Side by side
| M4 | M4 Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Memory sizes | 16, 24, 32 GB | 24, 48, 64 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 120 GB/s | 273 GB/s |
| For models, at most | about 24 GB | about 48 GB |
| Models that run well | 27 of 73 | 31 of 73 |
| MLX seat class | Core | Pro |
| Found in | MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4, 2024), iMac (24-inch, 2024, Two ports), iMac (24-inch, 2024, Four ports), Mac mini (2024), MacBook Air (13-inch, M4, 2025), MacBook Air (15-inch, M4, 2025) | Mac mini (2024), MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4 Pro or M4 Max, 2024), MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024) |
Speed with popular models
Tokens a second for one conversation, each chip at its largest memory size (32 GB and 64 GB), with the best version of the model that fits.
| Model | M4 | M4 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Llama 3.1 8B Instruct8B | 12–21 4-bit | 14–26 8-bit |
| gpt-oss-20b21B · 3.6B active | 28–51 native 4.25-bit | 65–115 native 4.25-bit |
| Qwen3.6 35B A3B35B · 3B active | 32–56 4-bit | 38–68 8-bit |
| Qwen3.8 27B27B | 2–4 6-bit | 4–8 8-bit |
| Llama 3.3 70B Instruct70B | 2–4 2-bit lower quality | 3–6 4-bit |
| gpt-oss-120b117B · 5.1B active | too big | 77–137 2-bit lower quality |
| Qwen3.5 122B A10B122B · 10B active | too big | 40–70 2-bit lower quality |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash 0731284B · 13B active | too big | too big |
Questions
- Is the M4 Pro faster than the M4 for LLMs?
- The M4 Pro reads memory about 127% faster than the M4 (273 vs 120 GB/s), so it writes about 127% faster with any model that fits both. Reading a long prompt depends on GPU compute instead, which this comparison doesn’t cover.
- Which can run bigger models, the M4 or the M4 Pro?
- The M4 Pro: The M4 Pro goes up to 64 GB of memory, the M4 to 32 GB. At its largest it runs 31 of 73 open models well, against 27.
More comparisons
The M4 for local AI · The M4 Pro for local AI · Compare every model · The best Mac for local LLMs
How it’s worked out
Memory: the model’s parameters at 8, 6, 4, 3 or 2 bits per weight plus MLX’s group scales (half a bit per weight), or its native format, with room for the context on top. By default macOS lets the GPU use about 75% of unified memory. Speed: memory bandwidth divided by the bytes read per token is the ceiling for one conversation; in llama.cpp’s public Apple Silicon benchmarks real runs reach about 45% to 80% of it, which is the range shown. These are estimates, not measurements: measure your own Mac on MLX Bench. Model figures from each official model card, chip figures from Apple’s Tech Specs. Checked 2026-10-19. Same data as mlx.app/compare.