OpenChat 7B needs ~9.7 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M4 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~20 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
20.0 tok/s
TTFT
9674 ms
Safe context
8K
Memory
9.7 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 | 20.0 tok/s | 5277 ms | 8K |
| Coding | C | Runs well | 20.0 tok/s | 9674 ms | 8K |
| Agentic Coding | C | Runs well | 20.0 tok/s | 14072 ms | 8K |
| Reasoning | C | Runs well | 20.0 tok/s | 11433 ms | 8K |
| RAG | C | Runs well | 20.0 tok/s | 17590 ms | 8K |
How OpenChat 7B (7B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M4 24GB (17.3 GB usable).
| Quant | Bits | VRAM | Quality | Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Q2_K | 2 | 2.7 GB | Low | C48 |
Q3_K_S | 3 | 3.4 GB | Low | C49 |
NVFP4 | 4 |
Copy-paste commands to run OpenChat 7B on your machine.
Run
ollama run openchatUpgrade 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 255%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$2,499 MSRP
Raises estimated decode speed by about 177%.
Adds memory headroom for longer context windows and future model growth.
~$2,499 MSRP
Yes, MacBook Air M4 24GB can run OpenChat 7B with a C grade (Runs well). Expected decode speed: 20.0 tok/s.
OpenChat 7B (7B parameters) requires approximately 9.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.
The recommended quantization for OpenChat 7B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.
On MacBook Air M4 24GB, OpenChat 7B achieves approximately 20.0 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 9674ms using Q4_K_M quantization.
For coding workloads, OpenChat 7B on MacBook Air M4 24GB receives a C grade with 20.0 tok/s and 8K context.
On MacBook Air M4 24GB, OpenChat 7B 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/openchat-7b-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:
3.9 GB |
| Medium |
| C49 |
Q4_K_M | 4 | 4.3 GB | Medium | C49 |
Q5_K_M | 5 | 5.0 GB | High | C50 |
Q6_K | 6 | 5.7 GB | High | C51 |
Q8_0Best for your GPU | 8 | 7.5 GB | Very High | C52 |
F16 | 16 | 14.3 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.