Apple launches M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini for local AI workloads

Apple announced Mac mini models built on its M6 chip and M5 Pro chip on August 25, positioning the compact desktop for local AI and always-on agent workloads. In the United States, the M6 model starts at $899 and the M5 Pro model at $1,699.

The M6 Mac mini pairs a 12-core CPU and 12-core GPU with Neural Accelerators and a dual 16-core Neural Engine. It ships with 16GB of unified memory and can be configured with up to 32GB. The M5 Pro model starts with a 15-core CPU and 16-core GPU, can be configured with an 18-core CPU and 20-core GPU, and supports up to 64GB of unified memory with 307GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Apple’s US technical specifications list three rear Thunderbolt 4 ports on the M6 model. The M5 Pro model has three rear Thunderbolt 5 ports supporting speeds of up to 120Gb/s.

Apple says Thunderbolt 5 allows multiple Mac mini systems to be clustered so large AI models can run entirely on-device. The announcement does not describe a tested cluster configuration, the software needed to distribute a model across machines, supported model sizes, throughput, latency, power draw or scaling efficiency. No independent test of the arrangement is available.

The company also says the M6 model delivers up to four times faster AI performance, twice the graphics and storage performance, and 40 percent faster CPU performance than the M4 system used for comparison. Apple says it conducted the tests in July 2026. For the M5 Pro model, Apple claims up to 8.5 times faster large language model prompt processing in LM Studio than M2 Pro and up to four times faster performance than M4 Pro. Those figures are Apple’s measurements and have not been independently reproduced.

“Mac mini has always been our most versatile Mac. Whether it’s being used as a home computer, powering a professional studio, or as an always-on agentic device, it’s the little Mac that can do it all,” Johny Srouji, Apple’s chief hardware officer, said in the announcement.

Preorders opened on August 25. Apple says customer deliveries and availability through Apple Stores and authorized resellers begin September 22.