How fast is gpt-oss 20B on Mac?
gpt-oss 20B is tracked for Apple Silicon, but no direct Mac benchmark row is published yet. Use the ranking above for the current fit path, then watch Bench for the first direct Apple Silicon rows.
Canonical Rankings
Best Macs for this model
gpt-oss 20B ranked across the Mac lineup at the best practical quantization, using the best available runtime evidence. Model picker is focused on current-market choices.
| Rank | Mac | Score | Quant | Tok/s | Runtime | Fits | Headroom | Context | Evidence | Price | Why it ranks here |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB | 286 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 235.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $7,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 235.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 2 | Mac Pro M2 Ultra 192GB | 222 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 171.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $6,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 171.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 3 | Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB | 158 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 107.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $4,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 107.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 4 | MacBook Pro M5 Max 128GB 16-inch | 158 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 107.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $5,399 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 107.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 5 | MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB 16-inch | 158 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 107.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $5,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 107.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 6 | Mac Studio M3 Ultra 96GB | 126 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 75.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $3,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 75.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 7 | Mac Studio M4 Max 64GB | 94 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 43.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $2,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 43.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 8 | MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB 16-inch | 94 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 43.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $4,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 43.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 9 | Mac Mini M4 Pro 48GB | 78 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 27.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $1,599 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 27.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 10 | MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 14-inch | 78 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 27.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $2,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 27.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 11 | Mac Studio M4 Max 48GB | 78 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 27.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $2,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 27.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 12 | MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB 16-inch | 78 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 27.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $2,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 27.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 13 | MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 14-inch | 78 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 27.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $3,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 27.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 14 | MacBook Pro M4 Max 48GB 16-inch | 78 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 27.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $3,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 27.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 15 | Mac Studio M4 Max 36GB | 66 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 15.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $1,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 15.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 16 | MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 14-inch | 66 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 15.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $2,999 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 15.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 17 | MacBook Pro M4 Max 36GB 16-inch | 66 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 15.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $3,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 15.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 18 | Mac Mini M4 32GB | 62 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 11.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $799 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 11.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 19 | MacBook Air M4 32GB 13-inch | 62 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 11.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $1,499 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 11.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 20 | MacBook Air M4 32GB 15-inch | 62 | 8bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 11.6 GB | 131k | Fit-first | $1,699 | 8bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 11.6 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 21 | Mac Mini M4 24GB | 51 | Q6_K | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 7.1 GB | 84k | Fit-first | $599 | Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 7.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 22 | MacBook Air M4 24GB 13-inch | 51 | Q6_K | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 7.1 GB | 84k | Fit-first | $1,299 | Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 7.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 23 | Mac Mini M4 Pro 24GB | 51 | Q6_K | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 7.1 GB | 84k | Fit-first | $1,399 | Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 7.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 24 | MacBook Air M4 24GB 15-inch | 51 | Q6_K | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 7.1 GB | 84k | Fit-first | $1,499 | Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 7.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 25 | MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 14-inch | 51 | Q6_K | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 7.1 GB | 84k | Fit-first | $1,999 | Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 7.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 26 | MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24GB 16-inch | 51 | Q6_K | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 7.1 GB | 84k | Fit-first | $2,499 | Q6_K is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 7.1 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 27 | Mac Mini M4 16GB | 41 | 5bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 2.9 GB | 19k | Fit-first | $499 | 5bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 2.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 28 | MacBook Air M4 16GB 13-inch | 41 | 5bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 2.9 GB | 19k | Fit-first | $1,099 | 5bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 2.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
| 29 | MacBook Air M4 16GB 15-inch | 41 | 5bit | Measure it | MLX | Fits | 2.9 GB | 19k | Fit-first | $1,299 | 5bit is the current best practical quantization. This Mac fits, but speed still needs direct speed coverage. 2.9 GB headroom remains at this quantization. |
gpt-oss 20B Apple Silicon catalog and best Macs
Start with the ranked Mac table above, then audit tokens per second, RAM fit, quantization, runtimes, and source links before trusting the model on your Mac.
0Benchmark rows
0Chip tiers covered
—Fastest avg tok/s
—Minimum RAM observed
Quick take
gpt-oss 20B is cataloged because Apple Silicon buyers are already searching for it. gpt-oss 20B: 1 practitioner claim; 1 captured from fetched artifacts; hardware mentions: 64GB, MacBook, MacBook Pro; runtime mentions: MLX; themes: apple_silicon_viability, coding_quality, fit_and_memory, operational_caution, runtime_tuning. Use the ranking above for the current best Mac path, then open Bench when direct evidence lands.
1 practitioner signal tracked so far, no benchmarks yet.
Model search answers
What is the best Mac for gpt-oss 20B?
There is no direct best-Mac benchmark winner for gpt-oss 20B yet. Use the ranking above to find the current Apple Silicon fit path and return to this page when direct rows land.
Does gpt-oss 20B fit on Apple Silicon?
gpt-oss 20B does not yet have a published minimum-RAM fit row on this page. Use Fit before assuming it will run cleanly on a specific Mac.
Catalog record
21BTotal params
3.6BActive params
131,072Context window
2025-08-05Release date
No Apple Silicon benchmark rows are published for this model yet.
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
Permissive Apache 2.0 license: Build freely without copyleft restrictions or patent risk—ideal for experimentation, customization, and commercial deployment. Configurable reasoning effort: Easily adjust the reasoning effort (low, medium, high) based on your specific use case and latency needs.
Official source · Raw model card
agentscodingreasoning
Official specs
- Architecture: Mixture of experts.
- Total parameters: 21B.
- Active parameters: 3.6B.
- Context: 131072 tokens.
- Experts: 4 active / 32 total.
- Quantization: MXFP4 MoE weights.
Official takeaways
- Permissive Apache 2.0 license: Build freely without copyleft restrictions or patent risk—ideal for experimentation, customization, and commercial deployment.
- Configurable reasoning effort: Easily adjust the reasoning effort (low, medium, high) based on your specific use case and latency needs.
- MXFP4 quantization: The models were post-trained with MXFP4 quantization of the MoE weights, making gpt-oss-120b run on a single 80GB GPU (like NVIDIA H100 or AMD MI300X) and the gpt-oss-20b model run within 16GB of mem…
Official model cards describe intent, capabilities, and supported stacks. They do not prove Apple Silicon speed by themselves.
Field reality on Apple Silicon
gpt-oss 20B: 1 Apple Silicon field report; best reported generation ~39.6 tok/s; seen on MacBook Pro M5 PRO 64GB; via MLX.
0Benchmark rows
1Field reports
1Practitioner signals
No BenchmarksEvidence status
What practitioners keep saying
- The HomeSec-Bench page reports GPT-OSS-20B MXFP4-Q8 on a MacBook Pro M5 Pro 64GB with MLX at about 39.6 tok/s generation and about 0.712s TTFT.
- The same domain benchmark says the gpt-oss 20B row passed 67 of 96 tests for a 69.8% score, so use this as Apple Silicon fit and latency evidence rather than a quality-leading recommendation.
Apple Silicon field sources
HomeSec-Bench gives gpt-oss 20B a concrete M5 Pro 64GB MLX row, but the domain score is weaker than the best local Gemma and Qwen rows from the same run.
Runtime mentions in the field
MLX
Hardware mentioned in reports
64GBMacBookMacBook Pro
What would improve confidence
- Benchmark Current Apple Silicon Hot Model
- Collect First Apple Silicon Benchmark
- Reproduce Field Performance Signal
- Upgrade To First Party Measurement
Current published coverage
This page stays published because the model is in the current frontier catalog, but Apple Silicon speed coverage is still missing.
Related gpt-oss models with published pages: gpt-oss 120B
Raw benchmark rows for gpt-oss 20B
Rows stay below the ranking because this page is answer-first. Use them to inspect exact chips, quantizations, runtimes, and sources.
No benchmark rows are published yet for this model. The ranking above still shows the best current Mac fit path, but the benchmark section stays empty until direct Apple Silicon measurements land.
Data
benchmarks.json — full dataset · models.json — model summaries · benchmarks.csv — CSV export