Best local AI for Apple M3 Pro · 18GB

The best local AI on a Apple M3 Pro · 18GB right now is DeepSeek-R1 (distill) (8B (Llama) @ Q5_K_M, ~15–25 tok/s). Full ranking below — capability × real speed on this hardware, never sponsored.

#modelbest fitverdictspeed
1 DeepSeek-R1 (distill) 8B (Llama) Q5_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 15–25 tok/s
2 Qwen3 8B Q4_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 17–30 tok/s
3 Llama 3.1 8B Q5_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 15–25 tok/s
4 Qwen2.5 7B Q5_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 16–25 tok/s
5 Mistral 7B 7B Q5_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 17–30 tok/s
6 Gemma 3 4B Q8_0 ✅ Runs comfortably 19–30 tok/s
7 Llama 3.2 3B Q4_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 40–70 tok/s
8 Phi-4 14B Q3_K_M ✅ Runs (tight) 11–19 tok/s
9 Yi 1.5 9B Q4_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 16–25 tok/s
10 Mistral Nemo 12B Q4_K_M ✅ Runs (tight) 11–19 tok/s
11 Gemma 2 2B Q5_K_M ✅ Runs comfortably 45–75 tok/s
12 Phi-4-mini 3.8B Q8_0 ✅ Runs comfortably 20–35 tok/s
$npx runlocal-sh install deepseek-r1

Rankings use the same GQA-aware fit + bandwidth-calibrated speed math as the CLI — no sponsorships, no affiliate re-sorting, ever.

Different machine? Apple M1 · 8GB · Apple M1 Pro · 16GB · Apple M2 · 16GB · Apple M2 Pro · 32GB · Apple M4 Pro · 48GB · Apple M3 Max · 36GB

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