DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B needs ~10.3 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M4 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~18 tok/s.
Operating mode
Interactive favors responsiveness, while light API and scale-out lean harder on serving readiness. The fit stays the same, but the recommendation lens changes.
Current mode
Balanced
Balanced for general local use. Keeps the ranking neutral across personal and serving workflows.
Select quantization to explore
Fit status
Runs well
Decode
17.5 tok/s
TTFT
11056 ms
Safe context
33K
Memory
10.3 GB / 17.3 GB
This setup is broadly balanced for this model.
Shared-memory contention still exists
The OS, browser, and inference runtime all compete for the same physical memory pool, so real-world headroom is less forgiving than raw capacity suggests.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 6031 ms | 33K |
| Coding | B | Runs well | 17.7 tok/s | 10935 ms | 33K |
| Agentic Coding | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 16082 ms | 33K |
| Reasoning | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 13067 ms | 33K |
| RAG | B | Runs well | 17.5 tok/s | 20103 ms | 33K |
How DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B (8B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M4 24GB (17.3 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.1 GB | Low | B63 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.9 GB | Low | B64 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B on your machine.
Run
ollama run deepseek-r1:8bUpgrade options
Raises estimated decode speed by about 192%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$1,999 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 177%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$2,499 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 254%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$2,499 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Air M4 24GB can run DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 17.7 tok/s.
DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B (8B parameters) requires approximately 10.3 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M4 24GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B achieves approximately 17.7 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 10935ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B on MacBook Air M4 24GB receives a B grade with 17.7 tok/s and 33K context.
On MacBook Air M4 24GB, DeepSeek R1 Distill 8B can safely use up to 33K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 33K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.
Paste this snippet into any page to show a live fit card.
<iframe src="https://willitrunai.com/embed/deepseek-r1-distill-8b-on-m4-air-24gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
4.5 GB |
| Medium |
| B64 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.9 GB | Medium | B65 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.8 GB | High | B65 |
Q6_K | 6 | 6.6 GB | High | B66 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 8.6 GB | Very High | B68 |
F16 | 16 | 16.4 GB | Maximum | F0 |
Not always. MacBook Air M4 24GB can often fit larger models thanks to unified memory, but a discrete GPU with dedicated high-bandwidth VRAM may still decode faster once the model fits. For this combination, the important distinction is capacity versus sustained throughput.