text model · Mistral · iOS

Can I run Mistral Small 3.1 24B on iPhone Air?

Compatibility verdict VRAM threshold engine

No, not enough memory would not load

No. Mistral Small 3.1 24B needs ~15.4 GB even at Q4_K_M, but iPhone Air only has ~8 GB usable.

Needs ~15.4 GB Device usable ~8 GB

Needs ~15.4 GB even at Q4_K_M, but only ~8 GB is usable.

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

The gap is about 7.4 GB: Mistral Small 3.1 24B needs roughly 15.4 GB at Q4_K_M and iPhone Air leaves only about 8 GB usable for a model. The lightest tracked hardware that runs Mistral Small 3.1 24B is the Apple M4 (24GB) at 24 GB. See Mistral Small 3.1 24B on Apple M4 (24GB).

Q4_K_M needed: ~15.4 GB
Usable on device: ~8 GB
Device memory: 12 GB

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Which quant fits

Quant ladder vs ~8 GB usable

Q2_K

~12.1 GB

Q3_K_M

~13.7 GB

Q4_K_M

~15.4 GB

Q5_K_M

~19.1 GB

Q6_K

~21.7 GB

Q8_0

~25.3 GB

FP16

~49.2 GB

The line marks iPhone Air's ~8 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: 24B
Q4_K_M size: 13.35 GB
Q8_0 size: 23.33 GB
Context: 128k
Ollama tag: mistral-small3.1:24b

Full Mistral Small 3.1 24B requirements →

Device iOS

Memory: 12 GB unified
Usable for weights: ~8 GB
Best runtime: llama.cpp + Metal (via PocketPal or Off Grid app)

Best models for iPhone Air →

What you can run instead

Run Mistral Small 3.1 24B on other hardware

Apple M4 (24GB)Apple M4 Pro (24GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 (24GB)AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX (24GB)Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 (32GB)

FAQ

Can iPhone Air run Mistral Small 3.1 24B?

No. Mistral Small 3.1 24B needs ~15.4 GB even at Q4_K_M, but iPhone Air only has ~8 GB usable.

How much memory does Mistral Small 3.1 24B need?

iPhone Air does not have enough memory. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~13.35 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~15.4 GB at a 4k context.

What is the best tool to run Mistral Small 3.1 24B 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.

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Markdown

[![Mistral Small 3.1 24B on iPhone Air](https://localmodel.run/badge/mistral-small-3.1-24b/iphone-air.svg)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/mistral-small-3.1-24b/iphone-air)

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.