What is Ollama? Facts, license and pricing (Oct 2026)
Ollama is the common way to run open models locally on macOS, Windows and Linux, with a cloud option and an MIT-licensed open-source core. License: MIT. Its GitHub repository (ollama/ollama) had 184,762 stars on Oct 25, 2026. Facts were read from official pages on Oct 25, 2026 and are Reported, not Tested.
Evidence: Reported. Everything here was read from Ollama's own pages and the public GitHub API on 2026-10-25 (America/Chicago). We have not run Ollama for this page, so it says nothing about quality or speed.
What Ollama is
Ollama's site describes running and building with open models locally or in the cloud on macOS, Windows and Linux, and says prompts are never stored or trained on. The GitHub repository shows the MIT license and release v0.40.11 on Oct 25, 2026.
We list Ollama under Local LLMs and model platforms.
Get the weekly brief: which AI tools to update, try or skip. Free.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam. We email a confirmation link first. Privacy
Ollama key facts
| Feature | Ollama |
|---|---|
| Vendor | Ollama |
| License | MIT |
| Platforms | macOS, Windows and Linux |
| Pricing model | Free + paid cloud plans |
| Free tier | Free: $0, pay-as-you-go usage credits for cloud models |
| GitHub | ollama/ollama: 184,762 stars, last push Oct 25, 2026 (GitHub API, Oct 25, 2026) |
| Latest release we saw | v0.40.11 on Oct 25, 2026 |
| Evidence | Reported from vendor pages |
Who Ollama is for
- Good for: Developers who want local models behind a simple API.
- Good for: People who want to try open models privately.
- Skip if: You need frontier proprietary models only.
- Skip if: You have no GPU and want fast large-model output.
How to start with Ollama
- Download Ollama from ollama.com and run a model from the command line.
Ollama alternatives
- LM Studio: Desktop app for running open models locally; the homepage now leads with Bionic, an agent for work and code.
- Jan: Open-source alternative to ChatGPT that runs open models locally or connects to cloud models like GPT and Claude.
- llama.cpp: LLM inference in C/C++: the open-source engine many local-model tools build on; MIT-licensed with near-daily build tags.
What we did not verify
- Speed of a given model on your hardware.
- Output quality, speed and reliability of Ollama: we have not run it for this page.
FAQ
What is Ollama?
Ollama's site describes running and building with open models locally or in the cloud on macOS, Windows and Linux, and says prompts are never stored or trained on. The GitHub repository shows the MIT license and release v0.40.11 on Oct 25, 2026.
What license is Ollama under?
MIT. Read from the project's own pages on Oct 25, 2026.
Is Ollama free?
Free: $0, pay-as-you-go usage credits for cloud models. Checked Oct 25, 2026; prices change, so confirm on the vendor's page.
Sources
- Ollama (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Ollama pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Ollama repository (GitHub) (fetched 2026-10-25)
Related
Page history
- : First published from official pages read on 2026-10-25.
Markdown version for agents: /what-is/ollama.md
Free · weekly · about six minutes
Get The Weekly Verdict, free
What shipped this week, what is worth switching to, and what to ignore. We run what we can and label what we only read.
- One email a week. Each release gets one call: update now, worth a look, or skip.
- Every claim shows its evidence. Reported means we read the sources; Tested means we ran it, with the exact scope and the failures left in.
- A free AI Tools Cheat Sheet (web page and printable PDF) lands in your inbox when you confirm.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime. No spam. We email a confirmation link first and add you only after you click it. We use your email only to send this newsletter and never sell it. Privacy