# Can I run Mistral Nemo 12B on Apple M1 (8GB)?

> **No, not enough memory.** Needs ~8.6 GB even at Q4_K_M, but only ~5.5 GB is usable.

Last validated: 2026-06-15.

## Memory math
- Mistral Nemo 12B: 12.2B; Q4_K_M weighs 6.96 GB on disk.
- At Q4_K_M with a 4k context it needs ~8.6 GB (weights + KV cache + ~0.8 GB runtime overhead, ±15% with context length).
- Apple M1 (8GB): 8 GB unified, ~5.5 GB usable for model weights.
- Headroom: ~-3.1 GB.

## How to run
Recommended quant: n/a. Best tool on macOS: LM Studio.

```sh
ollama run mistral-nemo:12b
```

## Run Mistral Nemo 12B on other devices
- [Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-nemo-12b/nvidia-rtx-3060-12gb)
- [Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (12GB)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-nemo-12b/nvidia-rtx-4070-12gb)
- [Apple M2 (16GB)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-nemo-12b/apple-m2-16gb)
- [Apple M4 (16GB)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-nemo-12b/apple-m4-16gb)
- [Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 Ti (16GB)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-nemo-12b/nvidia-rtx-4060-ti-16gb)
- [Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 (16GB)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-nemo-12b/nvidia-rtx-4080-16gb)

## Other models that run on Apple M1 (8GB)
- [Gemma 3 4B (4B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/gemma-3-4b/apple-m1-8gb)
- [Qwen3 4B (4B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/qwen3-4b/apple-m1-8gb)
- [Phi-3.5-mini 3.8B (3.82B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/apple-m1-8gb)
- [Phi-4-mini 3.8B (3.8B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-4-mini-3.8b/apple-m1-8gb)
- [Qwen2.5-VL 3B (3.75B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/qwen2.5-vl-3b/apple-m1-8gb)
- [Qwen2.5 3B (3.09B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/qwen2.5-3b/apple-m1-8gb)

Estimate, not a guarantee. Sources: https://ollama.com/library/mistral-nemo, https://ollama.com/library/mistral-nemo/tags, https://huggingface.co/bartowski/Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407-GGUF, https://huggingface.co/mistralai/Mistral-Nemo-Instruct-2407.
More: https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-nemo-12b/apple-m1-8gb