Can I run MiniCPM5-1B on a M6 16GB Mac?

Q: Can I run MiniCPM5-1B on a M6 16GB Mac?

Yes — MiniCPM5-1B fits in 16 GB of M6 unified memory at 8-bit with 32K context; recommended max ~47K tokens (keeps 20% headroom) · hard limit ~104K tokens. Computed from the model's official config.json by the open-source FitLLM engine.

✅ Yes — it fits at 32K context (8-bit) — 12.0 of 16 GB

Computed with the open FitLLM engine — accurate per-layer KV-cache modeling, not a naive estimate. Updated 2026-10-19.

Conditions: 8-bit · KV cache F16 · 32K context · macOS reserve (9.0 GB).

Memory breakdown (8-bit, F16 KV, 32K context)

Model weights	1.0 GB
KV cache	0.8 GB
Runtime + macOS	10.2 GB
Total used	12.0 / 16 GB
Free	4.0 GB

Context at 8-bit: recommended max ~47K tokens (keeps 20% headroom) · hard limit ~104K tokens. Unified memory is shared with macOS and your apps — the recommended max leaves 20% of it free.

Every quantization on M6 16GB

Quant	Weights	Recommended max ctx	Hard limit	Used @32K
4bit	0.5 GB	~57K	~114K	✅ 11.4 / 16 GB
8bit	1.0 GB	~47K	~104K	✅ 12.0 / 16 GB
16bit	2.0 GB	~27K	~84K	⚠️ 13.1 / 16 GB

Recommended max = the longest context that still keeps the 20% headroom macOS needs · hard limit = the longest that fits at all (KV cache F16).

Lower quants free memory at some output-quality cost — 4-bit is the common sweet spot for local use.

▶ Open the interactive calculator (this exact setup)

Embed this verdict

Live badge for your README or model card — recomputed by the engine at exactly these conditions, never stale:

[![fits: MiniCPM5-1B on M6 16GB Mac](https://img.shields.io/endpoint?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffitllm.run%2Fapi%2Fbadge%3Fmodel%3DMiniCPM5-1B%26ram%3D16%26quant%3D8%26ctx%3D32768%26kv%3D16)](https://fitllm.run/can-i-run/minicpm5-1b-on-m6-16gb)

fit badge preview ← renders like this, live.

Or from your terminal (exit 0/1 — works as a pre-download guard):

npx fitllm "MiniCPM5-1B" --mac 16 --quant 8 --ctx 32768 --kv 16

Why most calculators get this wrong

MiniCPM5-1B's KV cache is computed per layer with its real head_dim and grouped-query head count — not the uniform "all layers × full context" shortcut most calculators use.

Other options

same Mac Models that fit in 16GB: MiniCPM5-1B, Qwen3-0.6B, Qwen3-1.7B, Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct, Gemma-3-1B-it, MiniCPM5-2B.

Reproduce it

Open math: fitllm-engine (MIT), from official config.json.

All numbers are computed by the open-source fitllm-engine (MIT) from official model config.json values — reproduce or audit them yourself. Estimates; real usage varies with runtime (llama.cpp / MLX / Ollama), driver and display. Found a mismatch? Report it. · FitLLM home