Products · Apple · Laptop

Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023)

Chip: Apple M2
Unified memory: 8, 16 or 24 GB
Launch price from: $1,299
Released: 2023

View on the Apple website (opens in a new tab) Full AI report

Configurations

Pick one to see which models it runs. More memory lets larger models fit; bandwidth sets how fast they answer.

Configuration	Memory	Usable for AI	Bandwidth	LLMs that run well	Launch price
Apple M2 · 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU	8.0 GB	5.4 GB	100 GB/s	207 of 536	$1,299
Apple M2 · 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU	16.0 GB	10.7 GB	100 GB/s	303 of 536	$1,499
Apple M2 · 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU	24.0 GB	16.1 GB	100 GB/s	363 of 536	$1,699

Specifications 8.0 GB configuration

Maker	Apple
Type	Laptop
Chip	Apple M2 (8 GB) · 8-core CPU, 10-core GPU
Unified memory	8.0 GB
Usable for AI models	5.4 GB
Memory bandwidth	100 GB/s
FP16 compute	3.6 TFLOPS
Notes	15.3-inch, fanless; base later raised to 16GB
Maker’s page	support.apple.com (opens in a new tab)

Best LLMs for the Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023) 8.0 GB

Grade · points	Model	Quant	Memory	Speed	Fit
77 ptsGreat (A) · 77 of 100 points: Model quality 26.1/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 11.9/15, Memory use 15.0/15	TMax 4BAi2	`Q4_K_M`	3.9 GB	25.1 tok/s	Runs well
77 ptsGreat (A) · 77 of 100 points: Model quality 26.5/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 11.3/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen3.5 4BAlibaba	`Q4_K_M`	4.1 GB	22.7 tok/s	Runs well
77 ptsGreat (A) · 77 of 100 points: Model quality 26.5/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 10.8/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Gemma 4 E2BGoogle	`Q4_K_M`	4.2 GB	20.6 tok/s	Runs well
77 ptsGreat (A) · 77 of 100 points: Model quality 25.7/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 11.4/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Agents-A1 4BInternScience	`Q4_K_M`	4.1 GB	23.3 tok/s	Runs well
76 ptsGreat (A) · 76 of 100 points: Model quality 22.7/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Ling 3.0 Tiny (8B-A1.3B)Ant Group (inclusionAI)	`Q3_K_M`	5.1 GB	52.6 tok/s	Tight fit
76 ptsGreat (A) · 76 of 100 points: Model quality 24.8/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 11.4/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Fara 1.5 4BMicrosoft	`Q4_K_M`	4.1 GB	23.3 tok/s	Runs well
75 ptsGreat (A) · 75 of 100 points: Model quality 23.9/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 12.2/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen3 4B Thinking 2507Alibaba	`Q4_K_M`	4.7 GB	26.3 tok/s	Tight fit
74 ptsGreat (A) · 74 of 100 points: Model quality 22.2/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 12.7/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Granite 4.2 3BIBM	`Q4_K_M`	3.9 GB	28.9 tok/s	Runs well
74 ptsGreat (A) · 74 of 100 points: Model quality 25.7/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 9.8/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Gemma 4 E4BGoogle	`Q3_K_M`	5.1 GB	17.1 tok/s	Tight fit
74 ptsGreat (A) · 74 of 100 points: Model quality 23.1/45, Memory fit 24.0/25, Speed 12.2/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Qwen3 4B Instruct 2507Alibaba	`Q4_K_M`	4.7 GB	26.3 tok/s	Tight fit

Best Image models for the Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023) 8.0 GB

Grade · points	Model	Precision	Memory	Time per output	Fit
75 ptsGreat (A) · 75 of 100 points: Model quality 32.6/45, Memory fit 18.0/25, Speed 9.5/15, Memory use 15.0/15	FLUX.2 [klein] 4BBlack Forest Labs	`Q4 GGUF`	4.6 GB	25 s	Tight fit
72 ptsGreat (A) · 72 of 100 points: Model quality 17.6/45, Memory fit 25.0/25, Speed 15.0/15, Memory use 15.0/15	SDXL TurboStability AI	`FP8`	4.2 GB	2.7 s	Runs well
70 ptsGood (B) · 70 of 100 points: Model quality 37.0/45, Memory fit 12.0/25, Speed 6.2/15, Memory use 15.0/15	Z-Image TurboAlibaba (Tongyi)	`FP8`	4.4 GB	58 s	Runs well
69 ptsGood (B) · 69 of 100 points: Model quality 23.8/45, Memory fit 18.0/25, Speed 13.1/15, Memory use 15.0/15	SDXL-Lightning (4-step)ByteDance	`FP8`	4.7 GB	13 s	Tight fit
68 ptsGood (B) · 68 of 100 points: Model quality 35.2/45, Memory fit 12.0/25, Speed 6.3/15, Memory use 15.0/15	FLUX.2 [klein] 9BBlack Forest Labs	`Q4 GGUF`	4.3 GB	56 s	Runs well
68 ptsGood (B) · 68 of 100 points: Model quality 25.6/45, Memory fit 18.0/25, Speed 9.6/15, Memory use 15.0/15	DreamShaper XL v2 TurboLykon	`FP8`	4.7 GB	24 s	Tight fit

Best Video models for the Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M2, 2023) 8.0 GB

Grade · points	Model	Precision	Memory	Time per output	Fit
63 ptsGood (B) · 63 of 100 points: Model quality 15.8/45, Memory fit 23.0/25, Speed 10.1/15, Memory use 15.0/15	AnimateDiff v3 (SD 1.5)Shanghai AI Lab	`FP16`	4.7 GB	6.6 min	Tight fit
57 ptsUsable (C) · 57 of 100 points: Model quality 22.1/45, Memory fit 12.0/25, Speed 8.3/15, Memory use 15.0/15	LTX-Video 2BLightricks	`FP8`	4.0 GB	9.7 min	Runs well
50 ptsUsable (C) · 50 of 100 points: Model quality 19.8/45, Memory fit 10.0/25, Speed 5.4/15, Memory use 15.0/15	CogVideoX 2BZhipu AI	`FP8`	4.7 GB	23.3 min	Tight fit

Other products with the Apple M2 (8 GB)

MacBook Air (M2, 2022)Apple · Laptop · 8, 16 or 24 GB · from $1,199Maker’s page (opens in a new tab)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, 2022)Apple · Laptop · 8, 16 or 24 GB · from $1,299Maker’s page (opens in a new tab)
Mac mini (2023) (M2 or M2 Pro)Apple · Mini PC · 8, 16, 24 or 32 GB · from $599Maker’s page (opens in a new tab)

Spec sources

support.apple.com

Estimates come from published hardware specs and our open formulas, not from running the model on your machine. Real speed varies with runtime, drivers and settings. Numbers marked “Measured” come from a linked benchmark.