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 picks

Estimates 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.

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

Runs wellB · 37

Best for coding, agents, multimodal. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run qwen3.5:4b

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

Runs wellB · 29

Best for on-device, mobile, chat. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run gemma4:e4b

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

Runs wellB · 37

Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run gemma3:4b

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

Runs wellB · 43

Best for coding, chat. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run phi4-mini:3.8b

Qwen3.5 4B Instruct (Q8)

Qwen / 4B / Q8_0 / ~4.3 GB

Best for: Coding, Agents, Multimodal·Perf: ~18.1 tok/s · first token ~1.0s

Runs wellC · 23

This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run qwen3.5:4b-q8_0

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

Runs wellC · 2

This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run lfm2.5:8b-a1b-q4_K_M

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

Runs wellB · 43

Best for coding, chat. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run phi3:mini

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

Runs wellC · 0

This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run ornith:9b

Gemma 3 4B Instruct (Q8)

Gemma / 4B / Q8_0 / ~3.9 GB

Best for: Chat, Coding·Perf: ~18.1 tok/s · first token ~1.0s

Runs wellB · 30

Best for chat, coding. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run gemma3:4b-it-q8_0

Gemma 4 E2B (Q8)

Gemma / 2.3B / Q8_0 / ~4.6 GB

Best for: IoT, Mobile, Edge·Perf: ~31.5 tok/s · first token ~0.8s

Runs wellC · 18

This model may feel memory-heavy on 8 GB RAM, but it is still listed for balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run gemma4:e2b-it-q8_0

Phi-4 Mini 3.8B (Q8)

Phi / 3.8B / Q8_0 / ~3.8 GB

Best for: Coding, Chat·Perf: ~19.1 tok/s · first token ~1.0s

Runs wellB · 32

Best for coding, chat. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run phi4-mini:3.8b-q8_0

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

Runs wellB · 59

Best for iot, mobile, edge. Strong fit for 8 GB RAM with balanced speed and quality.

ollama

$ollama run gemma4:e2b

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