Is the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro good for local LLMs?

With 64 GB it runs 31 of 73 open models well, up to Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B A9B, and writes about 65–115 tokens a second with gpt-oss-20b. The M4 Pro reads memory at 273 GB/s, which sets how fast it writes.

How much memory should a MacBook Pro with M4 Pro have for AI?

With 24 GB it runs 25 open models well; with 64 GB, 31, up to Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B A9B. Memory decides which models fit, and it can’t be upgraded later.

MacBook Pro M4 Pro for local AI: which LLMs it runs, by memory

By memory size

Memory	Run well	Biggest that runs well	gpt-oss-20b
24 GB273 GB/s	25	Gemma 4 26B A4B	65–115 tok/s
48 GB273 GB/s	30	Qwen3.6 35B A3B	65–115 tok/s
64 GB273 GB/s	31	Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B A9B	65–115 tok/s

Models: MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4 Pro or M4 Max, 2024), MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024). Not every memory size is offered with every model; Apple’s Tech Specs list what each one comes with.

Questions

Is the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro good for local LLMs?: With 64 GB it runs 31 of 73 open models well, up to Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B A9B, and writes about 65–115 tokens a second with gpt-oss-20b. The M4 Pro reads memory at 273 GB/s, which sets how fast it writes.
How much memory should a MacBook Pro with M4 Pro have for AI?: With 24 GB it runs 25 open models well; with 64 GB, 31, up to Nemotron 3.5 Bolt 74B A9B. Memory decides which models fit, and it can’t be upgraded later.

Other Macs

The MacBook Pro with other chips:

Other Macs with the M4 Pro:

Mac mini M4 Pro

Head to head:

Against PCs and graphics cards:

M4 Pro vs Ryzen AI Max+ 395

The M4 Pro for local AI · The best Mac for local LLMs · Every Mac

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.