Samprix

What AI can a MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB run?

A MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB can give a local model 12 GB of memory. At a 4K context, 32 of the 42 models we track fit entirely on it; the largest is Qwen3 14B.

Apple Specs last checked: how
Your computer
Context length
Memory a model can use 12 GB 75% of 16 GB unified memory · source

Models on this machine

  • Model file
  • Context
  • Allowance
  • Your GPU memory

Fits

32
  • Qwen3 14B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 9.8 GB 2.2 GB spare
    Context up to
    18,603
  • Phi-4 14B
    Microsoft · Q4_K_M
    Needs 9.8 GB 2.2 GB spare
    Context up to
    15,859
  • Qwen2.5 14B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 9.6 GB 2.4 GB spare
    Context up to
    17,028
  • DeepSeek-R1 Distill 14B
    DeepSeek · Q4_K_M
    Needs 9.6 GB 2.4 GB spare
    Context up to
    17,028
  • Qwen2.5 Coder 14B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 9.6 GB 2.4 GB spare
    Context up to
    17,028
  • Qwen3 8B
    Alibaba · Q8_0
    Needs 9.4 GB 2.6 GB spare
    Context up to
    23,383
  • Phi-3 medium 14B
    Microsoft · Q4_K_M
    Needs 9.3 GB 2.7 GB spare
    Context up to
    18,300
  • OLMo 2 13B
    Allen Institute for AI · Q4_K_M
    Needs 11 GB 0.6 GB spare
    Context up to
    4,096
  • Mistral Nemo 12B
    Mistral AI · Q4_K_M
    Needs 8.1 GB 3.9 GB spare
    Context up to
    29,590
  • Qwen3 8B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.9 GB 6.1 GB spare
    Context up to
    40,960
  • DeepSeek-R1 0528 8B
    DeepSeek · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.9 GB 6.1 GB spare
    Context up to
    48,475
  • DeepSeek-R1 Distill 8B
    DeepSeek · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.6 GB 6.4 GB spare
    Context up to
    56,823
  • Dolphin 3.0 8B
    Cognitive Computations · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.6 GB 6.4 GB spare
    Context up to
    56,823
  • Qwen2.5 7B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.1 GB 6.9 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • Qwen2.5 Coder 7B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.1 GB 6.9 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • DeepSeek-R1 Distill 7B
    DeepSeek · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.1 GB 6.9 GB spare
    Context up to
    131,072
  • OLMo 2 7B
    Allen Institute for AI · Q4_K_M
    Needs 6.7 GB 5.3 GB spare
    Context up to
    4,096
  • Mistral 7B
    Mistral AI · Q4_K_M
    Needs 5.1 GB 6.9 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • Qwen3 4B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 3.5 GB 8.5 GB spare
    Context up to
    40,960
  • Phi-4 mini 3.8B
    Microsoft · Q4_K_M
    Needs 3.3 GB 8.7 GB spare
    Context up to
    75,134
  • Phi-3 mini 3.8B
    Microsoft · Q4_K_M
    Needs 4.2 GB 7.8 GB spare
    Context up to
    4,096
  • Qwen2.5 3B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 2.4 GB 9.6 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • Qwen2.5 Coder 3B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 2.4 GB 9.6 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • Qwen3 1.7B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 2.2 GB 9.8 GB spare
    Context up to
    40,960
  • DeepSeek-R1 Distill 1.5B
    DeepSeek · Q4_K_M
    Needs 1.6 GB 10 GB spare
    Context up to
    131,072
  • SmolLM2 1.7B
    Hugging Face · Q4_K_M
    Needs 2.3 GB 9.7 GB spare
    Context up to
    8,192
  • Qwen2.5 1.5B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 1.5 GB 10 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • Qwen2.5 Coder 1.5B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 1.5 GB 10 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • TinyLlama 1.1B
    TinyLlama · Q4_K_M
    Needs 1.2 GB 11 GB spare
    Context up to
    2,048
  • Qwen3 0.6B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 1.4 GB 11 GB spare
    Context up to
    40,960
  • Qwen2.5 0.5B
    Alibaba · Q4_K_M
    Needs 0.9 GB 11 GB spare
    Context up to
    32,768
  • SmolLM2 360M
    Hugging Face · Q4_K_M
    Needs 0.9 GB 11 GB spare
    Context up to
    8,192

Won’t fit

10
Memory needed = model file + context + a 0.5 GB allowance (our estimate). See methodology.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the biggest AI model a MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB can run?

Qwen3 14B (Q4_K_M, a 9.3 GB download) is the largest of the 42 models we track that fits entirely in the 12 GB a MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB can give a model at a 4K context, with 2.2 GB to spare and room for up to 18,603 tokens of context.

Can a MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB run Mistral Small 22B?

Not entirely in its own memory. Mistral Small 22B (Q4_K_M) needs 13 GB at a 4K context, and a MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB can give a model 12 GB. A Mac has no separate memory to spill into, so you need a version with more memory or a smaller download of the model.

How much memory can a MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB give an AI model?

About 12 GB: 75% of its 16 GB of unified memory, because macOS and your other apps share the same memory. The 16 GB is from MacBook Air tech specs (checked Oct 2, 2026); the 75% is our estimate.

Which other graphics cards or Macs run the same models?

Mac mini (M6), 16 GB has the same 16 GB of unified memory, so the same models fit. How fast they run differs, but makers don’t publish speed figures we could cite.

How fast will local AI run on a MacBook Air (M5) with 16 GB?

Hardware makers and model publishers don’t publish tokens-per-second figures, so there is no source we could cite. We only show whether a model fits and how much context it leaves room for.

Other graphics cards and Macs

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