iPhone Diff

What will you use your Mac for?

Running AI models on your Mac

Which Mac is enough, from what Apple and app makers publish. Where nobody publishes a figure, our own rule of thumb is marked as such.

What Apple and app makers say

The levels

Works

The size of model you can run depends mostly on memory. Apple publishes no figure, so this is our rule of thumb.

  • 16GB of memory or moreOur rule of thumb (not Apple's)

Comfortable

M5-generation chips add Neural Accelerators to the graphics cores.

The Works conditions, plus:

  • Neural Accelerators in the GPUApple says
  • 32GB of memory or moreOur rule of thumb (not Apple's)

Heavy use

Max and Ultra chips can be ordered with the most memory, for the largest models.

The Works conditions, plus:

  • Max or Ultra chipOur rule of thumb (not Apple's)
  • Can be ordered with 128GB of memory or moreApple says

Current models for this

Models Apple sells new today, cheapest first within each level.

Heavy use

Works

Not enough

Your older model?

Every Mac we have checked, by release year.

Laptops, 2024–
Laptops, 2020–2023
Laptops, 2016–2019
Desktops, 2024–
Desktops, 2020–2023
Desktops, 2016–2019

How we decide

Each use has up to three levels: Works, Comfortable and Heavy use. Comfortable and Heavy use each add their own conditions to the Works conditions, and a model gets the highest level whose conditions it meets.

"Apple says" and "The app's maker says" mark requirements that Apple or the app's maker publishes. "Our rule of thumb (not Apple's)" marks our own suggestion, used where nobody publishes a figure.

Memory and storage are judged on the standard configuration. When ordering more memory or storage would reach a higher level, we add a "configurable" note.

When a spec is not published by Apple or not in our data, we say "Can't confirm" instead of guessing, and the condition does not count as met.

App and system requirements change with new versions. The date at the bottom of each page shows when we last checked them.

Heavy use:
Meets the minimum and the conditions for big projects or heavy daily use.
Comfortable:
Meets the minimum and the conditions for everyday use without waiting around.
Works:
Meets the minimum conditions: the apps and features for this run.
Can't confirm:
A spec the minimum needs is not published by Apple or not in our data, so we do not count it as met.
Not enough:
Misses at least one of the minimum conditions.

Requirements checked on 2026-10-11.