01
Qwen3.5 4B Instruct
Qwen / 4B / Q4_K_M / ~3.5 GB
Best for: Coding, Agents, Multimodal·Perf: ~33.1 tok/s · first token ~0.8s
Best for coding, agents, multimodal. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:4b
Best Local LLMs for 8GB RAM
Ranked open-weight models that run well on a 8GB 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 ~8GB
12 picksEstimates assume a representative Apple-Silicon machine with 8GB unified memory. Tok/s are ModelFit estimates, not measured benchmarks. Run the wizard for figures tuned to your exact chip.
Runs well
02
Gemma 4 E4B
Gemma / 4.5B / Q4_K_M / ~4 GB
Best for: On-device, Mobile, Chat·Perf: ~29.4 tok/s · first token ~0.8s
Best for on-device, mobile, chat. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma4:e4b
03
Gemma 3 4B Instruct
Gemma / 4B / Q4_K_M / ~3.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~33.1 tok/s · first token ~0.8s
Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma3:4b
04
Phi-4 Mini 3.8B
Phi / 3.8B / Q4_K_M / ~3.2 GB
Best for: Coding, Chat·Perf: ~34.8 tok/s · first token ~0.7s
Best for coding, chat. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run phi4-mini:3.8b
05
LFM2.5 8B-A1B
LFM2 / 8.3B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: On-device agents, tool calling, multilingual chat·Perf: ~34.4 tok/s · first token ~0.7s
This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run lfm2.5:8b-a1b-q4_K_M
06
Phi-3 Mini 3.8B
Phi / 3.8B / Q4_K_M / ~3.2 GB
Best for: Coding, Chat·Perf: ~34.8 tok/s · first token ~0.7s
Best for coding, chat. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run phi3:mini
07
Ornith 1.0 9B
Ornith / 9B / Q4_K_M / ~5.6 GB
Best for: Agentic coding on small machines·Perf: ~13.2 tok/s · first token ~1.2s
This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run ornith:9b
08
Gemma 4 E2B
Gemma / 2.3B / Q4_K_M / ~2.3 GB
Best for: IoT, Mobile, Edge·Perf: ~57.5 tok/s · first token ~0.6s
Best for iot, mobile, edge. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run gemma4:e2b
09
Qwen3.5 2B Instruct
Qwen / 2B / Q4_K_M / ~1.8 GB
Best for: Chat, Edge tasks·Perf: ~66.2 tok/s · first token ~0.6s
Best for chat, edge tasks. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen3.5:2b
10
Qwen2.5 Coder 7B
Qwen / 7B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: Coding·Perf: ~17.3 tok/s · first token ~1.0s
This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen2.5-coder:7b
11
DeepSeek-R1 Distill Qwen 7B
DeepSeek / 7B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: Reasoning, Coding·Perf: ~17.3 tok/s · first token ~1.0s
This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run deepseek-r1:7b
12
Qwen2.5 7B Instruct
Qwen / 7B / Q4_K_M / ~5.5 GB
Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~17.3 tok/s · first token ~1.0s
This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.
$ollama run qwen2.5:7b-instruct-q4_K_M
Want an exact recommendation?
The wizard tunes picks and speed estimates to your exact device, chip, and RAM.