# LocalAI vs Ollama > LocalAI has a score of 68 (B) against Ollama's 56.6 (C). Both do local inference. The largest gap is security & auth, 34 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-ollama - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-ollama.md (~1,600 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-ollama.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-ollama.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - Updated: 2026-10-04 LocalAI has a score of 68 (B) against Ollama's 56.6 (C). Both do local inference. The largest gap is security & auth, 34 points. - LocalAI: grade B, 68/100, rank #133 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/localai.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/localai.json - Ollama: grade C, 56.6/100, rank #302 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ollama.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ollama.json ## Which one, for what Pick LocalAI for reliability (+31), security & auth (+34). Pick Ollama for transparency & trust (+16). ## Score by category | Category | Weight | LocalAI | Ollama | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 84 | 53 | LocalAI +31 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 79 | LocalAI +2 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 75 | Ollama +4 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 28 | LocalAI +34 | | 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) | 80 | 81 | Ollama +1 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 47 | 63 | Ollama +16 | | Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -4 | | | **Total** | | **68 · B** | **56.6 · C** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | LocalAI | Ollama | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API | | Vendor | Ettore Di Giacinto and the LocalAI team | Ollama Inc. | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP | | Auth | OAuth or key | None | | Pricing | Free | Freemium | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | MIT. Each backend image wraps an upstream engine (llama.cpp, vLLM, whisper.cpp, diffusers and others) under that engine's own licence | MIT (server, CLI and desktop app). Ollama Cloud is a closed service under the ollama.com terms, and each model carries its own licence | | Tools exposed | 42 | 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 | yes | no | | llms.txt | no | yes | | MCP registry | not listed | not listed | | Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-10-01 | | Popularity | 48k stars | 181k stars, 872k npm/wk | | Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (2) | ## Verdicts **LocalAI.** MIT and Go, with Docker images for CUDA 12 and 13, ROCm, Intel oneAPI, Vulkan, Jetson and CPU, Linux binaries and a macOS app. No authentication by default. Loopback, LAN and VPN binds answer every caller, and keys set by environment variable grant full admin. **Ollama.** An OpenAPI 3.1 file for the 15 native operations and llms.txt with 68 links to Markdown pages. No credential on the local API, and any caller that reaches it can pull, push, create and delete models. ## Before you call either ### LocalAI 1. Send `Authorization: Bearer ` when the operator has set keys. A 401 means the instance has auth on 2. Read /.well-known/localai.json and /api/instructions first. Both answer without a key and list what this instance can do 3. Back off on 429 and 503 for the Retry-After seconds. A 503 can mean the model is still loading 4. Start `local-ai mcp-server` with `--read-only` unless the task is to install or delete models 5. Take model names from /v1/models. Each instance names its own ### Ollama 1. Send `"stream": false` for one JSON body. The native routes stream NDJSON by default 2. Set `OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH=64000` or `options.num_ctx` before agent work. The default is 4k below 24 GiB of VRAM 3. Back off on a 503. It means the queue (512 by default) is full 4. Put an authenticating proxy in front before binding past 127.0.0.1. The server checks no credential 5. Expect model names with a `cloud` tag to run on Ollama's servers. They need `ollama signin` and fail with `OLLAMA_NO_CLOUD=1` ## Other comparisons with LocalAI or Ollama - [AnythingLLM vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-localai.md) - [AnythingLLM vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/anythingllm-vs-ollama.md) - [GPT4All vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-localai.md) - [GPT4All vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gpt4all-vs-ollama.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) - [Khoj vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-localai.md) - [Khoj vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/khoj-vs-ollama.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) - [LM Studio vs LocalAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-localai.md) - [LM Studio vs Ollama](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lm-studio-vs-ollama.md) - [LocalAI vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-open-webui.md) - [LocalAI vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-screenpipe.md) - [Ollama vs Open WebUI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-open-webui.md) - [Ollama vs screenpipe](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-screenpipe.md) - [LocalAI vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/localai-vs-underdog.md) - [Ollama vs Underdog](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-underdog.md)