Developer guideUpdated August 23, 2026

tinygrad on a Mac: the short answer

Use an Apple silicon Mac, let tinygrad choose its accelerator first, and confirm it selected Metal before trying a larger project.

Open tinygrad setup

For Macs, not comma devicesNothing on this page installs or changes software on a comma device. It is a small developer guide for experimenting on a separate Mac.

Is my setup a good fit?

Pick the closest description

Pick the description closest to what you are trying to do.

Apple silicon Mac

Start here

Tinygrad lists its Metal runtime for M1 and newer Macs. Metal 3.0 or newer is specifically listed for bfloat support.

Intel Mac or eGPU

Do not assume it will work

Apple's eGPU guidance is for Intel Macs, while tinygrad's Metal requirements name M1 and newer Macs. This guide does not combine those into a supported path.

A particular AI model

Check the exact example

Use tinygrad's own documentation or example for that model. A file extension or download link alone is not enough to promise compatibility.

The safe starting path

Three simple steps

  1. Use the official quick start

    Install tinygrad in a separate Python environment so it is easy to remove if the experiment does not work.

  2. Check the accelerator it selected

    Tinygrad's README includes a default-device check. Let detection run before forcing a backend setting.

  3. Continue only after it reports Metal

    Start with a small official example. If Metal is not selected, stop and use the current runtime documentation instead of trying old environment-variable recipes.

What this guide does not promise

It does not certify an Intel-Mac eGPU setup, every downloadable model, multi-GPU use, speed, or memory requirements. Check those against the exact tinygrad example, Mac, model, and version you plan to use.

Check supported runtimes

Looking for Chestnut instead?

Chestnut is comma's external GPU for comma four. It uses tinygrad too, but it is a separate product.

What is the comma GPU?
Official references
tinygrad README: installation and the default accelerator check tinygrad runtime guide: Metal requirements and runtime selection Apple eGPU guidance: the Intel-Mac requirement for external GPUs

CommaGuide is an independent guide and is not affiliated with comma.ai or tinygrad.

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