Darkbloom on a 24 GB or 32 GB Mac: what fits and what it earns
Small Macs can join Darkbloom, but they rarely win requests against larger, faster Macs. For them the realistic income is the base reward, and most of them are missing it.
Which models fit
- 24 GB and up (catalog minimum): Qwen3.5-9B, gpt-oss-20b, Ternary Bonsai.
- 32 GB and up: Qwen3.6 VL.
- 36 GB and up: Gemma 4 26B, Qwen3.8 27B, Qwen3.5 35B.
- The provider also checks free memory at load time: roughly the model’s weights × 1.2, plus about 5.5 GB working memory and 1 GB cache, after keeping 4 GB back for macOS. That’s about 14 GB for Qwen3.5-9B and 19 GB for gpt-oss-20b.
What small Macs earn today
In Darkbloom’s public provider list on September 26, 2026, none of the 69 connected 24 GB Macs and only 25 of 129 connected 32 GB Macs had a model loaded. A Mac with nothing loaded earns nothing, not even the base reward.
Collect the base reward reliably
- Load the smallest model that fits: Qwen3.5-9B uses about 14 GB.
- Keep it loaded: run darkbloom idle keep-loaded, then darkbloom restart. The shipped setting unloads after 60 minutes without requests, which pauses base rewards.
- Don’t switch models. Each switch usually costs a 5-minute period.
- Keep memory pressure below 0.8: close heavy apps while the Mac serves.
- That earns $10 a month on 24 GB and $12 on 32–36 GB, even if the Mac never wins a request.
How Bloomkeeper helps
Bloomkeeper shows whether your Mac is loaded and earning base rewards each hour, and warns when memory pressure or a stalled provider is costing you.
Questions
Can a 24 GB Mac earn on Darkbloom?
Yes, mainly through the base reward: $10 a month if a small model such as Qwen3.5-9B stays loaded, memory pressure stays below 0.8 and the Mac is connected at least 90% of every 5 minutes. Requests are rare on 24 GB Macs.
What Darkbloom model should I run on a 32 GB Mac?
Usually the smallest model that fits, Qwen3.5-9B, kept loaded around the clock. It secures the $12 monthly base reward; larger models rarely win enough requests on a 32 GB Mac to be worth the extra memory pressure.
Related
- How Darkbloom pays Mac providers: token earnings and base rewards
- Darkbloom model won’t load: not enough memory
- Which Darkbloom model should I run on my Mac?
Updated 2026-09-28. Still stuck? Ask in #bloom-dash-optimizer on the Darkbloom Slack or contact us. Bloomkeeper is independent and not affiliated with Darkbloom.