Can I Run Gemma 4 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)?

Written by Jakub Rusinowski · Last updated June 3, 2026

Yes — comfortably

Yes, comfortably — Gemma 4 31B at Q6_K needs about 28 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~20 GB spare and running at ~5.6 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.

Confidence: medium · Recommended quantization: Q6_K · Estimated speed: ~5.6 tok/s

Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB) — what it gives a model

Usable memory for models48 GB
Memory bandwidth273 GB/s
Form factorMini PC
Operating systemmacOS
Memory upgradeableNo — soldered

Gemma 4 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB): memory by quantization

QuantMemory neededFits 48 GB?Max contextEst. speedDownload
F1664.6 GB✗ No62 GB
Q8_035.5 GB✓ Yes32K~4.4 tok/s32.9 GB
Q6_K28 GB✓ Yes64K~5.6 tok/s25.4 GB
Q5_K_M24.6 GB✓ Yes64K~6.4 tok/s22 GB
Q4_K_M21.3 GB✓ Yes64K~7.5 tok/s18.7 GB
Q3_K_M15.8 GB✓ Yes128K~10.3 tok/s13.2 GB
Q2_K12.8 GB✓ Yes128K~13 tok/s10.2 GB

Which Gemma 4 sizes fit

VariantNeeds at Q4_K_MFits?Est. speed
Gemma 4 31B21.3 GB✓ Fits~7.5 tok/s
Gemma 4 26B-A4B18.2 GB✓ Fits~40.2 tok/s
Gemma 4 12B (Unified)9.4 GB✓ Fits~17.9 tok/s
Gemma 4 E4B6.8 GB✓ Fits~25.6 tok/s
Gemma 4 E2B4.9 GB✓ Fits~37.1 tok/s

What to watch out for

Mac mini M4 Pro 64 GB limitations

Recommended setup

Ollama or LM Studio (Metal) — MLX for the fastest Apple-native throughput

How these numbers are calculated

FAQ

Can I run Gemma 4 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)?

Yes, comfortably — Gemma 4 31B at Q6_K needs about 28 GB of the 48 GB usable on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB), leaving ~20 GB spare and running at ~5.6 tok/s (estimated), with room for about 65,536 tokens of context.

Which quantization of Gemma 4 should I use on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)?

Q6_K — it needs about 28 GB of the 48 GB available, downloads as roughly 25.4 GB, and runs at an estimated 5.6 tokens/sec with up to 64K of context.

What limits Gemma 4 on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 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 Computers

Other Models on Mac mini (M4 Pro, 64 GB)

Gemma 4 on GPUs

What This Model Is Good At

Model & Tools

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