Mac mini M4 24GB For summaries and short coding questions with a 12B model, try 24GB first.
If you summarize short documents and ask about small sections of code, first check whether the model you plan to use gives useful answers. If a 12B Q4 model does the job, 32GB is worth considering only when your work needs more memory headroom.
Speed and memory for the same model
Hardware core specifications
- Available memory
- 20GB
- Memory bandwidth
- 120GB/s
- Estimated sustained LLM load
- About 45W
- Korean price range (KRW)
- 150 × KRW 10,000–235 × KRW 10,000
Who it fits
- Short document summaries with 12B
- Questions about a function or code excerpt
- A compact desktop unit
Skip it if
If your main task is feeding long documents to a 27B Q4 model, check memory headroom at that input length before choosing this configuration. macOS and open apps share the same 24GB, and you cannot add RAM after purchase.
Recommended format for each device 4K input
The model you will experience with this equipment
K2 Horizon 0.9B
Required 1.03GB · spare time
MLX 4-bit
Decode
154 ~ 172.1 tok/s
First token
1.5 to 3.8 seconds
Gemma 4 12B
recommendedRequired 8GB · spare time
MLX 4-bit
Decode
11.6 ~ 12.9 tok/s
First token
12.8 ~ 31.1 s
K2 Horizon MoVA 36B-A4B
Required 21.94GB · tight
MLX 4-bit
Decode
9.2 ~ 14.2 tok/s
First token
9.8 to 26.4 seconds
Actual speed varies with runtime version, cooling, context length and quantization file.
purchase judgment
What tasks is it suitable for?
Document/RAG
SuitableStart with a 12B Q4 model and the relevant parts of your document. Memory use depends on the input actually sent to the model, not the PDF's page count.
Coding assistance
SuitableTry explaining one function or requesting a small edit first. A task that includes the entire repository will not necessarily run at the same speed.
27B conversation
ConditionalFor 27B Q4, check whether the model file and cache fit together. If you need long inputs, compare 32GB under the same conditions.
- The first thing to get stuck
- Once the model fits, adding memory does not increase generation speed in proportion. Both the M4 24GB and 32GB use 120GB/s memory bandwidth. If waiting is the problem, compare speed with a Pro under the same conditions rather than looking only at capacity.
- Configuration to check
- M4 · 10-core GPU · 24GB unified memory · 512GB SSD recommended
- Criteria for spending more money
- If the answers and wait times from a 12B model suit you, you can stop here. Consider paying for 32GB only after choosing a larger model or finding that other open apps leave too little memory.
On sales pages, look at memory before chips.
The model and speed assumptions above change if the product is not the 24GB configuration.
Frequently asked questions
- What LLM can be run on the Mac mini M4 24GB?
- K2 Horizon 0.9B, Gemma 4 12B, K2 Horizon MoVA 36B-A4B and others with a 4K input and the recommended format. Required memory varies by model and context length.
- What is the local LLM power of the Mac mini M4 24GB?
- Sustained load is about 45 W, with an actual range of 30–60 W.
- Are the displayed token speeds ground truth?
- This is a range aligned to collected benchmark measurements under the same conditions. Combinations without a matching measurement are estimated from the nearest result and vary with runtime, cooling, quantization file and context length.
Equipment to compare together
If 16GB is enough
Mac mini M4 16GB
This is the right configuration to minimize costs and start with 8B to 12B models.
More memory for 27B
Mac mini M4 32GB
Consider this configuration if you want to run 27B Q4 without building a new PC. Moving up makes sense if 24GB was running out of memory. If the model and cache already fit, however, choosing 32GB does not make the chip itself faster.
Compare speed with the same model
Mac mini M4 Pro 48GB
When you repeatedly read documents and edit code with a 27B model, each wait matters as well as capacity. This page uses the 20-core GPU, 48GB configuration. Distinguish it from less expensive listings with a 16-core GPU.