Best Local AI for Private Documents on a 32GB Computer
Model and engine guidance for private document search on a 32GB computer.
Yes. A computer with 32GB RAM can run small local AI models. A safe first choice from the current MamiLens list is Granite 3.2 8B. This is a memory-fit estimate, not a speed promise.
The device we checked
MamiLens keeps 6GB for the operating system and background work. That leaves a working model budget of about 26GB.
Best models to start with
Granite 3.2 8B
Granite 3.2 8B is a curated dense profile for general, reasoning, tools workloads.
- Calculated weights
- 5 GB
- Estimated total RAM
- 12 GB
- RAM left
- 20 GB
- Expected path
- CPU / RAM
- Speed
- Benchmark required
- Evidence
- Calculated estimate
ollama run granite3.2:8bOpen evidence-labelled model profile →Llama 3.2 3B
Llama 3.2 3B is a curated dense profile for general, writing, multilingual workloads.
- Calculated weights
- 2 GB
- Estimated total RAM
- 9 GB
- RAM left
- 23 GB
- Expected path
- CPU / RAM
- Speed
- Benchmark required
- Evidence
- Calculated estimate
ollama run llama3.2:3bOpen evidence-labelled model profile →Recommended inference engine
LM Studio or Ollama
A CPU-first setup is the safest assumption when dedicated GPU support is unknown.
More CPU cores can help, but memory bandwidth and engine settings still matter.How accurate is this result?
This page uses the same calculator rules as the live MamiLens tool. It includes model weights, runtime overhead, operating-system reserve, context reserve and simultaneous-user cache when selected. A displayed speed range is calculated from published memory bandwidth. It is not a benchmark from this exact computer.
Start with the first model. Test a normal task, record response speed and watch memory use before using it for important work.