Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Configurations

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

Specifications 8.0 GB configuration

Best LLMs for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 8.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
B58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Gemma 4 E2BGoogle	Q4_K_M	4.2 GB	31.4 tok/s	Runs great
B64Good quality (B) · 64 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 79/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Nemotron Labs Dory 1.0 4BNVIDIA	Q4_K_M	3.9 GB	18.1 tok/s	Runs well
B62Good quality (B) · 62 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 78/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	SLSpark-X2.6 4BSparkLLM	Q4_K_M	3.8 GB	17.6 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 77/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BZNanbeige4.2 3BBOSS Zhipin (Nanbeige)	Q4_K_M	5.0 GB	17.3 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
C50Fair quality (C) · 50 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	AGLing 3.0 Tiny (8B-A1.3B)Ant Group (inclusionAI)	Q3_K_M	5.1 GB	58.2 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 76/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Nemotron 3.5 Bolt E4BNVIDIA	Q3_K_M	5.1 GB	20.7 tok/s	Runs welltight fit
B57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	OBMiniCPM5 2BOpenBMB	Q4_K_M	2.9 GB	28.6 tok/s	Runs well
B57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	ATMax 4BAi2	Q4_K_M	3.9 GB	17.1 tok/s	Runs well
B58Good quality (B) · 58 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba	Q4_K_M	4.1 GB	15.5 tok/s	Runs well
B57Good quality (B) · 57 of 100: how capable the model is at Q3_K_M, whatever it runs on. Match score 75/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Gemma 4 E4BGoogle	Q3_K_M	5.1 GB	20.7 tok/s	Runs welltight fit

Best Image models for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 8.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
A72Great quality (A) · 72 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 74/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 4BBlack Forest Labs	Q4 GGUF	4.6 GB	32 s	Runs welltight fit · encoder unloaded after use
D39Basic quality (D) · 39 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.	SASDXL TurboStability AI	FP8	4.2 GB	3.4 s	Runs great
A+89Excellent quality (A+) · 89 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 70/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX 3 Image KleinBlack Forest Labs	FP8	4.2 GB	2.8 min	Very slowCPU offload
A82Great quality (A) · 82 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 69/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	Z-Image TurboAlibaba (Tongyi)	FP8	4.4 GB	74 s	SlowCPU offload
C52Fair quality (C) · 52 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 68/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BDSDXL-Lightning (4-step)ByteDance	FP8	4.7 GB	17 s	Runs welltight fit · encoder unloaded after use
A78Great quality (A) · 78 of 100: how capable the model is at Q4 GGUF, whatever it runs on. Match score 67/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	BFFLUX.2 [klein] 9BBlack Forest Labs	Q4 GGUF	4.3 GB	71 s	SlowCPU offload

Best Video models for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 8.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
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	8.5 min	Runs welltight fit
C49Fair quality (C) · 49 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 56/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	LLTX-Video 2BLightricks	FP8	4.0 GB	12.4 min	SlowCPU offload
C44Fair quality (C) · 44 of 100: how capable the model is at FP8, whatever it runs on. Match score 49/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	ZACogVideoX 2BZhipu AI	FP8	4.7 GB	29.7 min	Slowtight fit · CPU offload

Best Decision models for the Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) 8.0 GB

Quality	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Runs
A80Great quality (A) · 80 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.	FGLiNER2.5 DecideFastino	Q8_0	1.2 GB	89 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.	Llama Prompt Guard 2 86MMeta	Q8_0	1.0 GB	101 ms	Runs great
A+86Excellent quality (A+) · 86 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.	JAJina Reranker v3.5Jina AI	Q8_0	1.9 GB	211 ms	Runs well
A80Great quality (A) · 80 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	SAFRIDA-DecisionsSber AI	Q8_0	1.7 GB	146 ms	Runs well
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	83 ms	Runs great
A84Great quality (A) · 84 of 100: how capable the model is at Q8_0, whatever it runs on. Match score 88/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	JAJina Reranker v3Jina AI	Q8_0	1.9 GB	211 ms	Runs well
A78Great quality (A) · 78 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.	OAOpenAI Privacy FilterOpenAI	F16	3.8 GB	14 ms	Runs great
A72Great quality (A) · 72 of 100: how capable the model is at F16, whatever it runs on. Match score 87/100 (quality, fit, speed and memory use) sets the ranking.	MLDeBERTa v3 Large Zero-shot v2.0Moritz Laurer	F16	1.6 GB	91 ms	Runs great

Other products with the Apple M1 (8 GB)

• MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020)Apple · Laptop · 8 or 16 GB · $1,299–$1,499Product page (opens in a new tab)
• Mac mini (M1, 2020)Apple · Mini PC · 8 or 16 GB · $699–$899Product page (opens in a new tab)
• iMac (24-inch, M1, 2021)Apple · Desktop · 8 or 16 GB · $1,299–$1,699Product page (opens in a new tab)