Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M5)

Configurations

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

Specifications 16.0 GB configuration

Best LLMs for the Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M5) 16.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
B66Good quality (B) · 66 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 84/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JBMellum2.1 Thinking (12B-A2.5B)JetBrains	Q4_K_M	9.0 GB	53.1 tok/s	Runs great
A76Great quality (A) · 76 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 84/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	IOK2 Horizon 7BInstitute of Foundation Models	Q4_K_M	8.2 GB	18.0 tok/s	Runs well
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	9.4 GB	13.5 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
A74Great quality (A) · 74 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.	XMiMo V2.6 Distill Qwen 9BXiaomi	Q4_K_M	7.5 GB	17.2 tok/s	Runs well
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.	Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4BNVIDIA	Q4_K_M	6.5 GB	35.9 tok/s	Runs great
A74Great quality (A) · 74 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.	STSenseNova Loop 9B PreviewSenseTime	Q4_K_M	7.8 GB	16.7 tok/s	Runs well
A73Great quality (A) · 73 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	DROrnith 1.5 9BDeepReinforce	Q4_K_M	7.6 GB	16.8 tok/s	Runs well
B64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Gemma 4 E4BGoogle	Q4_K_M	6.5 GB	35.9 tok/s	Runs great
A72Great quality (A) · 72 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 82/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Qwen3.5 9BAlibaba	Q4_K_M	7.6 GB	16.8 tok/s	Runs well
A71Great quality (A) · 71 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 81/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	DROrnith 1.0 9BDeepReinforce	Q4_K_M	7.6 GB	16.8 tok/s	Runs well

Best Image models for the Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M5) 16.0 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 84/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 4BBlack Forest Labs	FP8	10.2 GB	14 s	Runs welltight fit
A84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 80/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX 3 Image KleinBlack Forest Labs	Q4 GGUF	10.2 GB	1.8 min	Slowtight fit
A82Great quality (A) · 82 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Z-Image TurboAlibaba (Tongyi)	FP8	8.5 GB	38 s	Runs wellencoder unloaded after use
A78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 9BBlack Forest Labs	Q4 GGUF	8.0 GB	36 s	Runs wellencoder unloaded after use
A79Great quality (A) · 79 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BERNIE-Image TurboBaidu	Q4 GGUF	7.4 GB	65 s	Slowencoder unloaded after use
C52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BDSDXL-Lightning (4-step)ByteDance	FP8	5.6 GB	10 s	Runs great

Best Video models for the Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M5) 16.0 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 65/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	LLTX-Video 2BLightricks	FP8	6.1 GB	6.3 min	Runs wellencoder unloaded after use
B55Good quality (B) · 55 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Wan 2.1 T2V 1.3BAlibaba	FP16	8.4 GB	67.4 min	Very slowencoder unloaded after use
A74Great quality (A) · 74 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	THY-OmniWeaving (8.3B, unified video)Tencent	FP8	7.8 GB	2.8 h	Very slowCPU offload
C53Fair quality (C) · 53 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Wan 2.1 VACE 1.3BAlibaba	FP8	8.0 GB	65.7 min	Very slowencoder unloaded after use
D35Basic quality (D) · 35 of 100: how capable the model is at FP16, whatever it runs on. Match score 62/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	SAAnimateDiff v3 (SD 1.5)Shanghai AI Lab	FP16	4.7 GB	5.4 min	Runs well

Best Decision models for the Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M5) 16.0 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	2.3 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	2.3 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	2.3 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	2.0 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 (16 GB)

• MacBook Air (13-inch, M5)Apple · Laptop · 16, 24 or 32 GB · $1,099Product 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)