Ollama

What is Ollama?

Ollama is an open-source tool that pulls open-weight models and runs them on your own hardware, driven from a terminal or a small desktop app. It exposes a local HTTP API that most model tooling already understands, which is why a great deal of other software can be pointed at it. Once a model is pulled it runs with no internet connection at all.

At a glance

Product identity

Pricing

Running models on your own hardware is free and unlimited, permanently, and that is the part most readers of this directory want. The paid tiers buy hosted cloud inference rather than removing a local restriction: Pro is 20 US dollars a month or 200 a year, Max is 100 a month and was paused for new signups when checked, and Team is 25 per seat a month with a five seat minimum.

Yes, and it is unlimited for the thing that matters. Local model use has no cap and needs no account, and the free tier additionally includes a small cloud allowance. Nothing about running a model at home is gated behind payment.

Refunds: Not applicable to local use, which is free. Cloud subscriptions bill monthly or annually.

Platforms

Windows, macOS and Linux, plus a local HTTP API that a large amount of third-party tooling already targets. Cloud models, where used, run in the United States, Europe and Singapore.

• Windows
• macOS
• Linux
• API

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

For local use there is nothing to hand anywhere: the model runs on your machine and works offline once pulled, so no prompt reaches a server. Ollama states plainly that your data is never trained on, and describes zero data retention and no logging on the Team tier. Cloud usage is a separate hosted service in named regions, and choosing it means prompts leaving your machine under different terms from the local mode.

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

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

Ollama 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 it is blocked outright.

What the vendor prohibits

• Nothing is enforced by the local client, which receives no content

The client applies no filter. What a model refuses is a property of the model you pulled, and the catalogue includes both heavily aligned and permissive ones. The optional cloud tier is a hosted service under separate terms.

Ollama 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 standard way to run an open-weight model on your own hardware, and the right recommendation for anyone who reaches this category through a command line. Local use is free, unlimited and offline, the client is open source, and the local API makes it the piece most other local tooling assumes. The cloud tiers are a genuine hosted service rather than a paywall around the local product, which is an unusually honest structure. The cost is that Ollama is deliberately plain, and choosing a model is entirely your problem.

Hands on

How Ollama 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.

At $20 a month, Ollama is cheaper than 1 of the 17 tools here that publish a starting price.

Quick answers about Ollama

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 Ollama free?

There is a free tier. Running models on your own hardware is unlimited and always free. The free tier also includes light cloud usage.

How much does Ollama cost?

Paid plans start at $20 a month. Every tier and what it includes is listed in the pricing section above, taken from the vendor's own page.

Does Ollama require a credit card to start?

No card is required to reach the free layer. One is needed for any paid plan.

Does Ollama offer refunds?

Not applicable to local use, which is free. Cloud subscriptions bill monthly or annually.

Does Ollama have an app?

No. It runs in a web browser only, which is common for adult products because both app stores restrict them.

Does Ollama have an API?

Yes. An API is documented, so the same model can be called from your own code rather than only through the interface.

Can Ollama run locally?

Yes. It runs models on your own hardware, so prompts and output never leave the machine and the retention question does not arise.

Does Ollama train on my conversations?

The vendor states it does not use user content to train models. That is a written commitment, and rarer in this category than it should be.

Can I delete my Ollama account?

Yes, through a control in the account rather than by asking support.

Can I use Ollama without an account?

Yes. The service can be reached without registering, which almost nothing else in this directory permits.

Is Ollama 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 Ollama, and where?

Ollama Inc., United States. Publishing an identifiable counterparty is worth noting: several tools in this directory name no company at all.