# Can I run Phi-3.5-mini 3.8B on iPhone Air?

> **Yes, it runs.** Runs at Q4_K_M using ~3.7 GB of ~8 GB usable. You have room for Q8_0 for higher quality.

Last validated: 2026-06-15.

## Memory math
- Phi-3.5-mini 3.8B: 3.82B; Q4_K_M weighs 2.39 GB on disk.
- At Q4_K_M with a 4k context it needs ~3.7 GB (weights + KV cache + ~0.8 GB runtime overhead, ±15% with context length).
- iPhone Air: 12 GB unified, ~8 GB usable for model weights.
- Headroom: ~4.3 GB; it also fits Q8_0 for higher quality.

## How to run
Recommended quant: Q4_K_M. Best tool on iOS: Apple Foundation Models.

## Run Phi-3.5-mini 3.8B on other devices
- [Apple M1 (8GB)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/apple-m1-8gb)
- [8GB RAM Laptop (CPU/iGPU only)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/laptop-8gb)
- [iPhone 15 Pro](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/iphone-15-pro)
- [iPhone 16](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/iphone-16)
- [iPhone 16 Pro](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/iphone-16-pro)
- [Generic Android Phone (8GB RAM)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/android-generic-8gb)

## Other models that run on iPhone Air
- [Falcon3 10B (10B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/falcon3-10b/iphone-air)
- [Gemma 2 9B (9B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/gemma-2-9b/iphone-air)
- [GLM-4 9B (9B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/glm-4-9b/iphone-air)
- [Qwen2.5-VL 7B (8.29B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/qwen2.5-vl-7b/iphone-air)
- [Llama 3.1 8B (8B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/llama-3.1-8b/iphone-air)
- [Qwen3 8B (8B)](https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/qwen3-8b/iphone-air)

Estimate, not a guarantee. Sources: https://ollama.com/library/phi3.5:3.8b, https://huggingface.co/bartowski/Phi-3.5-mini-instruct-GGUF, https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/new-models-added-to-the-phi-3-family-available-on-microsoft-azure/, https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azure-ai-foundry-blog/discover-the-new-multi-lingual-high-quality-phi-3-5-slms/4225280.
More: https://localmodel.run/can-i-run/phi-3.5-mini/iphone-air