Can Gemma 4 12B run on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

YES — With Offload

A78Great

Estimated — low-sample bucket· few comparable runs

Gemma 4 12B needs ~16.7 GB VRAM. MacBook Air M4 24GB has 17.3 GB. With Q4_K_M quantization, expect ~8 tok/s.

Runtime: llama.cppCapacity: OffloadBandwidth: 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) — 16.7 GB, 8.3 tok/s, Runs with offload

16.7 GB required17.3 GB available

97% VRAM used

Fit status

Runs with offload

Decode

8.3 tok/s

TTFT

23423 ms

Safe context

18K

Memory

16.7 GB / 17.3 GB

Memory breakdown

Weights7.3 GB

KV Cache5.9 GB

Runtime0.9 GB

Headroom2.6 GB

See how fast it feels

See how fast it feelsGemma 4 12B on MacBook Air M4 24GB
1st promptCold start — includes initialization
>Write a Python function to sort a list
Here's a Python function that sorts a list using quicksort:

def quicksort(arr):
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

# Example usage
numbers = [3, 6, 8, 10, 1, 2, 1]
print(quicksort(numbers))  # [1, 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10]

The algorithm picks a pivot, partitions the list into smaller, equal, and larger elements, then recursively sorts each partition and concatenates the results.
2nd promptWarm — model ready, no init overhead
>Now add type hints and a docstring
def quicksort(arr: list[int]) -> list[int]:
    """Sort a list using the quicksort algorithm.

    Args:
        arr: List of integers to sort.

    Returns:
        A new sorted list.
    """
    if len(arr) <= 1:
        return arr
    pivot = arr[len(arr) // 2]
    left   = [x for x in arr if x < pivot]
    middle = [x for x in arr if x == pivot]
    right  = [x for x in arr if x > pivot]
    return quicksort(left) + middle + quicksort(right)

Added type hints for the input and return type, plus a Google-style docstring.
Estimated: 8.3 tok/s decode · 23.4s TTFT (warm) · 21 tok/s prefill

What limits this setup

This setup is broadly balanced for this model.

Very little memory headroom

You can run the model, but there is not much room left for longer context, bigger batches, extra apps, or future model updates.

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

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit

A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Performance by workload

Workload	Grade	Fit	Decode	TTFT	Context
Chat	A	Runs well	8.3 tok/s	12776 ms	18K
Coding	A	Runs with offload	8.3 tok/s	23423 ms	18K
Agentic Coding	F	Too heavy	5.7 tok/s	49510 ms	18K
Reasoning	A	Runs with offload	8.3 tok/s	27682 ms	18K
RAG	F	Too heavy	5.7 tok/s	61887 ms	18K

Inference speed

Gemma 4 12B inference speed — tokens per second by GPU & Mac

Estimated decode speed (tokens/sec) for Gemma 4 12B at Q4_K_M across popular GPUs and Apple Silicon, using the fastest local runtime per device. Fastest is RTX 5090 32GB at ~168 tok/s. Speed is memory-bandwidth bound, so cards that fit the whole model in VRAM run far faster than ones that offload to system RAM.

GPU / Mac	Memory	Quant	Speed (tok/s)	Fits?
RTX 5090 32GB	32 GB	Q4_K_M	168.0	Fits
RTX 4090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	109.9	Fits
RX 7900 XTX 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	99.1	Fits
RTX 3090 24GB	24 GB	Q4_K_M	94.0	Fits
RTX 4080 Super 16GB	16 GB	Q4_K_M	87.6	Offloads
Mac Studio M3 Ultra 256GB	256 GB	Q4_K_M	60.5	Fits
Mac Studio M2 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	50.4	Fits
Mac Studio M1 Ultra 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	47.8	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	43.4	Fits
MacBook Pro M3 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	34.4	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Max 128GB	128 GB	Q4_K_M	32.9	Fits
MacBook Pro M1 Max 64GB	64 GB	Q4_K_M	31.6	Fits
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 48GB	48 GB	Q4_K_M	26.5	Fits
RTX 4070 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	23.5	Too big
RTX 3060 12GB	12 GB	Q4_K_M	14.8	Too big
RTX 4060 8GB	8 GB	Q4_K_M	5.5	Too big

Estimates for single-stream decoding at Q4_K_M; real tokens/sec varies with prompt length, context, batch size, and runtime build. Prompt processing (prefill) is faster than the decode figures shown here.

Quantization options

How Gemma 4 12B (12B params) fits at each quantization level on MacBook Air M4 24GB (17.3 GB usable).

Quant	Bits	VRAM	Quality	Fit
Q2_K	2	4.7 GB	Low	A79
Q3_K_S	3	5.9 GB	Low	A80
NVFP4	4	6.7 GB	Medium	A81
Q4_K_M	4	7.3 GB	Medium	A82
Q5_K_M	5	8.6 GB	High	A83
Q6_K	6	9.8 GB	High	A83
Q8_0Best for your GPU	8	12.8 GB	Very High	A82
F16	16	24.6 GB	Maximum	F0

Get started

Copy-paste commands to run Gemma 4 12B on your machine.

Run

lms load gemma-4-12B-it && lms server start

Your hardware

More models your MacBook Air M4 24GB can run

Model	Params	Grade	Decode
Magistral Small 2507	24B	A	7.3 tok/s
Devstral Small 2 24B Instruct	24B	A	7.3 tok/s
Qwen 3 14B	14B	S	9.6 tok/s
Phi-4-reasoning-plus 14B	14.7B	S	9.4 tok/s
Devstral Small 1.1	24B	B	7.3 tok/s

Frequently asked questions

Can MacBook Air M4 24GB run Gemma 4 12B?

Yes, MacBook Air M4 24GB can run Gemma 4 12B with a A grade (Runs with offload). Expected decode speed: 8.3 tok/s.

How much VRAM does Gemma 4 12B need?

Gemma 4 12B (12B parameters) requires approximately 16.7 GB of memory with Q4_K_M quantization.

What is the best quantization for Gemma 4 12B?

The recommended quantization for Gemma 4 12B is Q4_K_M, which balances quality and memory efficiency.

What speed will Gemma 4 12B run at on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

On MacBook Air M4 24GB, Gemma 4 12B achieves approximately 8.3 tokens per second decode speed with a time-to-first-token of 23423ms using Q4_K_M quantization.

Can MacBook Air M4 24GB run Gemma 4 12B for coding?

For coding workloads, Gemma 4 12B on MacBook Air M4 24GB receives a A grade with 8.3 tok/s and 18K context.

What context window can Gemma 4 12B use on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

On MacBook Air M4 24GB, Gemma 4 12B can safely use up to 18K tokens of context. The model's official context limit is 262K, but available memory constrains the safe maximum.

What should I upgrade first if Gemma 4 12B feels slow on MacBook Air M4 24GB?

Buy headroom, not only minimum fit. A slightly larger memory tier gives you safer context growth and makes the recommendation more future-proof.

Is unified memory on MacBook Air M4 24GB as fast as VRAM for Gemma 4 12B?

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.

See all results for MacBook Air M4 24GB See all hardware for Gemma 4 12B

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