Run Mistral 7B on M3

Yes — Mistral 7B (7B) runs at 62 tok/s on M3 with 16 GB RAM using Q4_K_M quantization via Ollama. First token latency is 0.6s. Mistral AI's classic 7B model, one of the most widely-supported open models.

Speed

tok/s

First Token

0.6

seconds

RAM Needed

GB minimum

Engine

Ollama

recommended

Benchmark Details

LLMCheck measured Mistral 7B on M3 using the standard methodology: Q4_K_M quantization, 256-token input, 512-token output, 3 runs averaged on a freshly-booted system.

Metric	Value
Tokens per second	62 tok/s
Time to first token	0.6s
Quantization	Q4_K_M
Minimum RAM	16 GB
Recommended engine	Ollama
Parameters	7B
Benchmark date	2026-01

Q4_K_M 7B Ollama M3

Setup Guide: Run Mistral 7B on M3

The recommended engine for Mistral 7B on M3 is Ollama. Install Ollama, then pull the model:

ollama run mistral:7b

Ollama handles quantization automatically — it will download the Q4_K_M variant (~16 GB) and start an interactive chat session.

Performance on Other Apple Silicon Chips

Chip	Speed	First Token	Min RAM	Engine
M5 Max	122 tok/s	0.3s	64 GB	Ollama
M4 Pro	98 tok/s	0.4s	24 GB	MLX
M1	42 tok/s	1.2s	16 GB	Ollama

System Requirements

To run Mistral 7B on M3 you need:

• Mac with M3 chip (or newer)
• 16 GB unified memory minimum
• macOS 13 Ventura or later
• ~13-16 GB free disk space for the model file
• Ollama installed (see our Ollama install guide)

Compare More Models

See how Mistral 7B stacks up against other models on your specific Mac hardware.

Open Compare Tool Full Leaderboard