Nomic Embed Text v1.5 needs ~3.8 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M2 16GB has 11.5 GB. With F16 quantization, expect ~2 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
2.0 tok/s
TTFT
96800 ms
Safe context
8K
Memory
3.8 GB / 11.5 GB
The model fits in shared memory, but shared-memory bandwidth is now the real limiter.
Fit does not mean dedicated-VRAM speed
Unified or shared memory can make a model technically fit, but sustained tokens per second may still trail a discrete high-bandwidth GPU with less total memory.
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.
Prioritize bandwidth, not only capacity
If this workload feels slow, the next useful step is often a GPU tier with materially faster memory bandwidth rather than only a small bump in capacity.
| Workload | Grade | Fit | Decode | TTFT | Context |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chat | B | Runs well | 2.0 tok/s | 52800 ms | 8K |
| Coding | B | Runs well | 2.0 tok/s | 96800 ms | 8K |
| Agentic Coding | A | Runs well | 2.0 tok/s | 140800 ms | 8K |
| Reasoning | B | Runs well | 2.0 tok/s | 114400 ms | 8K |
| RAG | A | Runs well | 2.0 tok/s | 176000 ms | 8K |
How Nomic Embed Text v1.5 (0.13699999451637268B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M2 16GB (11.5 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 0.1 GB | Low | A79 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 0.1 GB | Low | A79 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run Nomic Embed Text v1.5 on your machine.
Run
ollama run nomic-embed-textYes, MacBook Air M2 16GB can run Nomic Embed Text v1.5 with a B grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 2.0 tok/s.
Nomic Embed Text v1.5 (0.13699999451637268B parameters) requires approximately 3.8 GB of memory with F16 quantization.
The recommended quantization for Nomic Embed Text v1.5 is F16, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M2 16GB, Nomic Embed Text v1.5 achieves approximately 2.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 96800ms using F16 quantization.
For coding workloads, Nomic Embed Text v1.5 on MacBook Air M2 16GB receives a B grade with 2.0 tok/s and 8K context.
On MacBook Air M2 16GB, Nomic Embed Text v1.5 can safely use up to 8K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 8K, 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/nomic-embed-text-v1.5-on-m2-air-16gb" width="400" height="180" frameborder="0" style="border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden;" title="Will It Run AI — fit result"></iframe>
Preview:
0.1 GB |
| Medium |
| A79 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 0.1 GB | Medium | A79 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 0.1 GB | High | A79 |
Q6_K | 6 | 0.1 GB | High | A79 |
Q8_0 | 8 | 0.1 GB | Very High | A79 |
F16Best for your GPU | 16 | 0.3 GB | Maximum | A79 |
Prioritize bandwidth, not only capacity. If this workload feels slow, the next useful step is often a GPU tier with materially faster memory bandwidth rather than only a small bump in capacity.
Not always. MacBook Air M2 16GB 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.