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llm-speed

M3 Pro LLM benchmark

On the M3 Pro, single-user chat decode speeds by model size (one result per model) are: ~7–9B models at 22.0 tok/s (mlx; community results only: middle of 3 community results, not measured by llm-speed, source run, community), ~14B models (too few results: 2 models, 0 by llm-speed, 2 community; no middle value) and ~32B models (too few results: 2 models, 0 by llm-speed, 2 community; no middle value). Short-chat workload, local runtimes, dense models only. Each model counts once (its standard run at default context), cold-load rows are left out, and a size class needs results from at least 3 models for a middle value. Quantization, backend and settings vary between submissions, so check each row in the tables below.

Specs vendor specs, not measured

Unified memory (max configuration)
36 GB
Memory bandwidth
150 GB/s
Launch date
2023-10-30

Sources: support.apple.com, apple.com. Vendor-published figures, accessed 2026-10-14.

Fastest single result in these submissions (any model size)

286.5 decode tok/s

Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct-4bit (0.5B) via mlx (4bit). Workload: chat-short. Reported hardware: M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified. see full run

Qwen3-32B-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-shortnot supplied
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.3-7.16tok/s25.65tok/s4,288msr_pnrrpcdqfo4

Qwen2.5-32B-Instruct-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-shortnot supplied
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.3-7.05tok/s33.41tok/s3,921msr_f4x3xaan2ay

gemma-2-9b-it-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-shortnot supplied
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.3-21.97tok/s102.5tok/s1,151msr_q7t7b7dcuz5

Qwen2.5-14B-Instruct-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-short14B
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.34bit14.41tok/s117.9tok/s1,111msr_ia73dzeue0b

phi-4-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-shortnot supplied
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.3-15.61tok/s120.7tok/s936msr_-w8hnn61va_

Llama-3.1-8B-Instruct-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-shortnot supplied
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.3-29.20tok/s203.3tok/s669msr_h0-use1ypnb

Qwen2.5-7B-Instruct-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-short7B
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.34bit30.52tok/s161.9tok/s809msr_llzv_g-ymaf
chat-short7B
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.34bit15.67tok/s54.34tok/s2,411msr_e3t93rscswq

Qwen2.5-0.5B-Instruct-4bit

WorkloadModel sizeReported hardwareBackendQuantdecode tok/sprefill tok/sTTFTRun
chat-short0.5B
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.34bit286.5tok/s656.2tok/s200msr_akcbpx5vcqa
chat-short0.5B
M3 Pro (18-core GPU) + 36GB unified
mlx@0.31.34bit282.6tok/s668.8tok/s196msr_bftqtkilvoe

Which models can an M3 Pro run?

Fastest decode speed for each model on this hardware, from llm-speed's own runs and community-submitted runs. Each page lists every quant and runtime and labels which runs llm-speed measured.

Models measured on M3 Pro

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