Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M5)

Configurations

Pick one to see which models it runs. More memory lets larger models fit; bandwidth sets how fast they answer.

Specifications 24.0 GB configuration

Best LLMs for the Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M5) 24.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
A77Great quality (A) · 77 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Gemma 4 26B-A4BGoogle	Q3_K_M	14.9 GB	46.7 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
A73Great quality (A) · 73 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	KRRaon-1 mini Preview (30B-A4B)KRAFTON	Q3_K_M	16.1 GB	42.0 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B69Good quality (B) · 69 of 100: how capable the model is at Q6_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JBMellum2.1 Thinking (12B-A2.5B)JetBrains	Q6_K	12.0 GB	38.6 tok/s	Runs great
A70Great quality (A) · 70 of 100: how capable the model is at MXFP4, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	OAgpt-oss 20BOpenAI	MXFP4	14.0 GB	41.4 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BERNIE 4.5 21B-A3B ThinkingBaidu	Q4_K_M	15.7 GB	45.6 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	DGMaple Preview (20B-A1B)DeepGrove	Q4_K_M	14.3 GB	79.5 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B65Good quality (B) · 65 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	DiffusionGemma 26B-A4B ITGoogle	Q3_K_M	14.9 GB	44.7 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
A78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 83/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Gemma 4 12BGoogle	Q4_K_M	9.9 GB	13.5 tok/s	Runs well
B63Good quality (B) · 63 of 100: how capable the model is at Q2_K, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	KKAT-Coder V2.5 Dev (35B-A3B)Kuaishou	Q2_K	15.9 GB	69.3 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B60Good quality (B) · 60 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AGLing 3.0 Tiny (8B-A1.3B)Ant Group (inclusionAI)	Q8_0	10.5 GB	51.0 tok/s	Runs great

Best Image models for the Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M5) 24.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
A76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 86/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 4BBlack Forest Labs	FP8	10.2 GB	14 s	Runs well
A+89Excellent quality (A+) · 89 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 85/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX 3 Image KleinBlack Forest Labs	FP8	12.4 GB	82 s	Slow
A82Great quality (A) · 82 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 84/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Z-Image TurboAlibaba (Tongyi)	FP8	12.6 GB	36 s	Runs well
A83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BERNIE-Image TurboBaidu	FP8	14.5 GB	46 s	Slowtight fit
A82Great quality (A) · 82 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 81/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 9BBlack Forest Labs	FP8	11.7 GB	27 s	Runs wellencoder unloaded after use
A81Great quality (A) · 81 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Z-ImageAlibaba (Tongyi)	Q8 GGUF	13.0 GB	5.2 min	Very slow

Best Video models for the Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M5) 24.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
C49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 72/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	LLTX-Video 2BLightricks	FP8	10.8 GB	6.0 min	Runs well
C53Fair quality (C) · 53 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 67/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Wan 2.1 T2V 1.3BAlibaba	FP8	12.8 GB	57.8 min	Very slow
C44Fair quality (C) · 44 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	ZACogVideoX 2BZhipu AI	FP8	11.0 GB	14.4 min	Slow
B68Good quality (B) · 68 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	SAKandinsky 6.0 Video Lite (3B, video + audio)Sber AI	FP16	14.7 GB	87.1 min	Very slowtight fit · encoder unloaded after use
A83Great quality (A) · 83 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 66/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BDBernini-R A14B (video generation + editing)ByteDance	FP8	10.7 GB	3.8 h	Very slowCPU offload

Best Decision models for the Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M5) 24.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
A+86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 92/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JAJina Reranker v3.5Jina AI	Q8_0	2.8 GB	115 ms	Runs great
A84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JAJina Reranker v3Jina AI	Q8_0	2.8 GB	115 ms	Runs great
A80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	SAFRIDA-DecisionsSber AI	F16	2.4 GB	92 ms	Runs great
A80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 91/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	FGLiNER2.5 DecideFastino	F16	1.7 GB	57 ms	Runs great
A80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 90/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Qwen3 Reranker 0.6BAlibaba	Q8_0	2.8 GB	115 ms	Runs great
A76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Llama Prompt Guard 2 86MMeta	F16	1.2 GB	64 ms	Runs great
A76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 89/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Mmxbai-rerank-base v2Mixedbread	Q8_0	2.4 GB	94 ms	Runs great
A74Great 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.	KGLiClass ModernBERT Large v3Knowledgator	F16	1.5 GB	47 ms	Runs great

Other products with the Apple M5 (24 GB)

• MacBook Air (15-inch, M5)Apple · Laptop · 16, 24 or 32 GB · $1,299Product page (opens in a new tab)
• MacBook Pro (14-inch, M5)Apple · Laptop · 16, 24 or 32 GB · $1,599Product page (opens in a new tab)