Screenshots
Ollama
Open models running on your own computer
Enki editor score
Excellent
Human-vetted editorial rating
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Overview
Ollama is one of the most popular ways to run open-weight models such as gpt-oss, Gemma, Qwen and DeepSeek on your own machine. It is open source under the MIT license and runs on macOS, Windows and Linux, with a chat app, a command line and a local API that many developer tools plug into. Once a model is downloaded it works fully offline, with no usage limits and nothing leaving your computer. For models too large for local hardware, Ollama's paid cloud plans add usage credits, and Ollama says prompt and response data is never logged or trained on.
Enki verdict
The simplest way to run AI with no limits and no data leaving your machine; you trade the newest models' top-end quality for privacy and a $0 bill.
Key features
Local models
Run open-weight models on your own Mac, Windows or Linux machine.
Offline and private
Nothing leaves your computer once a model is downloaded.
Local API
Plug local models into coding tools, apps and scripts.
Pros & cons
What we like
- Free and unlimited for local use
- Fully offline and private once a model is downloaded
- Every major open model, plus a local API for other tools
Worth noting
- Good results need a computer with plenty of memory
- Open models trail the newest paid models on the hardest tasks
- Bigger cloud models cost extra
Ollama pricing
Is Ollama free?
Yes. Running models locally is free and unlimited; the free plan also includes starter credits for Ollama's cloud models.
- Unlimited local use, fully offline once a model is downloaded
- Speed and model size depend on your computer's memory and graphics card
- Cloud models: starter credits and 1 request at a time
Pro
$20/mo
or $200 a year
- $60 of cloud usage credits a month
- Larger pro cloud models
- 3 concurrent requests
Max
$100/mo
- $300 of cloud usage credits a month
- Early access to the newest models
- 10 concurrent requests
Team
$500/mo
early access
- Unlimited users
- $1,000 of shared cloud credits a month
- Central billing and priority support
Price history
- Checked against ollama.com/pricing: local use free; cloud plans Pro $20 a month ($200 a year), Max $100, Team $500 in early access, Enterprise custom.
Source: Ollama's official pricing, checked Oct 3, 2026. Prices can change; confirm at checkout.
Ollama FAQ
- Is Ollama free?
- Yes. Ollama is free and open source under the MIT license, and running models on your own computer costs nothing and has no usage limits. The paid Pro, Max and Team plans only cover Ollama's cloud models.
- Does Ollama work offline?
- Yes. Once you have downloaded a model, Ollama runs it entirely on your computer, with no internet connection and no data leaving the machine.
- What models can Ollama run?
- Ollama's library covers the main open-weight families, including OpenAI's gpt-oss, Google's Gemma, Alibaba's Qwen and DeepSeek. How large a model you can run depends on your computer's memory and graphics card.
- Does Ollama store or train on my prompts?
- Local models never send your prompts anywhere. For its cloud models, Ollama says prompt and response data is never logged or trained on.
Reviews
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