Overview
Ollama is an open-source local large model runtime tool that lets you run popular open-source models like Llama, Mistral, Qwen, and Gemma on your own computer with a single command. It simplifies complex model deployment into a Docker-like experience—download and use, no environment configuration needed.
Ollama supports macOS, Linux, and Windows, and has garnered over 100,000 stars on GitHub. It is the core infrastructure of the local AI ecosystem, with almost all local AI applications supporting model invocation through Ollama.
**📌 2026 Update**: Ollama now fully supports the latest 2026 open-source models such as **Kimi K2.6 / K3, GLM-5 / 5.2, DeepSeek V4, Qwen3.5, Gemma 3, GPT-OSS, MiniMax M3**—download and run with a single command. GitHub Stars have exceeded **120K+**, making it the de facto standard for local deployment of large models. The biggest recent change is **local inference adaptation for large MoE models**—running DeepSeek V4 Flash (284B/13B activated) on a single machine is now feasible, allowing individual developers to run trillion-parameter models locally.
Key Features
- Run models with one command: `ollama run llama3` downloads and runs the model with extreme simplicity
- Rich model library: Supports mainstream open-source models like Llama 3, Mistral, Qwen, Gemma, Phi, DeepSeek, and more
- API compatibility: Provides an API compatible with OpenAI format for seamless integration with various applications
- Custom models: Supports creating and sharing custom models via Modelfile
- Hardware adaptation: Automatically detects and optimizes GPU, supports Apple Silicon, NVIDIA, AMD
- Multi-platform support: Native support for macOS, Linux, and Windows
Use Cases
- Running open-source large language models on a local computer
- Private AI solutions for data privacy protection
- Developers testing and experimenting with different open-source models
- Providing backend for local AI applications (e.g., Open WebUI)
- Learning and researching large language models
Pros
- Completely free and open-source: no costs, data stays on your machine
- Extremely easy to use: one command to install and run models
- Rich model support: almost all mainstream open-source models are supported
- Large ecosystem: almost all local AI applications integrate with Ollama
- Excellent Apple Silicon optimization: smooth experience on Mac
Pricing
Ollama is completely free and open-source. Running models incurs no costs, with all computation done locally. The main cost is hardware—running a 7B model requires 8GB+ RAM, 13B model requires 16GB+, and 70B model requires 64GB+ or a dedicated GPU.
Summary
Ollama is the 'Docker of local AI'—if you want to run large language models on your own computer, Ollama is the simplest solution, bar none. One command, and the model runs on your machine. Data privacy, zero cost, no internet dependency—that's the charm of local AI. Recommended to pair with Open WebUI for a graphical interface.