Free · Coding · 8 of 8 tools · updated Oct 17, 2026
Free AI tools to run LLMs locally
Ollama is the strongest tool to run LLMs locally you can use without paying, at 99/100. What you get for nothing: Free; optional cloud models. 8 of the 8 tools tracked for this job have a free tier, an open-source licence, or are free outright. It is also the top-ranked tool for this job overall, free or not.
Same evidence score as the ranking — GitHub stars, Hacker News mentions, release activity, free access — recomputed nightly, never sold. See all 8 tools to run LLMs locally.
Top 3
evidence / 100
+ `ollama run llama3` is the simplest path to a local model, and most tools integrate with it.
− Hides llama.cpp tuning options, so throughput trails hand-tuned setups.
+ Multi-user accounts, RAG, and tool plugins make it a full private ChatGPT replacement.
− Docker-only deployment and a licence change in 2025 that restricts branding removal.
+ The engine underneath Ollama, LM Studio, and most local tooling, with the widest hardware support.
− Building and tuning flags yourself is a chore compared with wrappers.
All 8, side by side
| Tool | Score | Pricing | What you get free | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ollama | 99 | Open source | Free; optional cloud models | mac, windows, linux, cli, api |
| Open WebUI | 98 | Open source | Free self-hosted | web, linux, mac, windows |
| llama.cpp | 97 | Open source | Free | mac, windows, linux, cli, api |
 Hugging Face | 94 | Free tier | Free hub; Pro $9/mo; usage-based inference | web, api, cli |
 Jan | 90 | Open source | Free | mac, windows, linux |
 vLLM | 80 | Open source | Free | linux, cli, api |
 GPT4All | 78 | Open source | Free | mac, windows, linux |
 LM Studio | 44 | Free | Free, including commercial use | mac, windows, linux |
A free tier counts, and so does an open-source licence you can self-host — both are in the table, so a tool that is only free for a trial is not here.
Head to head: Ollama vs Open WebUI Ollama vs llama.cpp Open WebUI vs llama.cpp