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text model · Mistral · iOS

Can I run Ministral 3 3B on iPhone 16?

Compatibility verdict VRAM threshold engine
Yes, it runs usable speed ~15 tok/s est.

Yes. Ministral 3 3B runs on iPhone 16 at Q4_K_M (~3.2 GB of ~4.5 GB usable).

Needs ~3.2 GB Device usable ~4.5 GB

Runs at Q4_K_M using ~3.2 GB of ~4.5 GB usable.

That figure is at a 4k context and moves about ±15% as context length changes. iPhone 16 leaves ~1.3 GB of headroom.

Q4_K_M needed
~3.2 GB
Usable on device
~4.5 GB
Device memory
8 GB
Best quant
Q4_K_M
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Which quant fits

Quant ladder vs ~4.5 GB usable
Q2_K
~2.5 GB
Q3_K_M
~2.7 GB
Q4_K_M
~3.2 GB
Q5_K_M
~3.3 GB
Q6_K
~3.7 GB
Q8_0
~4.6 GB
FP16
~8.9 GB
The line marks iPhone 16's ~4.5 GB budget; rungs past it are too large.

Running cost · estimate

Power & economics est.
Power draw
~11 W
Electricity / 1M tokens
~$0.03
Pays for itself after
~1,700M tok

At ~$0.15/kWh and the estimated ~15 tok/s, a million generated tokens costs about $0.03 in electricity. Versus a hosted API at ~$0.5 per million tokens, the ~$799 iPhone 16 pays for itself after roughly 1,700 million tokens, so local hardware is mostly a fixed cost, not a per-token one. TDP is the peak draw, so this is an upper bound. Assumptions.

How to run it

On iOS use Apple Foundation Models (Built into iOS 26, ~3B on-device model, zero download, fully private.).

Model Mistral
Parameters
3B
Q4_K_M size
2 GB
Q8_0 size
3.4 GB
Context
256k
Ollama tag
ministral-3:3b
Full Ministral 3 3B requirements →
Device iOS
Memory
8 GB unified
Usable for weights
~4.5 GB
Power draw
~11 W
Best runtime
llama.cpp + Metal (via PocketPal or Off Grid app)
Best models for iPhone 16 →

You could also run

Run Ministral 3 3B on other hardware

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB)Apple M1 (8GB)8GB RAM Laptop (CPU/iGPU only)iPhone 15 ProiPhone 16 ProGeneric Android Phone (8GB RAM)

FAQ

Can iPhone 16 run Ministral 3 3B?

Yes. Ministral 3 3B runs on iPhone 16 at Q4_K_M (~3.2 GB of ~4.5 GB usable).

How much memory does Ministral 3 3B need?

iPhone 16 has room to spare. At Q4_K_M the weights are ~2 GB; with KV cache and runtime overhead, budget ~3.2 GB at a 4k context.

What is the best tool to run Ministral 3 3B on iOS?

On iPhone and iPad, Apple Foundation Models (Built into iOS 26, ~3B on-device model, zero download, fully private.) is the standard choice. Phones realistically run 1B-4B class models. Anything larger thermally throttles or OOMs.

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Sources

Weights are measured from GGUF files; KV cache and overhead are computed, so totals can vary ~15% with context and runtime. Any tok/s is a bandwidth estimate. See methodology.