Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB vs MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB for local AI
The Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB holds 16 of the 48 current models here, and the MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB holds 12. The MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB costs $200 less. On Gemma 4 12B, the strongest model both hold, the Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB is about 2.1× faster: 29 tok/s against 14, both estimated from memory bandwidth. The MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB pays for itself sooner, in 118 years against 135 years at 500k tokens a day.
| Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB | MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1,699 | $1,499 |
| Memory | 24 GB | 16 GB |
| Usable by the GPU | 16 GB | 10.5 GB |
| Memory bandwidth | 307 GB/s | 153 GB/s |
| Power under load | 140 Wstand-in | 65 Wstand-in |
| Models that fit | 16 | 12 |
| Best model it runs | Gemma 4 12B | Gemma 4 12B |
| Speed on that model | 29 tok/s estimated | 14 tok/s estimated |
| Pay-back on that model | Pays back in 135 years | Pays back in 118 years |
Neither power figure above is measured on the machine beside it. Both are stand-ins borrowed from the nearest hardware the data does have, so the gap between them is not a difference between these two machines. Each machine's page names the figure it borrows and why. Every pay-back figure on this page prices its electricity from these numbers.
Run the numbers on the Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB · or the MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB
How much use it takes to pay back
Everything above is at 500k tokens a day. Pay-back moves with how much you actually run, so here are both machines on Gemma 4 12B, the strongest model both hold, at the five levels of use the calculator names. The MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB pays back sooner at every level of use, so this is not a choice that turns on how hard you work it.
| A day's use | Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB | MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB |
|---|---|---|
| 50ka few chats a day | 1,353 years | 1,177 years |
| 200klight assistant use | 338 years | 294 years |
| 1Ma moderate coding-assistant day | 68 years | 59 years |
| 4Mheavy coding with an agent | 17 years | 15 years |
| 20Magents running most of the day | 3.4 years | 3.0 yearsits ceiling |
On Gemma 4 12B the MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB generates at most 19.8M tokens a day, so its figure at 20M tokens a day is for the most it can do, not for the whole of what was asked.
Run the Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB at 20M tokens a day · or the MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB
What the extra memory buys
The Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB holds 4 models the MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB cannot at 32k of context. The strongest of them are what the difference in memory actually buys.
| Model | Weights | Needs at 32k | On the Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Granite 4.2 8BBelow every hosted tier | 5.3 GB | 11 GB | 21 tok/s estimated |
| gpt-oss-20bBelow every hosted tier | 12 GB | 13 GB | 32 tok/s estimated |
| Ministral 3 14BBelow every hosted tier | 8.2 GB | 14 GB | 17 tok/s estimated |
| LFM2.5 24B-A2Bnot yet placed | 15 GB | 15 GB | 43 tok/s estimated |
The extra memory buys context as well. Of the 12 current models both machines hold at 32k, 7 run to a longer window on the Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB: the weights are a fixed size and the KV cache is not, so what the weights leave spare is what a longer context grows into. Gemma 4 12B reaches 256k there against 128k on the MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB, each the longest window the calculator offers that the machine still holds it at.
The Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB is also head to head with another computer: Mac Studio M5 Max, 128GB · DGX Spark, 128GB · GMKtec EVO-X2, 128GB · MacBook Pro M5 Pro (16-inch), 64GB · Corsair AI Workstation 300, 64GB. With a graphics card: RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, 96GB · Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB. With the same machine at another memory size: 48GB · 64GB. With the machine it replaced: Mac mini M4 Pro, 24GB.
The MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB is also head to head with another computer: Mac Studio M5 Max, 128GB · DGX Spark, 128GB · GMKtec EVO-X2, 128GB · MacBook Pro M5 Pro (16-inch), 64GB · MacBook Air M5 (13-inch), 16GB. With a graphics card: RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell, 96GB · Radeon AI PRO R9700, 32GB.
The assumptions behind both columns
Both columns use the same usage: 500k tokens a day at 15:1 input to output, 32k of context, $0.17 per kWh, and today's API prices held flat. Speeds marked estimated are worked out from memory bandwidth rather than measured, and pay-back scales with them. Change any of it in the calculator.
More head to head: everything the Mac mini M5 Pro, 24GB runs · everything the MacBook Air M5 (15-inch), 16GB runs · every other match-up · the quickest pay-back at each level of use · every model against the frontier