Apps to Run LLMs Locally

Slotstream runs Qwen3.8-Flash-Next on Apple Silicon Macs that don't have enough RAM to hold the whole model. It's aimed at people with 16 to 64 GB of memory who want local chat, image questions or a model backend for coding agents. Most model weights stay on the SSD, while frequently used expert networks stay in memory. The full model remains available.

Pooled runs a single open model across browser tabs on laptops, desktops and phones, combining their memory when the model won't fit on one device. It's for people who want local AI chat or a coding assistant using hardware they already have. It's open source under the MIT license and requires no account or per-device installation.

exo is a local LLM runner that combines your devices into a cluster, letting you use models too large for one machine's memory. It's for people who want to run large models on their own hardware and developers connecting existing AI clients to local inference. It runs on macOS and Linux under the Apache 2.0 license.

Jan gives people a ChatGPT-style chat interface for AI models running on their own computer. It's free and available for Windows, macOS and Linux. Local chats work offline, with the model and conversation kept on your machine. You can also use cloud models when you want access to a hosted provider.

LM Studio is a desktop application for downloading and running language models on macOS, Windows and Linux. You can search for models, manage downloads and chat with them through the app. Downloaded models can run offline, including document chat that uses files on your computer.

llama.cpp runs language models on your own hardware and can serve them from a machine you control. It’s an MIT-licensed, open source inference engine for people building local AI apps, running a private model server, or using a model directly from the command line. It supports vision-language models too.

Ollama runs language models on your own computer or server. It provides a command-line runner and a local API for people building AI applications or connecting existing tools to models they host themselves. The software is distributed under the MIT license.

LocalAI runs language models, speech, vision and image generation on hardware you control. It's for developers and teams that want a self-hosted AI server for their apps without sending model requests to a cloud service. Its OpenAI-compatible API works with existing clients, and it also accepts Anthropic, Ollama and ElevenLabs API calls.

Unsloth brings model training and everyday AI use into a desktop app for people who want to run models on their own hardware. Its no-code interface covers chat, fine-tuning and media generation on macOS, Windows and Linux. The Unsloth software is open source under Apache 2.0.

Locally AI is a native app for running language and vision models on recent iPhones, iPads, and Macs. It's for people who want a private AI assistant on their own device, with text, image processing, and voice conversations available without cloud processing. Once a model is downloaded, it works offline and doesn't require an account.

h2oGPT is a self-hosted ChatGPT alternative for people who want to chat with local models and ask questions about their own documents. The project is archived and no longer maintained. It's open source under Apache 2.0, with support for Linux, macOS, Windows and Docker.

Backyard AI's desktop app uses llama.cpp, a runtime for running language models locally. It's for people looking for a desktop AI app on Windows or macOS, with separate Mac downloads for Intel and Apple Silicon hardware.

LlamaGPT is a self-hosted ChatGPT alternative for people who want general chat or coding help on their own computer or home server. It runs models locally and keeps conversation data on your device. After the initial model download, it works offline.

Lollms WebUI is a local, single-user AI interface for people who want text chat and media generation in one place. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, with Docker support, and lets writers, developers and other users choose models and task-specific personalities. It's free and open source under Apache 2.0. The project receives minimal maintenance.

Nexa SDK is an on-device AI inference framework for developers building applications that process text, images or audio on users' hardware. It runs models locally across CPUs, GPUs and NPUs, with a shared interface for different backends. Its scope includes language and vision models, speech recognition, speech synthesis and image generation.

LLM Farm runs large language models offline on iOS and macOS. It's for people who want on-device AI chat or need to compare how different models perform on Apple hardware before choosing one for a project. The app is open source under the MIT license, with ggml and llama.cpp handling local inference.

OpenLLM is a self-hosted LLM server for developers who want to connect their applications to models running on their own hardware or servers. Its OpenAI-compatible API works with clients built for that interface, including the OpenAI Python client and LlamaIndex. The project is open source under the Apache License 2.0.

Harbor is a CLI and companion app for people experimenting with AI on their own hardware. It manages a local LLM development environment, connecting model backends to chat interfaces and supporting services so you don't have to configure each connection yourself. It's open source under Apache 2.0.

PowerInfer is a local LLM inference engine for developers and researchers who want to run large models on a PC with a consumer GPU. It splits work between the CPU and GPU to reduce GPU memory demands and data transfers. The code is open source under the MIT license.

Cactus is an on-device AI engine for developers building automation into mobile apps, wearables and embedded devices. Its Needle model handles tool calling locally, so a device can turn a request into an action without an internet connection. The focus is small devices, including smart home hardware, robots and microcontrollers.

Distributed Llama runs a local LLM across several computers, sharing both the computation and the model's memory use. It's for people who want to use their own networked hardware for inference rather than keep the entire workload on one machine. The C++ project is open source under the MIT license.

LLM is an Apache-2.0 command-line tool and Python library for sending prompts to local models and remote APIs. Local model support comes through plugins; cloud providers require their own API access. It can also connect to an arbitrary OpenAI-compatible Chat Completions endpoint, including LM Studio.

text-generation-webui, also called TextGen, runs language models on your own hardware through a desktop app or a self-hosted browser interface. It's for people who want private chat and writing tools, and developers who need a local model API. It works offline without telemetry; web search and page fetching use the internet.

llamafile puts an LLM and the software that runs it into a single executable. It’s for people who want to run models locally or share them with others without asking each recipient to set up a separate runtime. The project is open source under Apache 2.0.

RamaLama runs and serves AI models on your own hardware using OCI containers. It's aimed at developers who want local chat or a self-hosted inference API with a container workflow they can also use in production. The project uses the MIT license.

KoboldCpp pairs local model inference with a browser interface built for chat, creative writing and roleplay. A fork of llama.cpp, it bundles KoboldAI Lite with tools for keeping character details and story context alongside your conversations. It's open source under AGPL-3.0.

PocketPal AI is an open source assistant for people who want to run language models on a phone or tablet. It works on iOS, iPadOS and Android. Once you've downloaded a model, you can chat offline without an account, and your prompts, replies and documents stay on your device. The app is licensed under MIT.

MLC LLM is an open-source compiler and deployment engine for developers who want to run language models on their own hardware or inside apps. Its main distinction is the range of devices it targets: the same underlying engine, MLCEngine, serves desktop, browser and mobile deployments. The project uses the Apache 2.0 license.

mistral.rs is an open source inference engine for running models on your own computer or self-hosted server. It's for developers building AI applications and people who want local chat, multimodal models and agent tools in the same runtime. The Rust project uses the MIT license.

Lemonade is an open source local AI server for people who want to use models on their own hardware or connect them to apps and agents. It handles chat, coding, image generation, speech, transcription, and embeddings. A built-in interface lets you use those capabilities directly, while its server makes them available to other software.

llama-swap is a self-hosted proxy for people running several AI models on their own hardware. It starts the model server a request needs and swaps out another when necessary, so you don't have to keep every model loaded or manage separate API connections in your apps.

GPT4All is a local AI chatbot for people who want to run language models on their own desktop or laptop and keep conversations on their machine. Its LocalDocs feature lets you ask questions about your own documents without sending them to a cloud service. It suits developers, teams and individuals who want control over their models and data.

MLX LM is an open-source Python package for generating text and fine-tuning language models locally on Apple Silicon Macs. Built on MLX, it suits developers and researchers who want to work with models through Python or a terminal, including adapting models to their own tasks. The package uses the MIT license.

Docker Model Runner lets developers run and serve AI models on their own computer or server using Docker Desktop, Docker Engine or the standalone dmr binary. It pulls models from Docker Hub, OCI registries, and Hugging Face, then stores them locally. Inference runs locally too.

Vyact is an open source desktop workspace for people who want to use a local LLM with their documents, email and code. It runs on Apple Silicon Macs, Windows and Linux x64 under the AGPL-3.0 license. Intel Macs aren't supported.