# Jan vs llama.cpp

> llama.cpp has a score of 60.2 (C) against Jan's 51.4 (D). Both do local inference. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 34 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

llama.cpp has a score of 60.2 (C) against Jan's 51.4 (D). Both do local inference. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 34 points.

- Jan: grade D, 51.4/100, rank #349 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jan.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jan.json
- llama.cpp: grade C, 60.2/100, rank #253 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/llama-cpp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/llama-cpp.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Jan for schema & documentation (+9), transparency & trust (+9).

Pick llama.cpp for agent ergonomics (+27), security & auth (+9), maintenance & community (+34).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Jan | llama.cpp | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 64 | Jan +4 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 47 | Jan +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 46 | 73 | llama.cpp +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 52 | llama.cpp +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 81 | llama.cpp +34 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 60 | Jan +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -1 | |
| **Total** | | **51.4 · D** | **60.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Jan | llama.cpp |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Menlo Research | ggml.ai (Hugging Face) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-07-23 | 2026-09-23 |
| Popularity | 45k stars | 130k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Jan.** Apache-2.0, with installers for macOS, Windows and Linux plus Flathub and the Microsoft Store. No release since 0.8.4 on 23 July 2026, while a security fix waits on main.

**llama.cpp.** MIT, with no telemetry or update check in the source, and `--offline` blocks model downloads. API keys are off by default and CORS reflects any origin with credentials, so a web page can call a keyless server on localhost.

## Before you call either

### Jan

1. Ask the owner to start the server (Settings, Local API Server) or run `jan serve`. Nothing listens until then
2. Call http://127.0.0.1:1337/v1 for the app and localhost:6767/v1 for `jan serve`. The ports differ
3. Read /openapi.json from the running server, not the spec on the docs site, which describes the retired Cortex API
4. Branch on the status code. Error bodies are plain text
5. Keep the bind at 127.0.0.1 on 0.8.4. Trusted Hosts is ignored on 0.0.0.0 until the next release

### llama.cpp

1. Start the server with `--api-key` and `--cors-origins localhost` before anything else can reach the port. Both are off by default
2. Pass `n_predict` or `max_tokens`. Generation is unbounded by default
3. Send `response_fields` to /completion to drop the fields you don't read
4. Wait and retry on a 503 `unavailable_error`. The model is still loading
5. Read the server README of the build you run. Behaviour changes between nightly builds without a changelog entry

## Other comparisons with Jan or llama.cpp

- [AnythingLLM vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-jan.md)
- [AnythingLLM vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [GPT4All vs Jan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-jan.md)
- [GPT4All vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [Jan vs Khoj](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-khoj.md)
- [Jan vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [Jan vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-localai.md)
- [Jan vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-ollama.md)
- [Jan vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-open-webui.md)
- [Jan vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [Khoj vs llama.cpp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-llama-cpp.md)
- [llama.cpp vs LM Studio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-lm-studio.md)
- [llama.cpp vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-localai.md)
- [llama.cpp vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-ollama.md)
- [llama.cpp vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-open-webui.md)
- [llama.cpp vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-screenpipe.md)
- [Jan vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jan-vs-underdog.md)
- [llama.cpp vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llama-cpp-vs-underdog.md)