:robot: The free, Open Source alternative to OpenAI, Claude and others. Self-hosted and local-first. Drop-in replacement for OpenAI, running on consumer-gra...
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Updated Nov 4, 2025
ai
api
audio-generation
decentralized
distributed
gemma
image-generation
libp2p
llama
llm
mamba
mcp
mistral
musicgen
object-detection
rerank
rwkv
stable-diffusion
text-generation
tts
Documentation
:bulb: Get help - ❓FAQ 💭Discussions :speech_balloon: Discord :book: Documentation website
💻 Quickstart 🖼️ Models 🚀 Roadmap 🛫 Examples Try on
LocalAI is the free, Open Source OpenAI alternative. LocalAI act as a drop-in replacement REST API that's compatible with OpenAI (Elevenlabs, Anthropic... ) API specifications for local AI inferencing. It allows you to run LLMs, generate images, audio (and not only) locally or on-prem with consumer grade hardware, supporting multiple model families. Does not require GPU. It is created and maintained by Ettore Di Giacinto.
Local Stack Family
Liking LocalAI? LocalAI is part of an integrated suite of AI infrastructure tools, you might also like:
- **LocalAGI** - AI agent orchestration platform with OpenAI Responses API compatibility and advanced agentic capabilities
- **LocalRecall** - MCP/REST API knowledge base system providing persistent memory and storage for AI agents
- 🆕 **Cogito** - Go library for building intelligent, co-operative agentic software and LLM-powered workflows, focusing on improving results for small, open source language models that scales to any LLM. Powers LocalAGI and LocalAI MCP/Agentic capabilities
- 🆕 **Wiz** - Terminal-based AI agent accessible via Ctrl+Space keybinding. Portable, local-LLM friendly shell assistant with TUI/CLI modes, tool execution with approval, MCP protocol support, and multi-shell compatibility (zsh, bash, fish)
- 🆕 **SkillServer** - Simple, centralized skills database for AI agents via MCP. Manages skills as Markdown files with MCP server integration, web UI for editing, Git synchronization, and full-text search capabilities
Screenshots / Video
Youtube video
Screenshots
| Talk Interface | Generate Audio |
|---|---|
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| Models Overview | Generate Images |
|---|---|
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| Chat Interface | Home |
|---|---|
 |  |
| Login | Swarm |
|---|---|
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💻 Quickstart
⚠️ Note: The
install.shscript is currently experiencing issues due to the heavy changes currently undergoing in LocalAI and may produce broken or misconfigured installations. Please use Docker installation (see below) or manual binary installation until issue #8032 is resolved.
Run the installer script:
bash
# Basic installation
curl https://localai.io/install.sh | shFor more installation options, see Installer Options.
macOS Download:
Note: the DMGs are not signed by Apple as quarantined. See https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/issues/6268 for a workaround, fix is tracked here: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/issues/6244
Containers (Docker, podman, ...)
💡 Docker Run vs Docker Start
-
docker runcreates and starts a new container. If a container with the same name already exists, this command will fail.-
docker startstarts an existing container that was previously created withdocker run.If you've already run LocalAI before and want to start it again, use:
docker start -i local-ai
CPU only image:
bash
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 localai/localai:latestNVIDIA GPU Images:
bash
# CUDA 13.0
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --gpus all localai/localai:latest-gpu-nvidia-cuda-13
# CUDA 12.0
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --gpus all localai/localai:latest-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12
# NVIDIA Jetson (L4T) ARM64
# CUDA 12 (for Nvidia AGX Orin and similar platforms)
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --gpus all localai/localai:latest-nvidia-l4t-arm64
# CUDA 13 (for Nvidia DGX Spark)
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --gpus all localai/localai:latest-nvidia-l4t-arm64-cuda-13AMD GPU Images (ROCm):
bash
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --device=/dev/kfd --device=/dev/dri --group-add=video localai/localai:latest-gpu-hipblasIntel GPU Images (oneAPI):
bash
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --device=/dev/dri/card1 --device=/dev/dri/renderD128 localai/localai:latest-gpu-intelVulkan GPU Images:
bash
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 localai/localai:latest-gpu-vulkanAIO Images (pre-downloaded models):
bash
# CPU version
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 localai/localai:latest-aio-cpu
# NVIDIA CUDA 13 version
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --gpus all localai/localai:latest-aio-gpu-nvidia-cuda-13
# NVIDIA CUDA 12 version
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --gpus all localai/localai:latest-aio-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12
# Intel GPU version
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 localai/localai:latest-aio-gpu-intel
# AMD GPU version
docker run -ti --name local-ai -p 8080:8080 --device=/dev/kfd --device=/dev/dri --group-add=video localai/localai:latest-aio-gpu-hipblasFor more information about the AIO images and pre-downloaded models, see Container Documentation.
To load models:
bash
# From the model gallery (see available models with `local-ai models list`, in the WebUI from the model tab, or visiting https://models.localai.io)
local-ai run llama-3.2-1b-instruct:q4_k_m
# Start LocalAI with the phi-2 model directly from huggingface
local-ai run huggingface://TheBloke/phi-2-GGUF/phi-2.Q8_0.gguf
# Install and run a model from the Ollama OCI registry
local-ai run ollama://gemma:2b
# Run a model from a configuration file
local-ai run https://gist.githubusercontent.com/.../phi-2.yaml
# Install and run a model from a standard OCI registry (e.g., Docker Hub)
local-ai run oci://localai/phi-2:latest⚡ Automatic Backend Detection: When you install models from the gallery or YAML files, LocalAI automatically detects your system's GPU capabilities (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel) and downloads the appropriate backend. For advanced configuration options, see GPU Acceleration.
For more information, see 💻 Getting started, if you are interested in our roadmap items and future enhancements, you can see the Issues labeled as Roadmap here
📰 Latest project news
- February 2026: Realtime API for audio-to-audio with tool calling, ACE-Step 1.5 support
- January 2026: LocalAI 3.10.0 - Major release with Anthropic API support, Open Responses API for stateful agents, video & image generation suite (LTX-2), unified GPU backends, tool streaming & XML parsing, system-aware backend gallery, crash fixes for AVX-only CPUs and AMD VRAM reporting, request tracing, and new backends: Moonshine (ultra-fast transcription), Pocket-TTS (lightweight TTS). Vulkan arm64 builds now available. Release notes.
- December 2025: Dynamic Memory Resource reclaimer, Automatic fitting of models to multiple GPUS(llama.cpp), Added Vibevoice backend
- November 2025: Major improvements to the UX. Among these: Import models via URL and Multiple chats and history
- October 2025: 🔌 Model Context Protocol (MCP) support added for agentic capabilities with external tools
- September 2025: New Launcher application for MacOS and Linux, extended support to many backends for Mac and Nvidia L4T devices. Models: Added MLX-Audio, WAN 2.2. WebUI improvements and Python-based backends now ships portable python environments.
- August 2025: MLX, MLX-VLM, Diffusers and llama.cpp are now supported on Mac M1/M2/M3+ chips ( with
developmentsuffix in the gallery ): https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/6049 https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/6119 https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/6121 https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/6060 - July/August 2025: 🔍 Object Detection added to the API featuring rf-detr
- July 2025: All backends migrated outside of the main binary. LocalAI is now more lightweight, small, and automatically downloads the required backend to run the model. Read the release notes
- June 2025: Backend management has been added. Attention: extras images are going to be deprecated from the next release! Read the backend management PR.
- May 2025: Audio input and Reranking in llama.cpp backend, Realtime API, Support to Gemma, SmollVLM, and more multimodal models (available in the gallery).
- May 2025: Important: image name changes See release
- Apr 2025: Rebrand, WebUI enhancements
- Apr 2025: LocalAGI and LocalRecall join the LocalAI family stack.
- Apr 2025: WebUI overhaul, AIO images updates
- Feb 2025: Backend cleanup, Breaking changes, new backends (kokoro, OutelTTS, faster-whisper), Nvidia L4T images
- Jan 2025: LocalAI model release: https://huggingface.co/mudler/LocalAI-functioncall-phi-4-v0.3, SANA support in diffusers: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/4603
- Dec 2024: stablediffusion.cpp backend (ggml) added ( https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/4289 )
- Nov 2024: Bark.cpp backend added ( https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/4287 )
- Nov 2024: Voice activity detection models (VAD) added to the API: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/4204
- Oct 2024: examples moved to LocalAI-examples
- Aug 2024: 🆕 FLUX-1, P2P Explorer
- July 2024: 🔥🔥 🆕 P2P Dashboard, LocalAI Federated mode and AI Swarms: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/2723. P2P Global community pools: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/issues/3113
- May 2024: 🔥🔥 Decentralized P2P llama.cpp: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/2343 (peer2peer llama.cpp!) 👉 Docs https://localai.io/features/distribute/
- May 2024: 🔥🔥 Distributed inferencing: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/2324
- April 2024: Reranker API: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/pull/2121
Roadmap items: List of issues
🚀 Features
- 🧩 Backend Gallery: Install/remove backends on the fly, powered by OCI images — fully customizable and API-driven.
- 📖 Text generation with GPTs (
llama.cpp,transformers,vllm... :book: and more) - 🗣 Text to Audio
- 🔈 Audio to Text
- 🎨 Image generation
- 🔥 OpenAI-alike tools API
- ⚡ Realtime API (Speech-to-speech)
- 🧠 Embeddings generation for vector databases
- ✍️ Constrained grammars
- 🖼️ Download Models directly from Huggingface
- 🥽 Vision API
- 🔍 Object Detection
- 📈 Reranker API
- 🆕🖧 P2P Inferencing
- 🆕🔌 Model Context Protocol (MCP) - Agentic capabilities with external tools and LocalAGI's Agentic capabilities
- 🔊 Voice activity detection (Silero-VAD support)
- 🌍 Integrated WebUI!
🧩 Supported Backends & Acceleration
LocalAI supports a comprehensive range of AI backends with multiple acceleration options:
Text Generation & Language Models
| Backend | Description | Acceleration Support |
|---|---|---|
| llama.cpp | LLM inference in C/C++ | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel SYCL, Vulkan, Metal, CPU |
| vLLM | Fast LLM inference with PagedAttention | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel |
| transformers | HuggingFace transformers framework | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| MLX | Apple Silicon LLM inference | Metal (M1/M2/M3+) |
| MLX-VLM | Apple Silicon Vision-Language Models | Metal (M1/M2/M3+) |
Audio & Speech Processing
| Backend | Description | Acceleration Support |
|---|---|---|
| whisper.cpp | OpenAI Whisper in C/C++ | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel SYCL, Vulkan, CPU |
| faster-whisper | Fast Whisper with CTranslate2 | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| moonshine | Ultra-fast transcription engine for low-end devices | CUDA 12/13, Metal, CPU |
| coqui | Advanced TTS with 1100+ languages | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| kokoro | Lightweight TTS model | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| chatterbox | Production-grade TTS | CUDA 12/13, CPU |
| piper | Fast neural TTS system | CPU |
| kitten-tts | Kitten TTS models | CPU |
| silero-vad | Voice Activity Detection | CPU |
| neutts | Text-to-speech with voice cloning | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, CPU |
| vibevoice | Real-time TTS with voice cloning | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| pocket-tts | Lightweight CPU-based TTS | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| qwen-tts | High-quality TTS with custom voice, voice design, and voice cloning | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| ace-step | Music generation from text descriptions, lyrics, or audio samples | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, Metal, CPU |
Image & Video Generation
| Backend | Description | Acceleration Support |
|---|---|---|
| stablediffusion.cpp | Stable Diffusion in C/C++ | CUDA 12/13, Intel SYCL, Vulkan, CPU |
| diffusers | HuggingFace diffusion models | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, Metal, CPU |
Specialized AI Tasks
| Backend | Description | Acceleration Support |
|---|---|---|
| rfdetr | Real-time object detection | CUDA 12/13, Intel, CPU |
| rerankers | Document reranking API | CUDA 12/13, ROCm, Intel, CPU |
| local-store | Vector database | CPU |
| huggingface | HuggingFace API integration | API-based |
Hardware Acceleration Matrix
| Acceleration Type | Supported Backends | Hardware Support |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA CUDA 12 | All CUDA-compatible backends | Nvidia hardware |
| NVIDIA CUDA 13 | All CUDA-compatible backends | Nvidia hardware |
| AMD ROCm | llama.cpp, whisper, vllm, transformers, diffusers, rerankers, coqui, kokoro, neutts, vibevoice, pocket-tts, qwen-tts, ace-step | AMD Graphics |
| Intel oneAPI | llama.cpp, whisper, stablediffusion, vllm, transformers, diffusers, rfdetr, rerankers, coqui, kokoro, vibevoice, pocket-tts, qwen-tts, ace-step | Intel Arc, Intel iGPUs |
| Apple Metal | llama.cpp, whisper, diffusers, MLX, MLX-VLM, moonshine, ace-step | Apple M1/M2/M3+ |
| Vulkan | llama.cpp, whisper, stablediffusion | Cross-platform GPUs |
| NVIDIA Jetson (CUDA 12) | llama.cpp, whisper, stablediffusion, diffusers, rfdetr, ace-step | ARM64 embedded AI (AGX Orin, etc.) |
| NVIDIA Jetson (CUDA 13) | llama.cpp, whisper, stablediffusion, diffusers, rfdetr | ARM64 embedded AI (DGX Spark) |
| CPU Optimized | All backends | AVX/AVX2/AVX512, quantization support |
🔗 Community and integrations
Build and deploy custom containers:
- https://github.com/sozercan/aikit
WebUIs:
- https://github.com/Jirubizu/localai-admin
- https://github.com/go-skynet/LocalAI-frontend
- QA-Pilot(An interactive chat project that leverages LocalAI LLMs for rapid understanding and navigation of GitHub code repository) https://github.com/reid41/QA-Pilot
Agentic Libraries:
- https://github.com/mudler/cogito
MCPs:
- https://github.com/mudler/MCPs
OS Assistant:
- https://github.com/mudler/Keygeist - Keygeist is an AI-powered keyboard operator that listens for key combinations and responds with AI-generated text typed directly into your Linux box.
Model galleries
- https://github.com/go-skynet/model-gallery
Voice:
- https://github.com/richiejp/VoxInput
Other:
- Helm chart https://github.com/go-skynet/helm-charts
- VSCode extension https://github.com/badgooooor/localai-vscode-plugin
- Langchain: https://python.langchain.com/docs/integrations/providers/localai/
- Terminal utility https://github.com/djcopley/ShellOracle
- Local Smart assistant https://github.com/mudler/LocalAGI
- Home Assistant https://github.com/sammcj/homeassistant-localai / https://github.com/drndos/hass-openai-custom-conversation / https://github.com/valentinfrlch/ha-gpt4vision
- Discord bot https://github.com/mudler/LocalAGI/tree/main/examples/discord
- Slack bot https://github.com/mudler/LocalAGI/tree/main/examples/slack
- Shell-Pilot(Interact with LLM using LocalAI models via pure shell scripts on your Linux or MacOS system) https://github.com/reid41/shell-pilot
- Telegram bot https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/tree/master/examples/telegram-bot
- Another Telegram Bot https://github.com/JackBekket/Hellper
- Auto-documentation https://github.com/JackBekket/Reflexia
- Github bot which answer on issues, with code and documentation as context https://github.com/JackBekket/GitHelper
- Github Actions: https://github.com/marketplace/actions/start-localai
- Examples: https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/tree/master/examples/
🔗 Resources
- LLM finetuning guide
- How to build locally
- How to install in Kubernetes
- Projects integrating LocalAI
- How tos section (curated by our community)
:book: 🎥 Media, Blogs, Social
- Run Visual studio code with LocalAI (SUSE)
- 🆕 Run LocalAI on Jetson Nano Devkit
- Run LocalAI on AWS EKS with Pulumi
- Run LocalAI on AWS
- Create a slackbot for teams and OSS projects that answer to documentation
- LocalAI meets k8sgpt
- Question Answering on Documents locally with LangChain, LocalAI, Chroma, and GPT4All
- Tutorial to use k8sgpt with LocalAI
Citation
If you utilize this repository, data in a downstream project, please consider citing it with:
code
@misc{localai,
author = {Ettore Di Giacinto},
title = {LocalAI: The free, Open source OpenAI alternative},
year = {2023},
publisher = {GitHub},
journal = {GitHub repository},
howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/go-skynet/LocalAI}},❤️ Sponsors
Do you find LocalAI useful?
Support the project by becoming a backer or sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website.
A huge thank you to our generous sponsors who support this project covering CI expenses, and our Sponsor list:
Individual sponsors
A special thanks to individual sponsors that contributed to the project, a full list is in Github and buymeacoffee, a special shout out goes to drikster80 for being generous. Thank you everyone!
🌟 Star history
📖 License
LocalAI is a community-driven project created by Ettore Di Giacinto.
MIT - Author Ettore Di Giacinto
🙇 Acknowledgements
LocalAI couldn't have been built without the help of great software already available from the community. Thank you!
- llama.cpp
- https://github.com/tatsu-lab/stanford_alpaca
- https://github.com/cornelk/llama-go for the initial ideas
- https://github.com/antimatter15/alpaca.cpp
- https://github.com/EdVince/Stable-Diffusion-NCNN
- https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp
- https://github.com/rhasspy/piper
🤗 Contributors
This is a community project, a special thanks to our contributors! 🤗
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