Ollama
Runs open models on your own machine, with the same API for larger models in the cloud.
- Starting price
- Free for local models; Pro from $20 / month
- Free trial
- Free plan with local models, starter cloud credits and one concurrent request
- API
- Yes, one REST API for local and cloud models, with Python and JavaScript libraries and a separate web search API
Overview
Ollama runs open models locally on macOS, Windows and Linux, through a desktop app or the command line, and exposes them over a REST API with Python and JavaScript libraries. Its library covers chat, coding, vision, embedding and reasoning models, and custom models can be imported. Where a model is too large for the machine in front of you, the same call is offloaded to Ollama Cloud without changing the code, and cloud use can be switched off entirely. Local use is free; paid plans buy cloud capacity.
Our take
Ollama is the assistant for people whose first question is where the data goes, because the honest answer on the free plan is nowhere. That is its argument, and the price of it is that the answer quality is whatever the chosen open model and the machine underneath can manage, with no frontier model to fall back on unless cloud credits are bought. The cloud tier softens that without splitting the product, since local and cloud models sit behind the same call. Worth knowing before committing: the paid plans are metered in usage credits rather than seats, so a light user and an agent running all day cost very different amounts on the same plan.
Key Facts
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Starting price | Free for local models; Pro from $20 / month Local models cost nothing. Pro is $20 per month or $200 per year and includes $60 of cloud usage credits a month with three concurrent requests; Max is $100 per month with $300 of credits and ten concurrent requests; Team is $500 per month with $1,000 of shared credits and unlimited users; Enterprise is quoted. Extra credits can be bought on every paid plan. |
| Free trial | Free plan with local models, starter cloud credits and one concurrent request |
| API | Yes, one REST API for local and cloud models, with Python and JavaScript libraries and a separate web search API |
| Hosting | Runs locally on macOS, Windows and Linux; cloud models run on Ollama's servers in the United States, Europe and Singapore |
Screenshots
Placeholders. They are replaced as soon as the vendor sends material, and both open the same short form.
Features
- Ecosystem
- Desktop app and command line for macOS, Windows and Linux, with integrations for VS Code Chat, Claude Code, OpenCode and n8n
- Live web search and sources
- Yes, through a separate web search API returning a title, URL and content snippet per result; it needs a free account and an API key, and is also reachable over MCP
- Files and long documents
- Yes, the desktop app takes files by drag and drop so a model can reason over text or PDFs, and code files can be passed in for understanding; for large documents the context length is raised in the settings, which the vendor notes costs more memory
- Images, voice and video
- Images for vision-capable models, passed as a file path, URL or base64 through the API and the libraries
- Coding help
- Coding models in the library, plus integrations with terminal coding agents such as Claude Code and OpenCode and with VS Code Chat
- Model choice
- Yes, and it is the point: any model from the library or an imported custom one, run locally or offloaded to the cloud through the same call
- API
- Yes, one REST API for local and cloud models, with Python and JavaScript libraries, tool calling, structured outputs, streaming and embeddings
Integrations
- VS Code
- JetBrains
- Zed
- Xcode
- Claude Code
- Claude Desktop
- OpenCode
- Cline
- Roo Code
- Codex CLI
- Goose
- n8n
- marimo
Deployment and Support
- Deployment
-
- Cloud (SaaS)
- On-premise
- Support
-
- Email helpdesk
- Community forum
- Onboarding
-
- Documentation and knowledge base
- Company size
-
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Models run on your own machine, so on the free plan nothing is sent anywhere
- The same API covers local and cloud models, so a model can be swapped without changing code
- Chat, coding, vision, embedding and reasoning models in one library, plus imported custom models
- Cloud use can be switched off entirely for a fully local setup
Limitations
- Large models need capable local hardware; otherwise they run in the cloud on a paid plan
- Cloud models and the web search API need an account and usage credits
- Paid plans are metered in usage credits rather than seats, so the monthly cost varies with how hard it is used
Pricing
-
Free
$0
Local models, starter usage credits, starter models and one concurrent request.
-
Pro
$20 / month
Or $200 per year. $60 of usage credits a month, larger models and three concurrent requests.
-
Max
$100 / month
$300 of usage credits a month, early access to new models and ten concurrent requests.
-
Team
$500 / month
Early access. Unlimited users, $1,000 of shared usage credits a month and central billing.
-
Enterprise
Not stated
Custom pricing. Model access controls, cost budgets and dedicated support.
Alternatives and Comparisons
What users say
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