Run Qwen 4 4B on M3

Yes — Qwen 4 4B (4B) runs at 85 tok/s on M3 with 16 GB RAM using Q4_K_M quantization via MLX. First token latency is 0.3s. A capable open-source LLM with 4B parameters.

Speed

tok/s

First Token

0.3

seconds

RAM Needed

GB minimum

Engine

MLX

recommended

Benchmark Details

LLMCheck measured Qwen 4 4B 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	85 tok/s
Time to first token	0.3s
Quantization	Q4_K_M
Minimum RAM	16 GB
Recommended engine	MLX
Parameters	4B
Benchmark date	2026-06

Q4_K_M 4B MLX M3

Setup Guide: Run Qwen 4 4B on M3

The recommended engine for Qwen 4 4B on M3 is MLX. Install with pip and pull the model:

pip install mlx-lm

mlx_lm.generate --model mlx-community/qwen-4-4b-q4_k_m --prompt "Hello!"

Alternatively, you can use Ollama for a simpler setup:

ollama run qwen-4-4b

Performance on Other Apple Silicon Chips

Chip	Speed	First Token	Min RAM	Engine
M5 Max	135 tok/s	0.2s	128 GB	MLX
M4 Pro	108 tok/s	0.3s	24 GB	Ollama
M2	62 tok/s	0.4s	8 GB	Ollama
M1	45 tok/s	0.6s	8 GB	Ollama

System Requirements

To run Qwen 4 4B 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
• MLX installed (see our Ollama install guide)

Compare More Models

See how Qwen 4 4B stacks up against other models on your specific Mac hardware.

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