# Ollama vs TextGen

> Ollama scores 56.3 (C) on agent readiness against TextGen's 45.1 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TextGen leads on security & auth. Both do local inference. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-text-generation-webui
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-text-generation-webui.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-text-generation-webui.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-text-generation-webui.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: 2026-10-09

Ollama scores 56.3 (C) on agent readiness against TextGen's 45.1 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TextGen leads on security & auth. Both do local inference.

- Ollama: grade C, 56.3/100, rank #570 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ollama.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ollama.json
- TextGen: grade E, 45.1/100, rank #775 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/text-generation-webui.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/text-generation-webui.json

## Which one, for what

### Ollama (C)

Good for: A person or an agent that wants an open model behind a local API with one install, and for pointing Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode at local or cloud models.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 61
- Agent ergonomics, 75 against 50
- Maintenance & community, 81 against 24
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 49

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: No credential on the local API, and any caller that reaches it can pull, push, create and delete models

### TextGen (E)

Good for: A person who wants one app for several backends (llama.cpp, ExLlamaV3, Transformers) with an OpenAI and Anthropic-compatible endpoint, LoRA training and image generation.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 40 against 28

Watch for: No release since v4.9 on 20 May 2026 and no code commit on `main` or `dev` since 31 May 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Ollama | TextGen | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 51 | Ollama +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 61 | Ollama +18 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 75 | 50 | Ollama +25 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 28 | 40 | TextGen +12 |
| 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) | 81 | 24 | Ollama +57 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 49 | Ollama +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **56.3 · C** | **45.1 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Ollama | TextGen |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Model platform |
| Vendor | Ollama Inc. | oobabooga |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| 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 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-05-20 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-05-01 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-03-01 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 181k stars, 872k npm/wk | 48k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**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.

**TextGen.** AGPL-3.0 with no telemetry, and a local API on 127.0.0.1:5000 that checks the Host header, limits CORS to localhost and separates an admin key from the caller's key. No release since v4.9 on 20 May 2026, no code commits since 31 May, no test suite, and ten security advisories in the year, all fixed.

## Before you call either

### 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`

### TextGen

1. Ask the owner to launch with `--api`. Nothing listens on port 5000 without it, and a model must be loaded first
2. Call `http://127.0.0.1:5000/v1`. Any Host header other than localhost or 127.0.0.1 gets 400 `Invalid host header` unless `--listen` is set
3. Send the key as `Authorization: Bearer` on OpenAI routes and as `x-api-key` on `/v1/messages`. Model loading needs the admin key
4. Read `http://127.0.0.1:5000/docs` or `modules/api/typing.py` for parameters. `max_tokens` defaults to 512 on chat completions
5. Run tool calls yourself. The API returns `finish_reason: "tool_calls"` and executes nothing on the server
6. Use the repository name `oobabooga/textgen`. The old `text-generation-webui` URL redirects

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Ollama or TextGen?

Ollama scores 56.3 (C) on agent readiness against TextGen's 45.1 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. TextGen leads on security & auth.

### Can an agent call Ollama and TextGen without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Ollama. No hosted endpoint is listed for TextGen.

### Are Ollama and TextGen open source?

Yes. Ollama is open source (MIT (server, CLI and desktop app). Ollama Cloud is a closed service under the ollama.com terms, and each model carries its own licence). TextGen is open source (AGPL-3.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-text-generation-webui.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ollama-vs-text-generation-webui.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "ollama", "b": "text-generation-webui"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare ollama text-generation-webui`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ollama.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/text-generation-webui.json

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