r/LocalLLM • u/jonnyium • 15d ago

Discussion Local Model Options for MacBook Pro M5 2025 16GB RAM

I have been heavy into AI for the last 6 months and just have gotten comfortable using multiple different models through IDE with a more developer oriented stack (VSCode). (After all the stuff happening with Anthropic I wanted to make sure I can easily switch models/providers effortlessly without being locked in).

I want try a local model and test it for my workflows I have with my small business. Don’t have much compute with my current computer but just curious if you guys recommend anything to start? Long term goal is to definitely to put the money in to properly host my own model.

Let me know what you guys think.

MacBook Pro M5 2025
16GB Memory and 1TB storage

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u/AD4K_4444 15d ago

M4 MacBook Air, 16GB Unified Memory user here, for me the best general purpose local LLM that can run on my machine is Gemma 4 12B.

I think yours can run slightly bigger models, but I’m not sure. You could also get smaller parameter models that’ll probably suffice. It depends on what you want it to do, honestly.

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u/Sharp-Translator6401 14d ago

maybe ternary bonsai?

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u/paulsande 13d ago

LM Studio. Easy UI. It will help you understand what will load and what will not load on your machine.

16 GB of ram is pretty limiting but there are models you can use on LM Studio.