Kimi Linear 48B-A3B on Apple M4 Pro (48 GB)

Can the Apple M4 Pro (48 GB) run Kimi Linear 48B-A3B?

Yes, it runs well (tight fit)

Runs well (tight fit). At Q4_K_M it needs about 33.5 GB of 36.0 GB usable, with an estimated speed of 72.7 tok/s.

Best quant: Q4_K_M
Generation speed: 72.7 tok/s
Prompt processing: 1,901 tok/s
First token (1K prompt): 0.5 s
Largest safe context: 309K

Best app to run it on the Apple M4 Pro (48 GB)

On macOS

LM Studio

Desktop app · runs on llama.cpp, MLX · use the MLX build

Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 3B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Point-and-click: search, download and chat in one window.

Open Kimi Linear 48B-A3B in LM Studio

MLX LM Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 3B active parameters on Apple silicon.
Unsloth Desktop Runs the MLX build, typically 35–90% faster than GGUF for a model with 3B active parameters on Apple silicon.

How we choose: the files published for this model, your operating system and GPU, whether it fits fully in memory, and published speed tests (MLX vs llama.cpp on Apple silicon, vLLM vs llama.cpp vs Ollama on NVIDIA). Details.

Download Kimi Linear 48B-A3B

Recommended for the Apple M4 Pro (48 GB): Q4_K_M. Every other quantization has its own download link in the table below.

Quantized files · GGUF

Works in LM Studio, llama.cpp, Jan and Ollama. No sign-in needed.

Download the Q4_K_M file (opens in a new tab)

huggingface.co/bartowski/moonshotai_Kimi-Linear-48B-A3B-Instruct-GGUF (opens in a new tab)

ollama run hf.co/bartowski/moonshotai_Kimi-Linear-48B-A3B-Instruct-GGUF:Q4_K_M

Original weights · Hugging Face

Full-precision files from Moonshot AI, for fine-tuning, vLLM, Transformers.

huggingface.co/moonshotai/Kimi-Linear-48B-A3B-Instruct (opens in a new tab)

No sign-in needed.

Official repo · GitHub

Reference code, inference scripts and docs from Moonshot AI. The weights themselves download from Hugging Face.

github.com/MoonshotAI/Kimi-Linear (opens in a new tab)

git clone https://github.com/MoonshotAI/Kimi-Linear

Links checked 2 days ago against Hugging Face, Ollama and GitHub.

How it’s rated

Quality 70Great quality (A) · 70 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.: How capable the model itself is at Q4_K_M, from its editorial quality tier scaled by the quantization or precision. It’s the same on any hardware that runs this variant. Scale: A+ 85+ · A 70+ · B 55+ · C 40+ · D under 40.
Runs Runs welltight fit: How well it runs on the Apple M4 Pro (48 GB): speed, capped by how well it fits in memory. Runs great: 30+ tokens/s (or near the image, video or decision speed target) · Runs well: 10+ tokens/s · Slow: 3+ tokens/s · Very slow: under 3 · Won’t run: doesn’t fit even with offload. A tight fit or RAM offload caps it at Runs well; heavy offload caps it at Slow.

Match score

To order lists, each result also gets a match score out of 100 from four parts. It favors the most capable model that still runs well.

Model qualityEditorial quality tier of the model, scaled by the quantization or precision used.	31.6 / 45
Memory fitFull marks when the model fits in the share of unified memory the GPU can use; fewer when it goes past that limit.	24.0 / 25
SpeedGeneration speed against a 40 tokens/s target for LLMs, or render time against a target for image and video.	15.0 / 15
Memory useRewards using the memory you have, so a bigger, better variant beats a tiny one that leaves most memory idle.	15.0 / 15
Match score	85.6 / 100

The match score orders results; it is not shown as a grade. Quality and Runs are the two ratings in the tables.

Every quantization on the Apple M4 Pro (48 GB)

Quant	Memory needed	Available	Speed	Runs	Quality	Download
`Q2_K`	23.2 GB	36.0 GB	106 tok/s	Runs great	51Fair quality (C) · 51 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q3_K_M`	27.6 GB	36.0 GB	88.6 tok/s	Runs great	62Good quality (B) · 62 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q4_K_M`	33.5 GB	36.0 GB	72.7 tok/s	Runs welltight fit	70Great quality (A) · 70 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q5_K_M`	38.4 GB	36.0 GB	52.8 tok/s	Runs wellover GPU memory limit	71Great quality (A) · 71 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q6_K`	43.8 GB	36.0 GB	45.7 tok/s	Slowfar over GPU memory limit	73Great quality (A) · 73 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF (opens in a new tab)
`Q8_0`	55.6 GB	36.0 GB	—	Won't run	74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab)
`F16`	102 GB	36.0 GB	—	Won't run	74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 9/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	GGUF · folder (opens in a new tab) Original weights (opens in a new tab)

Memory figures assume 8K of context. Longer conversations or documents grow the KV cache.

Other hardware that runs it

74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M2 Ultra (192 GB) F16 · 51.3 tok/s · Runs great
74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (128 GB) Q8_0 · 71.4 tok/s · Runs great
74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 (128 GB) Q8_0 · 39.1 tok/s · Runs great
71Great quality (A) · 71 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M1 Max (64 GB) Q5_K_M · 82.7 tok/s · Runs great
71Great quality (A) · 71 of 100: how capable the model is at Q5_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. Apple M4 Max (64 GB) Q5_K_M · 102 tok/s · Runs great
74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking. NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Q8_0 · 154 tok/s · Runs great

Quick answers

How much memory does Kimi Linear 48B-A3B need on the M4 Pro 48GB?

At Q4_K_M it needs about 33.5 GB. The M4 Pro 48GB has 36.0 GB usable.

How fast is Kimi Linear 48B-A3B on the M4 Pro 48GB?

About 72.7 tok/s at Q4_K_M, an estimate from the hardware’s memory bandwidth and the size of the model.

Which quantization of Kimi Linear 48B-A3B should I use on the M4 Pro 48GB?

Q4_K_M. Of the versions that fit, it is the one that runs best; when two run equally well, the check prefers the higher-rated one.

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.