Local AI Guides
for Mac

Step-by-step tutorials to get AI running on your Apple Silicon Mac. From first install to advanced optimization.

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AIR
Beginner · 8 min

Best Local LLMs for MacBook Air (2026) — M1 to M5, 8–24 GB

The best model to run on a fanless MacBook Air, by chip and RAM. Realistic tok/s, the thermal reality of long sessions, and the top pick for every Air.

Step-by-step Start guide →
i9>
Beginner · 8 min

How to Run Local LLMs on an Intel Mac (2026) — What's Possible

No Apple Silicon? You can still run local AI on an Intel Mac — here's what's realistic, the best small models, honest tok/s expectations, and when to upgrade.

Step-by-step Start guide →
Q4.1
Beginner · 7 min

How to Run Qwen 4.1 on Mac — Step-by-Step Setup Guide (2026)

Set up the #1 Mac-runnable local LLM — Qwen 4.1 32B-A3B — with Ollama or MLX. RAM needs, speeds, and tuning. ~62 tok/s on a 24 GB Mac.

Step-by-step Start guide →
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Intermediate · 12 min

Build a Local AI Coding Assistant on Mac — Qwen 4 Coder + Continue.dev

A private, offline coding assistant with Qwen 4 Coder (82% SWE-Verified) wired into VS Code, Zed, or Cursor — autocomplete, chat, and agent mode, all on-device.

Step-by-step Start guide →
MCP
Intermediate · 10 min

How to Use MCP (Model Context Protocol) with Local LLMs on Mac

Give your private, local model agentic tool access with MCP — run Qwen 4.1 in Ollama, add MCP servers (filesystem, web), and connect them. Fully offline.

Step-by-step Start guide →
LoRA
Advanced · 15 min

How to Fine-Tune a Local LLM on Mac with MLX (LoRA)

Fine-tune an open model on your own data, entirely on Apple Silicon, with MLX-LM and LoRA. Prepare a dataset, train, fuse, and run your custom model in Ollama.

Step-by-step Start guide →
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Beginner · 5 min

How to Install Ollama on Mac — Complete Setup Guide (2026)

Download, install, and run your first local AI model with Ollama in under 5 minutes on any Apple Silicon Mac.

Step-by-step Start guide →
L4>
Intermediate · 10 min

How to Run Llama 4 Locally on Mac — Scout & Maverick Guide

Hardware requirements, installation steps, and performance tips for running Meta's Llama 4 Scout on your Mac.

Step-by-step Start guide →
MLX
Advanced · 15 min

Getting Started with MLX: Apple's AI Framework for Mac

Install MLX, download models from HuggingFace, and run inference 20-50% faster than llama.cpp on Apple Silicon.

Step-by-step Start guide →
Q4K
Intermediate · 8 min

LLM Quantization Explained: Q4, Q5, Q8 — Which Is Best for Mac?

Understand quantization levels, compare size vs quality tradeoffs, and pick the right quant for your Mac's RAM.

Step-by-step Start guide →
LMS
Beginner · 5 min

LM Studio Setup Guide for Mac — Download, Install & First Chat

Get LM Studio running on your Mac with a beautiful GUI. Download models, start chatting, and enable the local API.

Step-by-step Start guide →