Can I make Gaussian splats on a Mac?
Yes. You don't need an NVIDIA GPU to make a Gaussian splat. Brush (free, Apache 2.0) ships an Apple-silicon app that trains splats on the Mac's own GPU, and OpenSplat (free, AGPL-3.0) builds on macOS with Metal acceleration. On an iPhone, Scaniverse captures and trains splats on the device for free. What you can't run on a Mac are the CUDA-only trainers: the original Inria 3D Gaussian Splatting code, 2D Gaussian Splatting, gsplat, Nerfstudio's splatfacto and Jawset Postshot all need an NVIDIA card. To use those methods from a Mac, use a hosted service such as OTOY Studio, which runs splat training on its own GPUs from 10 credits (€0.10) per scene, in the browser.
What runs where
| Tool | Runs on a Mac? | GPU it needs | License | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brush | Yes, prebuilt Apple-silicon app, or in Chrome | Any WebGPU GPU: Apple, AMD, NVIDIA, Intel | Apache 2.0 | GitHub |
| OpenSplat | Yes, build from source with Metal | Apple (Metal), NVIDIA, AMD, or CPU (about 100x slower) | AGPL-3.0 | GitHub |
| Scaniverse | iPhone and iPad, on the device | The phone | Free app; cloud plans $20 and $50/month | App Store |
| Inria 3D Gaussian Splatting | No | NVIDIA, compute capability 7.0+, 24GB VRAM for paper quality | Non-commercial research license | GitHub |
| gsplat | No official Mac support | NVIDIA with CUDA, about 4 to 6GB at default settings | Apache 2.0 | GitHub |
| Nerfstudio splatfacto | No | NVIDIA with CUDA, about 6GB (12GB for splatfacto-big) | Apache 2.0 | Docs |
| 2D Gaussian Splatting | No | NVIDIA with CUDA | Non-commercial research license | GitHub |
| Jawset Postshot | No, Windows only | NVIDIA RTX 2060 or better | Free tier non-commercial; paid from €17/month | Jawset |
| OTOY Studio | Yes, in the browser | None on your side (hosted) | Credits, free plan with 100 a month | Gaussian splat models |
Checked October 20, 2026.
Camera poses on a Mac
Most trainers start from camera poses solved by COLMAP. COLMAP installs on a Mac with brew install colmap and runs feature matching and sparse reconstruction without CUDA, just slower on large photo sets. Only its dense reconstruction step needs CUDA, and splat training doesn't use it. Brush and OpenSplat both read COLMAP output.
When to run it yourself on a Mac
- You want it free and private, and a few minutes to an hour of training per scene is fine.
- You're comfortable with COLMAP or already have poses from another tool.
- Brush is the easiest start: download the app, open a COLMAP or Nerfstudio dataset, and train.
When to use a hosted trainer
- You want the CUDA-only methods (standard 3DGS, 2DGS surface meshes, pose-free InstantSplat) without an NVIDIA PC.
- You'd rather upload photos or a video and skip COLMAP setup.
- You want the splat in the same workflow as other models, for example generating a scene in one node and turning it into a splat in the next.
Making a splat from a Mac in OTOY Studio
- Sign up free at https://app.otoy.studio and add a Gaussian Splat node to a canvas.
- Connect 10 to 500 overlapping photos, one video, or a ZIP of an image sequence.
- Run it. Training happens on OTOY Studio's GPUs, and the price is shown before you run. It depends on the number of views and training steps.
- View the splat in the browser and download it as a PLY (including an OctaneGS-optimised PLY), with a flythrough video.
| Node | Takes | What you get | Credits per run |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gaussian Splat | 10 to 500 photos, a video or a ZIP | PLY splat and a flythrough video | 10 credits (€0.10) |
| InstantSplat | 3 to 35 photos or a video, no COLMAP step | PLY splat | 22 credits (€0.22) |
| 2D Gaussian Splat | 10 to 500 photos, a video or a ZIP | A mesh and depth maps (no viewable splat) | 25 credits (€0.25) |
| Sharp | 1 photo | PLY splat | 2 credits (€0.02) |
1 credit = €0.01. Prices are list prices at default settings, before plan discounts.
Related
Last verified 2026-10-20. Prices and model lists come from OTOY Studio's billing configuration, exported 2026-10-20.