Best Local AI Model to Run Privately (2026)
Open models you can run on your own Mac or PC, so prompts never leave your machine. Ranked by Text Arena among models in our local finder.
Best quality
Highest Text Arena score. Shown as a 0 to 100 relative score.
Highest Text Arena rating of the 7 open models we list with a score. About 18.4 GB at Q4.
Ranked 2 of 7, relative score 94. About 15.1 GB at Q4.
Ranked 3 of 7, relative score 58. About 70.2 GB at Q4.
Best for small machines
Best Arena score among open models that need about 16 GB or less at Q4.
Relative score 94 in about 15.1 GB at Q4, runs on a 32GB Mac.
Relative score 44 in about 12.6 GB at Q4, runs on a 24GB Mac.
Relative score 19 in about 8.8 GB at Q4, runs on a 16GB Mac.
About the 0 to 100 score: Relative score: 100 is the top open model in our local finder on Text Arena, 0 is the lowest one we list.
Leaderboard used: Text Arena overall, open models only.
Scores: LMArena Text Arena, leaderboard published Oct 15, 2026, via the LMArena leaderboard dataset (CC BY 4.0). Prices: our API prices table. Checked Oct 16, 2026.
How we pick
Quality is the LMArena score for each task, built from blind side by side human votes. Where a model is listed at several effort levels we use its best one. Value divides the score above the 50th ranked model on that leaderboard by the blended price, (3 x input + output) / 4 per 1M tokens, and only counts models at or above the median score of the models we price. Local picks use the same Text Arena score and the Q4 download size. Close scores are often inside the margin of error, so treat ranks 1 to 3 as a shortlist, not a final verdict.
Other good references: SWE-bench for fixing real code issues, Aider leaderboards for code editing, and each provider's model card.
FAQ
What is the best AI model I can run locally?
Gemma 4 31B has the highest Text Arena score of the open models in our local finder. Gemma 4 26B A4B is the best pick for smaller machines.
Will it run on my computer?
Use our local model finder. Pick your Mac or GPU and it shows which models fit and how fast they run.
Other tasks
Coding · Chat · Creative writing · Roleplay and characters · Reasoning and math · Vision · Long documents · Cheap bulk and agents
Compare every price on API prices, or find what runs on your own hardware with the local model finder.