Rent a GPU

Can the Apple M1 (16GB) run Qwen3 4B?

Apple M1 (16GB) × Qwen3 4B8K context
YesRuns fully on the GPU
Memory at FP169.8 GB of 10.7 GB
Weights 8 GBKV cache 1.2 GBRuntime 0.6 GB
QuantFP16Full quality
Memory9.8 GBof 10.7 GB usable
Speed~5tokens per second
  1. FP16
  2. Q8_0
  3. Q6_K
  4. Q5_K_M
  5. Q4_K_M
  6. Q3_K_M
  7. Q2_K

Yes. The Apple M1 (16GB) can run Qwen3 4B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 9.8 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 5 tokens/second.

Try other context lengths

Run it with Ollama

With Ollama installed, one command downloads and starts Qwen3 4B:

ollama run qwen3:4b

Ollama's default download is Q4_K_M (about 4.2 GB here). You have room for FP16, which is full quality: pick that GGUF in LM Studio or from Hugging Face.

Run it in the cloud

No Apple M1 (16GB)? Run Qwen3 4B in the cloud.

Rent a cloud GPU by the hour. No upfront cost, stop any time.

Rent a GPU on RunPodRent a GPU on Vast.ai

Memory needed by quantization

At 8,192 tokens of context. The black line marks the 10.7 GB the Apple M1 (16GB) can use. macOS lets the GPU use about 10.7 GB of the 16 GB unified memory by default.

QuantQualityMemoryFits?Speed
FP16Full quality9.8 GBFits~5 tok/s
Q8_0Near-lossless6.1 GBFits~10 tok/s
Q6_KExcellent5.1 GBFits~12 tok/s
Q5_K_MVery good4.7 GBFits~14 tok/s
Q4_K_MGood, most popular4.2 GBFits~17 tok/s
Q3_K_MNoticeably degraded3.8 GBFits~21 tok/s
Q2_KHeavily degraded3.3 GBFits~27 tok/s

GPUs that run Qwen3 4B comfortably

Models that run well on the Apple M1 (16GB)

Frequently asked questions

Can Apple M1 (16GB) run Qwen3 4B?

Yes. The Apple M1 (16GB) can run Qwen3 4B fully in unified memory at FP16 (full quality), using about 9.8 GB of the 10.7 GB available, at roughly 5 tokens/second.

How much VRAM does Qwen3 4B need?

About 4.2 GB at Q4_K_M with 8,192 tokens of context, and about 9.8 GB at full FP16 precision.

How fast is Qwen3 4B on the Apple M1 (16GB)?

Roughly 5 tokens per second at FP16, estimated from the Apple M1 (16GB)'s 68 GB/s memory bandwidth.