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Comment by LeBit | Hacker News Reader

I use local LLMs on my Mac Mini.

Otherwise DeepSeek Flash 4.1 is dirt cheap (other "Flash" models are not that expensive either). I pay (very few dollars) out of my own pocket.

There are many things where having an API Key is necessary.

Maybe I’ve missed the boat though: is there now a method to use an api key to access a subscription?

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You can't use an API key on subscriptions, but I've gotten around it using the `codex exec` command to run requests outside the CLI or GUI if you're already authenticated on that machine. Won't work for all cases, but I've never ran into a limitation in my use case of not having an API key.

I’ll look into this. But there is no universal solution. I find this to be quite limiting. I understand this is on purpose. If you want to automate, you need to pay more to have an api key.

It’s a good thing we have access to those very cheap and useful Chinese models.

> I use local LLMs on my Mac Mini.

which ones do you use?

I use the following models:

  - Qwen3.5 9B
  - Qwen3.6 35B A3B
  - Qwen3.8 27B
  - Gemma 4 26B A4B
  - Gemma 31B
  - Muse Glimmer 30B

I have 48G.

The MacMini is used solely for inference. llama.cpp + llama-swap.

People are saying local models are crap and serves no purposes.

I use them to help me spell check, write emails, write text messages, write JIRA tickets, write PR comments, etc.

I also use them in coding agents to complete different tasks.

I find them quite useful!

Thanks! I have two mac minis: one with 8 gb and the other with 24 gb (left with 17 gb useable ram); I can't run any open model on them. So, ordered a Mac 5 pro with 128 GB. Can't wait for its arrival.

128G of RAM? I envy you.

You will be able to run some pretty impressive models locally. Good for you.

I'm a small fish.

Some people here have 640 GB of RAM https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49621754

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