KoboldCpp

What is KoboldCpp?

KoboldCpp is a single self-contained program that loads a GGUF model file and gives you an interface to write with it. Unlike a front-end, it is both halves at once: the thing that runs the model and the thing you type into. Built on llama.cpp, it offers chat, adventure, instruct and storywriter modes, and it reads Tavern character cards so characters are portable.

At a glance

Product identity

Pricing

Nothing. The llama.cpp and GGML libraries underneath are MIT licensed and the bundled KoboldAI Lite interface is AGPL-3.0. There is no paid edition, no subscription and no account. The only cost is hardware you already own and the electricity to run it.

The whole thing is free. There is no tier structure to compare, no trial that expires and no feature held back behind a payment. Models are downloaded separately and the widely used ones are free too.

Refunds: Nothing is sold, so no refund terms exist.

Platforms

Windows, macOS on Apple Silicon, and Linux, plus Docker, Colab and Android through Termux. It ships as a single executable with no installation, and it runs on CPU alone, on GPU, or with layers split across both depending on how much memory you have.

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux
• Android

Feature matrix

Absence of evidence is not recorded as absence of a feature. Anything that needs an account to confirm is marked not tested rather than "no".

Privacy and data

It does not send anything anywhere. The model runs inside the same program you are typing into, on your own machine, so prompts and output stay in local memory and in whatever files you save. There is no vendor holding a retention policy, no training pipeline and no account to delete. The one caveat worth knowing is that it can serve an API, and exposing that beyond your own machine is a decision with consequences you own.

Privacy disclosure

What the vendor lets you know before paying

This measures disclosure, not quality. A good product can document nothing, and that is worth knowing separately from whether it is any good.

Content policy and safety

KoboldCpp documents its output filtering asno documented output filter, and its age policy as none stated.

KoboldCpp does not offer clothing removal from photographs of real people. ClickTug does not list tools that do. Its stated position on the likeness of real people is that documented consent is required.

What the vendor prohibits

• Nothing is enforced by the software, which applies no filter of its own
• What a session refuses depends entirely on the model file you loaded

This is a model runner. It contains no content policy and cannot enforce one: the behaviour you get belongs to the GGUF file you chose, and the responsibility for what it produces sits with you and the law where you live.

KoboldCpp runs on your own hardware, so it receives none of what you generate. ClickTug does not require a minor safety policy or an acceptable use policy from a tool that never receives user content, because there would be nothing for such a policy to govern. Any optional hosted tier is a separate service under its own terms.

ClickTug content policy

ClickTug verdict

The shortest path to running a model on your own hardware, and one of two entries here with no vendor at all. KoboldCpp is a single executable that is both the model runner and the interface, with chat, adventure and storywriter modes and Tavern card support. Nothing leaves your machine, so there is no retention policy, no training question and no account to delete. In exchange it enforces nothing: the behaviour you get belongs to the GGUF file you chose, and there is no support, no warranty and nobody accountable.

Hands on

How KoboldCpp compares

Every figure on the right is computed across the 37 tools ClickTug currently tracks, at the moment this page was built. They are facts about this catalogue rather than about the market, and they move as it grows.

Quick answers about KoboldCpp

Generated from the same records as the tables above, so an answer here cannot contradict a figure there. Questions only appear when the answer says something specific to this product.

Is KoboldCpp free?

Yes, the whole product. The whole program. No paid version, no account, no service to subscribe to.

How much does KoboldCpp cost?

Nothing. There is no paid tier, so there is no price to compare.

Does KoboldCpp require a credit card to start?

No, and there is nothing to buy afterwards either. Nothing here is sold, so no payment details are collected at any point.

Does KoboldCpp offer refunds?

Nothing is sold, so no refund terms exist.

Does KoboldCpp have an app?

Yes, on Android, and it installs on Windows, macOS and Linux as well.

Can KoboldCpp run locally?

Yes. In its primary mode it runs models on your own hardware, so prompts and output stay on the machine and no vendor retention period applies to them.

Does KoboldCpp train on my conversations?

Nothing is transmitted in the local mode, so there is no user content for anyone to train on. That is a property of where the model runs rather than a promise that could be changed.

What happens to my KoboldCpp data?

There is no account and no vendor-held copy, so deleting means removing the files on your own device. Nothing has to be requested from anybody.

Is KoboldCpp actually uncensored?

ClickTug records no documented output filter, which is a different claim from having no rules: its terms still prohibit a specific list of conduct, set out above.

What company owns KoboldCpp, and where?

KoboldCpp project, maintained by LostRuins, Not applicable, open-source project. Publishing an identifiable counterparty is worth noting: several tools in this directory name no company at all.