Qwen 3.5 4B runs at 66 tok/s (65.82 as recorded) on an M5 Pro, a published figure reported by huggingface.co (llama.cpp, Q4_K_M, decode at 4K context depth). It needs about 3 GB of unified memory. It is Alibaba's 4B dense model, released under the Apache 2.0 licence.
Want to run Qwen 3.5 4B faster — or step up to bigger models? Find your Mac →This is a published figure: a real run, reported by its source and linked below. The index records it as given and never adjusts it.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Tokens per second | sourced66 tok/s |
| Provenance | published figure · huggingface.co |
| Quantization | Q4_K_M |
| Engine | llama.cpp |
| Context | decode at 4K context depth |
| Figure dated | 2026-10-21 |
| Minimum RAM | 3 GB |
| Parameters | 4B |
| Chip bandwidth | 307 GB/s |
Each row as the index holds it, with its source. “Mac RAM” is the memory of the Mac a run used, not the model’s requirement (3 GB). The headline figure follows the reference rule: the lower-median measured plain-decode run at 5 bits or fewer (a run whose quant was not stated counts only when no stated-quant run qualifies), else the estimate; a run marked “not used to anchor estimates” is listed here but never becomes the headline.
| Speed | Quant | Engine | Mac RAM | Context | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sourced65.82 tok/s | Q4_K_M | llama.cpp | — | decode at 4K context depth | huggingface.co | Competitor baseline on SparkLLM's Spark-X2.6-4B card chart 'Mac M5 Pro · 16-core' (the 16-core-GPU M5 Pro has the same 307 GB/s); llama.cpp build not stated. |
Ollama — install it (brew install ollama or the app from ollama.com), then pull the model by its tag, checked on ollama.com on 2026-10-24:
MLX — pick a build from Hugging Face’s MLX listings, then run it with its repo id:
Downloads: Search the Ollama library → · model card →
The 66 tok/s figure above came from llama.cpp at Q4_K_M; other runtimes and quants run at different speeds.
Prefer a GUI? LM Studio downloads GGUF and MLX builds in one click. Step by step: install Ollama on a Mac.
| Chip | Speed | Quant | Engine | Bandwidth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M5 Max | estimated161 tok/s | Q4_K_M | MLX | 614 GB/s |
| M4 | estimated39 tok/s | Q4_K_M | Ollama | 120 GB/s |
Alibaba's 4B model, ~161 tok/s on M5 Max. Apache 2.0 license, LLMCheck capability 12/50.
Apache 2.0 licence · 4B · 262K context · LLMCheck capability 12/50 · see its leaderboard rank →
Qwen 3.5 4B needs about 3 GB of unified memory. These current Apple Silicon Macs have the headroom to run it comfortably:
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