The specs on my 25+ year old 15k AC's says starting current is 19 amps.I would think that more modern units would require fewer starting amps.
My 4 year old 15k RVP Coleman heat pump isn't any better. For the first ~100 ms. of startup with a strong power source it pulls 27 RMS and 73 peak amps. This tracks well with its LRA spec of 71. For the next 200 ms. the peaks go down to 40 amps. The whole startup sequence takes about 750 ms. With a 14 ga. 50 foot extension cord introduced, the startup peaks go down to 60 amps, and the startup time goes up to a full second. This is a "big picture" capture of the startup.
And the first ~200 ms.:
