Can I Run DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-14B on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)?
Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated January 20, 2025
These figures are for DeepSeek-R1-Distill-Qwen-14B, a distill of Qwen2.5-14B — not the full DeepSeek R1. The full DeepSeek R1 (671B) needs about 405 GB of weights at Q4_K_M and is a different model.
Yes, but it is tight
Yes, but it is tight — DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B at Q8_0 needs about 17 GB of the 18 GB usable on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB), leaving only ~1 GB before the runtime starts swapping. Expect ~9.4 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 8,192 tokens of context.
Confidence: medium · Recommended quantization: Q8_0 · Estimated speed: ~9.4 tok/s
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MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB) — what it gives a model
| Usable memory for models | 18 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 273 GB/s |
| Form factor | Laptop |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Memory upgradeable | No — soldered |
| Price | $1,999 (lib/data/laptops.ts (street price), checked 2026-07-06) |
DeepSeek R1 on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB): memory by quantization
| Quant | Memory needed | Fits 18 GB? | Max context | Est. speed | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F16 | 30.1 GB | ✗ No | — | — | 28 GB |
| Q8_0 | 17 GB | ✓ Yes | 8K | ~9.4 tok/s | 14.9 GB |
| Q6_K | 13.6 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~11.9 tok/s | 11.5 GB |
| Q5_K_M | 12.1 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~13.6 tok/s | 9.9 GB |
| Q4_K_M | 10.6 GB | ✓ Yes | 32K | ~15.6 tok/s | 8.5 GB |
| Q3_K_M | 8.1 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~21.1 tok/s | 6 GB |
| Q2_K | 6.7 GB | ✓ Yes | 64K | ~26.1 tok/s | 4.6 GB |
Which DeepSeek R1 sizes fit
| Variant | Needs at Q4_K_M | Fits? | Est. speed |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSeek R1 (671B) | 406.5 GB | ✗ Too large | — |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 32B | 22.3 GB | ✗ Too large | — |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B | 10.6 GB | ✓ Fits | ~15.6 tok/s |
| DeepSeek R1 Distill Llama 8B | 6.7 GB | ✓ Fits | ~25.7 tok/s |
What to watch out for
- Only ~1 GB of headroom at Q8_0: a longer context or a second application can push this into swapping.
- 2 larger variants of DeepSeek R1 do not fit and would need CPU offload or different hardware.
- Memory on this machine is not upgradeable, so the configuration you buy is the ceiling for every model you will ever run on it.
MacBook Pro M4 Pro 24 GB limitations
- Unified memory is soldered and cannot be upgraded after purchase.
- 24 GB is the practical ceiling for a single mid-size model plus a long context.
Recommended setup
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
How these numbers are calculated
- Memory need = quantized weights + KV cache at 8,192 tokens (f16) + 0.8 GB runtime overhead.
- 24 GB unified memory at 273 GB/s, shared between CPU and GPU.
- macOS reserves a share of unified memory for the system, so not all of it is available to a model.
- Throughput is a memory-bandwidth roofline estimate, not a measurement. It is labelled "estimated" everywhere it appears.
- KV cache is computed from this model's published attention configuration.
FAQ
Can I run DeepSeek R1 on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)?
Yes, but it is tight — DeepSeek R1 Distill Qwen 14B at Q8_0 needs about 17 GB of the 18 GB usable on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB), leaving only ~1 GB before the runtime starts swapping. Expect ~9.4 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 8,192 tokens of context.
Which quantization of DeepSeek R1 should I use on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)?
Q8_0 — it needs about 17 GB of the 18 GB available, downloads as roughly 14.9 GB, and runs at an estimated 9.4 tokens/sec with up to 8K of context.
What limits DeepSeek R1 on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)?
Nothing binding — the model fits with headroom and generates at a usable speed on this hardware.
Which runtime should I use?
Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput
Other Models on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)
- Devstral on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)
- EXAONE 3.5 on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)
- Falcon 3 on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)
- Gemma 2 Family on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)
- Gemma 3 on MacBook Pro 14" (M4 Pro, 24 GB)
DeepSeek R1 on GPUs
- DeepSeek R1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090
- DeepSeek R1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
- DeepSeek R1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti
- DeepSeek R1 on NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070
What This Model Is Good At
Model & Tools
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