It really depends on the tasks you have to perform. I am using specialized OCR models running locally to extract page layout information and text from scanned legal documents. The quality isn't perfect, but it is really good compared to desktop/server OCR software that I formerly used that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars for a license. If you have similar needs and the time to try just one model, start with GLM-OCR.

If you want a general knowledge model for answering questions or a coding agent, nothing you can run on your MacBook will come close to the frontier models. It's going to be frustrating if you try to use local models that way. But there are a lot of useful applications for local-sized models when it comes to interpreting and transforming unstructured data.

> I formerly used that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars for a license

Azure Doc Intelligence charges $1.50 for 1000 pages. Was that an annual/recurring license?

Would you mind sharing your OCR model? I'm using Azure for now, as I want to focus on building the functionality first, but would later opt for a local model.