16GB is plenty.
I think a lot of people just don't understand how RAM works so there is a lot of misleading posts. If you're new to Mac and coming from Windows then you need to know they report RAM usage a little differently. Windows doesn't include cached memory as used whereas macOS does. At first I was alarmed to see macOS using 12GB out of 16GB but 4-5GB of that is cached so really, going by Windows logic, it was only using 7-8GB. For comparison, my 64GB RAM pc is reporting that is using 10.9GB but if this was a Mac it'd be using 42.7GB.
I have the M3 Air with 16GB. No matter how hard I pushed my M3 Air the RAM wouldn't go above 13GB. I only pushed it as hard as I think I'd use it. If I really wanted to push it I'd have downloaded apps I'll never use to stress it. From
another post I made here is what I found:
safari - 22 tabs - youtube streaming 4K, tiktok, google maps 3d, x/twitter, reddit are the most demanding sites
spotify streaming at highest quality (muted)
mail app open
imessage open
calendar open
notes open
reminders open
photos open
apple maps open
weather open
bitwarden open
apple music open
6 pdfs open
16GB physical memory
12.6-12.9GB used
3.25-3.95GB cached
4.97-5.86GB app memory
2.6-3.9GB wired memory
3.2-3.44GB compressed memory
0 bytes Swapped
Memory pressure is still in the green.
I'd suggest you simply use your devices and see if they offer a suitable experience and performance that you're happy with. Don't even worry about RAM. If you want to look then you should only really look at "App Memory" and "Memory Pressure" in Activity Monitor. App Memory doesn't seem to include cached memory. Memory pressure sums the usage up in a graph with colours. If you're using 13GB and the memory pressure is low and green then you're good because it's probably mostly using cached/compressed memory. If you're in the yellow with 13-14GB then it probably means the OS can't allocate as much space to cache/compressed memory so that suggests you don't have enough RAM. If you're in the red then yeah you're probably hitting the limits and heavily relying on SWAP.
Don't worry about compressed, cached, or SWAP memory. They are normal and macOS (and every other OS) uses them to optimize memory management. Let the OS do its job and trust it knows better than you.
Most people who buy a MacBook Air are only using it for web browsing, watching Netflix, streaming music, doing homework, etc. Other devices with 16GB are gaming consoles. The PS5 has 16GB unified memory, the Xbox Series X has 16GB unified memory, the Steam Deck has 16GB unified memory. So if you don't play games you're likely good for another 4-5 years with 16GB. If 16GB isn't going to be enough for you when doing non gaming stuff then you probably already know this and will pick the 24GB option or get a MacBook Pro instead.