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Can I run Qwen3.5-9B on a Mac with 16 GB?

Yes, with a GGUF version

The published weights are too big, but the Q8_0 file from unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF (9.53 GB) fits, with room for ≈ 32K tokens of context.

Full analysis of Qwen3.5-9B Everything that runs on Mac with 16 GB Get the Q8_0 file on Hugging Face
ollama run hf.co/unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF:Q8_0

Files and context on Mac with 16 GB

Each file of Qwen3.5-9B (and of GGUF versions the site has analyzed), and how much context fits next to it, with the context cache in 16-bit or 8-bit.

FileSizeOn Mac with 16 GB Context (16-bit)Context (8-bit)
As published19.3 GBDoesn't fit——
BF16unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF17.9 GBDoesn't fit——
UD-Q8_K_XLunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF13.0 GBDoesn't fit——
Q8_0unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF9.53 GBTight32K65K
UD-Q6_K_XLunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF8.76 GBTight55K111K
Q6_Kunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF7.46 GBFits94K188K
UD-Q5_K_XLunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF6.74 GBFits115K231K
Q5_K_Munsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF6.58 GBFits120K241K
Q5_K_Sunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF6.36 GBFits127K254K
UD-Q4_K_XLunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.97 GBFits139K256K
Q4_1unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.84 GBFits142K256K
Q4_K_Munsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.68 GBFits147K256K
Q4_K_Sunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.39 GBFits156K256K
Q4_0unsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.38 GBFits156K256K
IQ4_NLunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.37 GBFits156K256K
IQ4_XSunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.17 GBFits162K256K
UD-Q3_K_XLunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF5.05 GBFits166K256K
Q3_K_Munsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF4.67 GBFits177K256K
Q3_K_Sunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF4.32 GBFits188K256K
UD-Q2_K_XLunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF4.12 GBFits194K256K
UD-IQ3_XXSunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF4.02 GBFits197K256K
UD-IQ2_Munsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF3.65 GBFits208K256K
UD-IQ2_XXSunsloth/Qwen3.5-9B-GGUF3.19 GBFits221K256K

Qwen3.5-9B on other hardware

Popular models that run on Mac with 16 GB

Assumes 67% of the Mac's memory is usable (macOS's default limit for the GPU; it can be raised) and at least 4K tokens of context for one conversation, with the context cache in 16-bit unless noted. Fits leaves at least 20% of that memory for context; Tight leaves less.