Best local LLMs for Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB

Mac Studio M4 Max 128GB has 128GB of unified memory and is a strong fit for large local models without datacenter hardware. These recommendations are generated from the current LocalClaw catalogue and filtered for realistic memory headroom.

Recommendations updated September 28, 2026

Silver Mac Studio in a dark studio setting
Mac Studio · M4 Max · 128GB unified memory
Chip
M4 Max
Unified memory
128GB
Compatible catalogue models
211
Best match
Xing4.0-29B-A4B

Quick answer

Start with Xing4.0-29B-A4B on this Mac. A comfortable or good fit leaves useful memory for macOS and your local runtime. A tight fit can still work, but close other apps, reduce context length when needed, and prefer the listed quantization.

Mac Studio · M4 Max · 128GB unified memory · 2TB SSD · Max Power

Top compatible local LLMs

#1Best match

Xing4.0-29B-A4B

Official China Telecom XingChen-AGI Apache 2.0 MoE release with 29B total parameters, 4B active parameters, 256K native context and an official IQ4_NL GGUF path for llama.cpp-class local inference on 24GB GPU workstations.

Parameters29B (4B active, MoE)Minimum RAM32GBQuantizationIQ4_NL GGUFModel size20.1GB
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#2Best match

Occamy-1.0

Accio Lab Apache 2.0 co-work model post-trained from Qwen3.6-35B-A3B for long-horizon tools, files, code and business workflows. Official GGUF Q4_K_M is 19.7GiB with llama.cpp validation evidence.

Parameters35B (3B active, MoE)Minimum RAM32GBQuantizationQ4_K_MModel size19.7GB
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#3Best match

Nex-N2.5-mini

Official Nex-AGI Apache 2.0 multimodal agent model for computer use, web browsing, coding and tool calling. Community Q4_K_M GGUF is about 21.3GB with documented llama.cpp text and vision smoke tests.

Parameters35B MoEMinimum RAM32GBQuantizationQ4_K_MModel size21.3GB
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#4Best match

Qwen3.8 Flash Next

Official Qwen sparse multimodal MoE preview with 125B model parameters plus 51B n-gram embeddings, about 6B active parameters, Qwen Community 1.0 licensing, 262K native context and local Q4_K_M GGUF paths for llama.cpp, Ollama and LM Studio-class runtimes.

Parameters125B + 51B n-gram (6B active)Minimum RAM96GBQuantizationQ4_K_MModel size54.5GB
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#5Best match

Ornith-1.5-35B-A3B

Official MIT 35B MoE reasoning model from Ornith AI with about 3B active parameters, 262K context, strong agentic-coding positioning and official Q4_K_M GGUF plus MLX/Ollama/llama.cpp local paths for larger workstations.

Parameters35B (3B active, MoE)Minimum RAM48GBQuantizationQ4_K_MModel size21.72GB
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#6Best match

Muse Glimmer 30B

Meta Superintelligence Lab local agent model with text+image input, 131K context, Apache 2.0 weights and official GGUF/ExecuTorch artifacts. The K-Quant 17GB build targets 24GB machines; 32GB is safer for vision and long-context sessions.

Parameters29.8B multimodalMinimum RAM24GBQuantizationK-Quant 17GB Q4_K_MModel size17GB
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#7Best match

Qwen3.8-27B

Official Qwen dense 27B vision-language release with Apache 2.0 weights, 262K native context, thinking controls and strong agentic coding benchmarks. Practical local path through Unsloth and LM Studio-compatible GGUF artifacts.

Parameters27BMinimum RAM32GBQuantizationQ4_K_MModel size16.8GB
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#8Best match

Granite 4.2 (30B)

IBM Granite 4.2 30B brings the permissive Apache 2.0 Granite stack to workstation-class local reasoning, RAG, coding and tool-use workflows with GGUF and MLX community artifacts.

Parameters29.3BMinimum RAM32GBQuantizationQ4_K_MModel size18GB
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#9Best match

Granite 4.2 (8B)

IBM Granite 4.2 8B instruct model with Apache 2.0 weights, 128K context, thinking-mode chat template, tool calling and practical GGUF plus MLX paths for everyday local machines.

Parameters8.8BMinimum RAM8GBQuantizationQ4_K_MModel size5.2GB
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How this order works

The shared LocalClaw engine first rejects hosted-only, excluded and oversized records. It reserves system and 8k-context headroom, labels comfortable, good and tight fits, then ranks the remaining models by hardware fit, use case, catalogue capability ratings, runtime and freshness. Community stars are never included. This is practical guidance, not a standardized third-party benchmark.

Browse the full model index

Buying note

This guide is about local AI fit, not live pricing. Prices and availability change. An Amazon link may be an affiliate link that supports LocalClaw at no extra cost.