Club Benefits
AI laptops are everywhere today, and if you're here to find out what the best one is for your needs, good news! You're spoilt for choice. But the trickiest part is finding out what you need AI for.
This comes down to figuring out what AI work you want to do with it. Over the past few years, our team of computing and AI experts has tested systems of all sizes, and found that AI laptops fall into two categories:
- A laptop that can run an AI model locally: With free-to-use models like OpenAI's GPT-oss models available to download and use locally on your own system, laptops with incredibly powerful graphics are critical to making them run.
- A laptop offsetting day-to-day AI tasks onto an NPU: In the Apple world, it's called a Neural Engine. But for everyone else, it's the NPU — a subsection of the processor in a lot of consumer laptops today that handles the tasks you may not even realize use AI, like blurring the webcam background or live video transcription.
These days, the best AI laptops strike a balance of offering both of these capabilities, so rest assured, these machines will make the most of AI to power through workflows, give your games and uplift and more.
Right now, my easiest recommendation is the Asus ROG Flow Z13, packing a monster AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 — capable of running a 120-billion-parameter AI model in a small, portable frame. And there's a new kid on the block: the Asus Zenbook Duo packing Intel Core Ultra X9 388H. An impressively sleek dual-screen notebook with the beasty internals for local AI work.
But there's more to put on your radar, like the value-friendly MacBook Air M5 or even cheaper Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x. Whatever you're looking to use AI for, here are the AI laptops not to miss out on.
I'll be honest. I didn't see any true benefit of AI coming to laptops once it first started to show up on the machine I've tested. But that was a few years ago now, and the tools on offer have seen huge leaps in performance. It's coming to a point where PCs can perform far more efficiently thanks to the help of AI. There's even more that it's capable of today, and if you're looking to benefit from its various use cases, there's a system on this list that will suit your needs.
The best AI laptops you can buy today
Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.
The best AI laptop overall
Why is this the best overall AI laptop?
The Asus ROG Flow Z13 isn't just a breakthrough in gaming with that monster integrated graphics on the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip. As the name suggests, it's also a mini marvel for running massive local AI models, too. And it's all packed into a slim, lightweight 2-in-1 that you can take anywhere with you. There's even a special ROG Flow Z13 Kojima Edition (with the highest specs) for all you Death Stranding fans.
AI performance by the numbers
AI benchmark | Score (ROG Flow Z13) | Score (ROG Flow Z13-KJP Edition) |
|---|---|---|
Geekbench AI CPU test (Quantized Score) | 9430 | 10792 |
Geekbench AI GPU test (Quantized Score) | 14884 | 18268 |
Analyzing the numbers
The Asus ROG Flow Z13 perfectly bridges that gap between casual and pro AI users — coming with all the Copilot+ PC features that run power efficiently off the built-in NPU, but also having the raw horsepower to run anything up to OpenAI's GPT-OSS 120B model. As you can see with the ROG Flow Z13-KJP Edition, the highest configuration offers even more AI-powered potential.
It's a seriously impressive feat, but it will cost you. At a minimum of $2,099, this is a pricey system to buy. But to get the model that will support massive LLMs, you'll have to shell out over $3,000 for the option with 128GB of shared system memory.
That being said, if you've been looking to localize your AI, this has been my favorite low-profile way to go.
Read our full Asus ROG Flow Z13 review.
The best AI laptop for power users
Why is this the best AI laptop for power users?
Yes, it's a gaming laptop (and it comes with an equally large gaming laptop price). But with RTX 5090, Nvidia went in hard on improving AI performance. Pair that with the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, a huge total wattage being pumped through these internals and impressive thermal management, the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 is a clear favorite for AI power users.
AI performance by the numbers
AI benchmark | Score |
|---|---|
Geekbench AI CPU test (Quantized Score) | 9724 |
Geekbench AI GPU test (Quantized Score) | 23227 |
Geekbench ML GPU test (DirectML) | 12964 |
Analyzing the numbers
While an NPU handles everyday AI tasks well enough, I’ve found that you really need the raw power of a GPU to push things further. With the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX paired with the RTX 5090 in this machine, I’m getting an incredible amount of AI processing capability — 1,837 TOPS, to be exact.
That kind of performance means I can breeze through demanding creative AI tasks, like complex text masking in Adobe Premiere Pro, and even train my own AI models if I want to. The sheer parallel processing power here makes this setup an absolute beast for anything AI-related.
Read our full Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review.
The best AI laptop for casual users
Why is this the best value AI laptop?
For many, AI is at its best when it seamlessly works in the background without delay and doesn't impact the performance of day-to-day tasks. That's exactly what the MacBook Air M5 offers, and while it's (unfortunately) $100 more than its M4 sibling, its incredible boost in AI performance (and power across the board) makes this laptop our top choice when it comes to value.
AI performance by the numbers
AI benchmark | Score |
|---|---|
Geekbench AI CPU test (Quantized Score) | 6843 |
Geekbench AI GPU test (Quantized Score) | 25654 |
Geekbench ML Neural Engine test (CoreML Quantized Score) | 56968 |
Analyzing the numbers
Apple continues to turn its Neural Engine (that's an NPU in Windows speak) into a force to be reckoned with, as the MacBook Air M5 boosts its AI-driven potential to new heights. In its AI GPU test, its performance has tripled compared to the M4 model, so expect even smoother, faster AI tools in apps like Final Cut Pro.
Of course, it's also primed to handle Apple intelligence features, including writing up drafts, audio and video summaries, playing around in the Image Playground and plenty more.
With M5, the MacBook Air now comes with 512GB for storage by default, which takes away our pain point about the M4 laptop's 256GB simply not being enough for space and heavier AI workloads. For $1,099, the MacBook Air M5 gives everyone incredible AI power at their fingertips, whether it's offloading tasks in the background or running AI models.
Read our full MacBook Air M5 review.
The best value AI laptop
Why is this the best value AI laptop?
Ever since getting my first hands-on with the Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3x, I was confident it could be my favorite budget laptop of the year at $529. But what I didn't expect was that low-cost Snapdragon X silicon to pack a mightily impressive NPU that packs power efficiency and speed across AI tasks.
AI performance by the numbers
AI benchmark | Score |
|---|---|
Geekbench AI CPU test (Quantized Score) | 5864 |
Geekbench AI QNN test (Quantized Score) | 35042 |
Analyzing the numbers
The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x is ideal for general use. That NPU is optimized to complete AI and machine learning tasks that happen in the background when using Windows 11.
Whether it's quickly creating visual content through Paint CoCreator, upgrading the webcam quality by analyzing the picture, improving the built-in microphone quality, or brainstorming with Copilot, the high bandwidth allows for real-time AI interactions that react quickly to any prompt you throw at it.
Read our full Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3x review.
The best Windows AI PC
Why is this the best Windows AI laptop?
The AI silicon wars are reaching fever pitch, and Intel just walked onto the scene with the monster Core Ultra X9 388H — blazing through complex local AI tasks with its turbo boosted CPU and GPU cores, while maintaining peak power efficiency with an NPU.
It brings serious TOPs of AI performance to the table for running any LLM.
AI performance by the numbers
AI Benchmark | Score |
|---|---|
Geekbench AI CPU test (Quantized score) | 8917 |
Geekbench AI GPU test (Quantized score) | 51913 |
Geekbench AI NPU test (Quantized score) | 56829 |
Analyzing the numbers
Just in case you missed our results from last year's Intel chips, that's pretty much a 2X improvement on AI performance across this system.
The NPU on-board has been upgraded dramatically for power efficiency, those new Intel Arc Xe3 graphics cores in the GPU effectively double the amount of TOPs of AI performance to 122, and the CPU is seriously zippy too.
What all of this means in real world use is that thanks to Intel AI Boost, not only are you getting all those general AI tasks completed in speedy real-time (with an ocean of space for LLMs), but that GPU is capable of completing more generative-based AI tasks like those same machine learning-based video editing workloads.
Read our full Asus Zenbook Duo (2026) review.
The best Macbook for AI
Why is this the best AI MacBook?
The MacBook Pro M5 Pro may not be a major upgrade at a glance, but a peek at the numbers under the hood will show you just how far Apple's latest Pro silicon has come. This AI PC has some of the strongest numbers around, thanks to its improved Neural Engine, allowing it to take on all Apple Intelligence features without breaking a sweat, and take full advantage of Machine Learning tools in apps like Final Cut Pro for video editing.
AI performance by the numbers
AI Benchmark | Score |
|---|---|
Geekbench AI CPU test (Quantized score) | 7028 |
Geekbench AI GPU test (Quantized score) | 34167 |
Geekbench AI NPU test (Quantized score) | 57420 |
Analyzing the numbers
See those numbers? They're some of the highest on this list, and that means the MacBook Pro M5 Pro is capable of handling any AI tasks — whether it's running complex AI models locally, such as the 32-billion parameter Qwen2.5 coder LLM, or advanced generative options like StableDiffusion running entirely on-device.
Over its M4 Pro predecessor, the M5 Pro chip delivers big gains with its boosted 18-core CPU, 20-core GPU and that 16-core Neural Engine. In fact, its AI GPU score has doubled compared to the previous chip, showcasing the uplift you'll get for image generation and AI-enhanced video edits. Oh, and expect mind-blowingly fast interactions with Apple Intelligence.
While the M5 Max is undoubtedly beefier, the Neural Engine differences aren't major. So, if you're after a powerhouse for AI tasks, machine learning-driven 3D animation and more without breaking the bank on the most expensive model, the MacBook Pro M5 Pro is the sweet spot.
Read our full MacBook Pro M5 Pro review.
How we test AI laptops
To choose the best laptops for AI, we put each one through its paces with some brutal testing. Let me explain all the tests you saw above.
- Geekbench AI CPU test (Quantized score): The CPU's main purpose is more generalized towards keeping your laptop running smoothly. But as AI becomes more and more fundamental to the entire system, it's important that these cores are ready to handle machine learning applications. The Quantized score is the mean result of how well the device performed across a whole set of AI tests.
- Geekbench AI GPU test (Quantized score): For the more advanced generative side of things, like video editing, the Geekbench AI GPU test puts the graphics card (or integrated graphics) to the test to see how performant it is for all the parallel tasks that need to be completed in machine learning.
- Geekbench AI NPU test (Quantized score): Whether it's the Neural Engine on a MacBook or the NPU on a Windows laptop, this part of a chip is purpose-built to handle AI tasks and offload that pressure on the CPU. The faster this is, the better your system will be at those day-to-day AI tasks like webcam picture improvement.
There is one exception, though. Chromebooks do not have AI benchmarking tests available, and since all of their AI tasks are completed entirely on the cloud, the main thing to consider is Wi-Fi speed here.
