Gemma 4 26B is a 26-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model from Google DeepMind that activates only 3.8 billion parameters during inference for low-latency performance.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for running Gemma 4 26B locally on an Apple Silicon Mac mini via Ollama, including auto-start configuration, model preloading, and persistent memory management. The setup requires at least 24GB unified memory, leverages Apple's MLX framework for GPU acceleration, and exposes a local API for integration with coding agents and agentic workflows.