? Use Run Checking whether it fits? Use Fit Browse Macs by exact hardware Need the full audit trail? Use Bench Comparing against rented GPUs? Use AI Datacenter Index

Catalog record

106BTotal params

12BActive params

131,072Context window

2025-07-20Release 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

The GLM-4.5 series models are foundation models designed for intelligent agents. GLM-4.5 has 355 billion total parameters with 32 billion active parameters, while GLM-4.5-Air adopts a more compact design with 106 billion total parameters and 12 billion active parameters.

Official source · Raw model card

agentscodingreasoning

Runtime support mentioned

vLLMSGLangTransformers

Official specs

Total parameters: 106B.
Active parameters: 12B.
License: MIT.

Official takeaways

The model code, tool parser and reasoning parser can be found in the implementation of transformers, vLLM and SGLang.
The GLM-4.5 series models are foundation models designed for intelligent agents.
We have open-sourced the base models, hybrid reasoning models, and FP8 versions of the hybrid reasoning models for both GLM-4.5 and GLM-4.5-Air.
Both GLM-4.5 and GLM-4.5-Air are hybrid reasoning models that provide two modes: thinking mode for complex reasoning and tool usage, and non-thinking mode for immediate responses.

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

Field reality on Apple Silicon

GLM-4.5-Air: 4 Apple Silicon field reports; best reported generation ~54 tok/s; seen on Mac Studio M3 ULTRA 256GB, MacBook Pro M4 MAX 128GB; via MLX, LM Studio.

5Benchmark rows

4Field reports

4Practitioner signals

Sparse BenchmarksEvidence status

What practitioners keep saying

The M3 Ultra eval reports GLM-4.5-Air 4-bit at about 54 tok/s, about 60GB RAM, and roughly 78% average across tools, code, reasoning, and general tasks.
The same table makes the tradeoff legible: GLM-4.5-Air is heavier than Qwen3.5-27B or Devstral Small 2, but the general-task score is meaningfully stronger.
The report frames GLM-4.5-Air as a new favorite for codegen and technical inference, not just a benchmark curiosity.

Apple Silicon field sources

r/LocalLLaMA
2026-03-04 · Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB · MLX
GLM-4.5-Air now has concrete Apple Silicon eval evidence: it is slower and heavier than smaller frontier models, but it is a balanced coding and reasoning option rather than an abstract curiosity.
r/LocalLLaMA
2025-06-24 · MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB · LM Studio
GLM-4.5-Air has now been stress-tested on an M4 Max 128GB MacBook Pro, and the result is useful but cautionary: short-context speed starts strong, then falls off hard under agentic coding-scale context.

Runtime/source notes to verify

r/LocalLLaMA
2025-12-11
Some operators are already treating GLM-4.5-Air as a top-tier local codegen and STEM model.
r/LocalLLaMA
2025-10-26
GLM-4.5-Air is receiving real practitioner attention as a coding-class local model, not just as a general-purpose release.

Runtime mentions in the field

LM StudioMLX

Hardware mentioned in reports

128GBM3 UltraM4MacMac StudioMacBookMacBook Pro

What would improve confidence

Reproduce Field Performance Signal
Upgrade To First Party Measurement

Current published coverage

Published chip coverage includes M3 Ultra (256 GB), M4 Max (128 GB). Fastest published row is 54.0 tok/s on M3 Ultra (256 GB) at 4bit. Lowest published RAM requirement is 60.3 GB on M3 Ultra (256 GB). Catalog context window is 62k.

M3 Ultra (256 GB)M4 Max (128 GB)

Standardized eval scorecards for GLM-4.5-Air

These are fixed-machine model scorecards from a single Apple Silicon setup. They help explain whether a model is merely fast or actually good at tools, coding, reasoning, and general tasks. They do not replace the main Mac ranking above.

4bit · vLLM-MLX

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB · Avg 78%

73%Tools

90%Coding

70%Reasoning

80%General

Speed and memory

Long decode: 53.6 tok/s
Short decode: 27.5 tok/s
Cold TTFT: 0.708 s
Active RAM: 60.3 GB

More balanced than the flash variant, but materially heavier.

vLLM-MLX SCORECARD.md · discussion · 2026-03-04

Raw benchmark rows for GLM-4.5-Air

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
M3 Ultra (256 GB)	4bit	60.3 GB	—	54.0 tok/s	—	MLX	ref
M4 Max (128 GB)	4bit	—	11k	27.8 tok/s	183.3 tok/s	LM Studio	ref
M4 Max (128 GB)	4bit	—	21k	18.0 tok/s	120.8 tok/s	LM Studio	ref
M4 Max (128 GB)	4bit	—	31k	15.1 tok/s	75.5 tok/s	LM Studio	ref
M4 Max (128 GB)	4bit	—	62k	9.6 tok/s	41.5 tok/s	LM Studio	ref

Best Macs for GLM-4.5-Air

Ordered by fastest published tok/s on the chip family in each Mac. Click through for the full machine page.

Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB — 54.0 tok/s Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB — 54.0 tok/s MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch — 27.8 tok/s MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch — 27.8 tok/s MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch — 27.8 tok/s MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch — 27.8 tok/s

Chips with published results for GLM-4.5-Air

M3 Ultra (256 GB)M4 Max (128 GB)

Data

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

See all models →