What you need to run Qwen 3.6 27B

About Qwen 3.6 27B

Qwen 3.6 27B is a coding model from Alibaba. Newest Qwen, tuned for agentic coding and long tasks. Running it locally needs about 19.9 GB of memory, and the download is 18.5 GB.

Smallest Mac that runs it

The least memory you need, by Apple chip:

• M1: does not fit
• M1 Pro: does not fit
• M1 Max: from 32 GB
• M1 Ultra: from 64 GB
• M2: does not fit
• M2 Pro: does not fit
• M2 Max: from 32 GB
• M2 Ultra: from 64 GB
• M3: does not fit
• M3 Pro: does not fit
• M3 Max: from 36 GB
• M3 Ultra: from 96 GB
• M4: does not fit
• M4 Pro: from 24 GB
• M4 Max: from 36 GB
• M5: does not fit
• M5 Pro: from 24 GB
• M5 Max: from 36 GB

Graphics cards

Runs well on: RTX 3090, RTX 4090, RTX 5090, Radeon RX 7900 XTX. Runs slowly with help from system RAM on: RTX 3060 12GB, RTX 3070, RTX 3080 10GB, RTX 4060, RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, RTX 4070 / 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, RTX 4080 / 4080 Super, RTX 5060, RTX 5060 Ti 16GB, RTX 5070, RTX 5070 Ti, RTX 5080, Radeon RX 7800 XT, Radeon RX 9070 XT.

Hardware to run it

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• Smallest Mac: M5 Pro with 24 GB. See it on Amazon
• Smallest graphics card: RTX 3090 (24 GB). See it on Amazon
• Storage: this model is a 18.5 GB download, and most people end up keeping several. A fast external SSD keeps your main drive free. See SSDs on Amazon

Lighter and heavier alternatives

• Qwen2.5 Coder 7B: needs about 5.4 GB, a lighter choice. Light code helper for autocomplete on smaller machines.
• Qwen3 Coder 30B: needs about 20.4 GB, a heavier choice. Top local coding model for 24 GB GPUs and 32 GB Macs.
• Qwen 3.6 35B A3B: needs about 24.6 GB, a heavier choice. Fast coding and agent model, mixture of experts.

Questions