Can OLMo 2 13B run on Mac mini M4 32GB?

YES — Runs Great

A76Great

Estimated — low-sample bucket· few comparable runs

OLMo 2 13B needs ~14.7 GB VRAM. Mac mini M4 32GB has 23.0 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~10 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: RoomyBandwidth: Very lowStack: StandardBottleneck: Memory bandwidth

Operating mode

Choose the run profile you care about

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.

Capabilities:

Select quantization to explore

Q4_K_M (Medium quality) — 14.7 GB, 10.4 tok/s, Runs well

14.7 GB required23.0 GB available

64% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs well

Decode

10.4 tok/s

TTFT

18696 ms

Safe context

33K

Memory

14.7 GB / 23.0 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights7.9 GB

KV Cache2.4 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom3.5 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsOLMo 2 13B on Mac mini M4 32GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>What is local AI inference?
Local AI inference means running an AI language model directly on your own hardware — your laptop, desktop, or server — instead of sending requests to a remote cloud API.

When you run inference locally the model weights are loaded into your GPU or unified memory. Each token you generate requires reading those weights from memory, so memory bandwidth is the main bottleneck for decode speed.

Key benefits of running locally:
  - Full privacy: your prompts never leave your machine
  - No per-token cost or rate limits
  - Works offline once the model is downloaded
  - Latency depends only on your hardware
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>How much VRAM do I need?
It depends on the model size and quantization level. A rough rule of thumb:

  Model size     Q4 (4-bit)    Q8 (8-bit)    FP16
  7B params      ~4.3 GB       ~7.5 GB       ~14 GB
  13B params     ~7.9 GB       ~13.9 GB      ~26 GB
  70B params     ~42.7 GB      ~74.9 GB      ~140 GB

Most people use 4-bit quantization (Q4_K_M) which gives 90-95% of full quality at a fraction of the memory. A 24 GB GPU can comfortably run most 7B-13B models.
Estimated: 10.4 tok/s decode · 18.7s TTFT (warm) · 26 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

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.

Best improvement path

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	A	Runs well	10.4 tok/s	10198 ms	33K
Coding	A	Runs well	10.4 tok/s	18696 ms	33K
Agentic Coding	A	Runs well	10.9 tok/s	25846 ms	33K
Reasoning	A	Runs well	10.4 tok/s	22096 ms	33K
RAG	A	Runs well	10.4 tok/s	33993 ms	33K

Quantization options

How OLMo 2 13B (13B params) fits at each quantization level on Mac mini M4 32GB (23.0 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	5.1 GB	Low	A73
Q3_K_S	3	6.4 GB	Low	A74
NVFP4	4

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run OLMo 2 13B on your machine.

Run

docker run --rm -it ghcr.io/ggerganov/llama.cpp:full \
  --hf-repo "allenai/OLMo-2-13B-Instruct" \
  --hf-file "OLMo-2-13B-Instruct-Q4_K_M.gguf" \
  -c 4096 -ngl 99

Your hardware

More models your Mac mini M4 32GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode	Capabilities
Qwen3-Coder 30B A3B Instruct	30.5B	A	11.7 tok/s
Qwen 3.5 27B	27B	S	8.6 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can Mac mini M4 32GB run OLMo 2 13B?

Yes, Mac mini M4 32GB can run OLMo 2 13B with a A grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 10.4 tok/s.

How much VRAM does OLMo 2 13B need?

OLMo 2 13B (13B parameters) requires approximately 14.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for OLMo 2 13B?

The recommended quantization for OLMo 2 13B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will OLMo 2 13B run at on Mac mini M4 32GB?

On Mac mini M4 32GB, OLMo 2 13B achieves approximately 10.4 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 18696ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can Mac mini M4 32GB run OLMo 2 13B for coding?

For coding workloads, OLMo 2 13B on Mac mini M4 32GB receives a A grade with 10.4 tok/s and 33K context.

What context window can OLMo 2 13B use on Mac mini M4 32GB?

On Mac mini M4 32GB, OLMo 2 13B can safely use up to 33K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 33K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

Is unified memory on Mac mini M4 32GB as fast as VRAM for OLMo 2 13B?

Not always. Mac mini M4 32GB 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.

See all results for Mac mini M4 32GB See all hardware for OLMo 2 13B

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