01
Qwen3.5 9B Instruct
Qwen / 9B / Q4_K_M / ~7 GB
Best for: Quality, Coding, Reasoning·Perf: ~22.4 tok/s · first token ~0.9s
Best for quality, coding, reasoning. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:9b
Best Local LLMs for 16GB RAM
Ranked open-weight models that run well on a 16GB machine, with estimated speed and the exact ollama command for each.
Try: RTX 4090, MacBook Pro M4, 16GB, iPhone 17 Pro
Best local models for ~16GB
12 picksEstimates assume a representative Apple-Silicon machine with 16GB unified memory. Tok/s are ModelFit estimates, not measured benchmarks. Run the wizard for figures tuned to your exact chip.
Runs well
02
Qwen3 8B
Qwen / 8B / Q4_K_M / ~6.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~25.2 tok/s · first token ~0.8s
Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3:8b-q4_K_M
03
Gemma 4 12B
Gemma / 12B / Q4_K_M / ~8 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding, Multimodal·Perf: ~16.8 tok/s · first token ~1.0s
Best for chat, coding, multimodal. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma4:12b
04
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct
Llama / 8B / Q4_K_M / ~6.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~25.2 tok/s · first token ~0.8s
Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run llama3.1:8b-instruct-q4_K_M
05
Gemma 3 12B Instruct
Gemma / 12B / Q4_K_M / ~9.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Quality·Perf: ~16.8 tok/s · first token ~1.0s
This model may feel memory-heavy on 16 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma3:12b
06
Mistral Nemo 12B
Mistral / 12B / Q4_K_M / ~9.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Translation·Perf: ~16.8 tok/s · first token ~1.0s
This model may feel memory-heavy on 16 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run mistral-nemo:12b
07
Qwen3.5 4B Instruct
Qwen / 4B / Q4_K_M / ~3.5 GB
Best for: Coding, Agents, Multimodal·Perf: ~50.4 tok/s · first token ~0.6s
Best for coding, agents, multimodal. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:4b
08
Gemma 2 9B Instruct
Gemma / 9B / Q4_K_M / ~7 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~22.4 tok/s · first token ~0.9s
Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma2:9b-instruct-q4_K_M
09
Gemma 4 E4B
Gemma / 4.5B / Q4_K_M / ~4 GB
Best for: On-device, Mobile, Chat·Perf: ~44.8 tok/s · first token ~0.7s
Best for on-device, mobile, chat. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma4:e4b
10
LFM2.5 8B-A1B
LFM2 / 8.3B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: On-device agents, tool calling, multilingual chat·Perf: ~57.1 tok/s · first token ~0.6s
Best for on-device agents, tool calling, multilingual chat. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run lfm2.5:8b-a1b-q4_K_M
11
Llama 3.1 8B Instruct (Q5)
Llama / 8B / Q5_K_M / ~8 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~20.9 tok/s · first token ~0.9s
Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run llama3.1:8b-instruct-q5_K_M
12
Gemma 3 4B Instruct
Gemma / 4B / Q4_K_M / ~3.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~50.4 tok/s · first token ~0.6s
Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 16 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma3:4b
Want an exact recommendation?
The wizard tunes picks and speed estimates to your exact device, chip, and RAM.