text model · Mistral · iOS

Can I run Ministral 3 8B on iPhone 15 Pro?

Compatibility verdict VRAM threshold engine

No, not enough memory would not load

No. Ministral 3 8B needs ~6.3 GB even at Q4_K_M, but iPhone 15 Pro only has ~4.5 GB usable.

Needs ~6.3 GB Device usable ~4.5 GB

Needs ~6.3 GB even at Q4_K_M, but only ~4.5 GB is usable.

That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes.

The gap is about 1.8 GB: Ministral 3 8B needs roughly 6.3 GB at Q4_K_M and iPhone 15 Pro leaves only about 4.5 GB usable for a model. The lightest tracked hardware that runs Ministral 3 8B is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB) at 8 GB. See Ministral 3 8B on Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB).

Q4_K_M needed: ~6.3 GB
Usable on device: ~4.5 GB
Device memory: 8 GB

Share on X Share on Reddit

Which quant fits

Quant ladder vs ~4.5 GB usable

Q2_K

~4.9 GB

Q3_K_M

~5.4 GB

Q4_K_M

~6.3 GB

Q5_K_M

~7.2 GB

Q6_K

~8.1 GB

Q8_0

~9.9 GB

FP16

~19.4 GB

The line marks iPhone 15 Pro's ~4.5 GB budget; rungs past it are too large.

How to run it

On iOS use Apple Foundation Models (Built into iOS 26, ~3B on-device model, zero download, fully private.).

Model Mistral

Parameters: 8B
Q4_K_M size: 4.84 GB
Q8_0 size: 8.41 GB
Context: 256k
Ollama tag: ministral-3:8b

Full Ministral 3 8B requirements →

Device iOS

Memory: 8 GB unified
Usable for weights: ~4.5 GB
Power draw: ~14 W
Best runtime: llama.cpp + Metal (via PocketPal or Off Grid app)

Best models for iPhone 15 Pro →

What you can run instead

Run Ministral 3 8B on other hardware

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (8GB)Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 (8GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (12GB)Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Generic Android Phone (12GB RAM)

FAQ

Can iPhone 15 Pro run Ministral 3 8B?

No. Ministral 3 8B needs ~6.3 GB even at Q4_K_M, but iPhone 15 Pro only has ~4.5 GB usable.

How much memory does Ministral 3 8B need?

iPhone 15 Pro does not have enough memory. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~4.84 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~6.3 GB at a 4k context.

What is the best tool to run Ministral 3 8B on iOS?

On iPhone and iPad, Apple Foundation Models (Built into iOS 26, ~3B on-device model, zero download, fully private.) is the standard choice. Phones realistically run 1B-4B class models. Anything larger thermally throttles or OOMs.

Embed this

A live badge for your model card or README, updated as the data is.

Markdown

[![Ministral 3 8B on iPhone 15 Pro](https://localmodel.run/badge/ministral-3-8b/iphone-15-pro.svg)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/ministral-3-8b/iphone-15-pro)

Sources

Weights are measured from GGUF files; KV cache and overhead are computed, so totals can vary ~15% with context and runtime. Any tok/s is a bandwidth estimate. See methodology.