Qwen3.5 9B needs ~10.0 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M4 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~15 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
14.5 tok/s
TTFT
13371 ms
Safe context
126K
Memory
10.0 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 | C | Runs well | 14.5 tok/s | 7293 ms | 126K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 14.5 tok/s | 13371 ms | 126K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 14.5 tok/s | 19449 ms | 126K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 14.5 tok/s | 15803 ms | 126K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 14.5 tok/s | 24312 ms | 126K |
How Qwen3.5 9B (9B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M4 24GB (17.3 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 3.5 GB | Low | C47 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 4.4 GB | Low | C48 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Qwen3.5 9B on your machine.
Run
docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
--hf-repo "unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF" \
--hf-file "Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
-c 4096 -ngl 99Upgrade 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 Qwen3.5 9B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 14.5 tok/s.
Qwen3.5 9B (9B parameters) requires approximately 10.0 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for Qwen3.5 9B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M4 24GB, Qwen3.5 9B achieves approximately 14.5 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 13371ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, Qwen3.5 9B on MacBook Air M4 24GB receives a C grade with 14.5 tok/s and 126K context.
On MacBook Air M4 24GB, Qwen3.5 9B can safely use up to 126K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is —, 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/hf-unsloth--qwen3-5-9b-gguf-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:
5.0 GB |
| Medium |
| C48 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 5.5 GB | Medium | C49 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 6.5 GB | High | C50 |
Q6_K | 6 | 7.4 GB | High | C51 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 9.6 GB | Very High | C51 |
F16 | 16 | 18.5 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.