Ollama - Local AI Chatbots

DIFFICULTY: BEGINNER UPDATED: DECEMBER 2025

>> INTRODUCTION

🦙 WHAT IS OLLAMA?

Ollama lets you run Large Language Models (LLMs) like LLaMA, Mistral, and Gemma directly on your PC!

Imagine ChatGPT – but completely local, free, and private. Your chats never leave your computer!

✅ BENEFITS OF OLLAMA:

• Works offline – no internet required
• 100% Private – all data stays local
• Free – no API costs, no subscriptions
• Many models – LLaMA 3, Mistral, Gemma, CodeLLaMA...
• Simple – one command to start!

>> PREREQUISITES

🖥️

NVIDIA GPU with 8GB+ VRAM

For 7B models. Larger models need more VRAM.

💾

16GB+ RAM

More RAM = larger models possible (even without GPU)

📦

20GB+ Free Storage

Models are 4-40GB in size

💡 GOOD TO KNOW:

Ollama also runs on CPU only – just slower. With enough RAM (32GB+) you can use larger models without a GPU!

>> INSTALLATION

Download & Install Ollama

Go to ollama.com/download
Download the version for your OS (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Run the installer

💡 TIP: Installation takes only a few seconds!

Download Your First Model

Open a terminal/PowerShell and run:

# LLaMA 3.2 (3B) - Fast & compact
ollama run llama3.2

🦙 RECOMMENDED MODELS:

`llama3.2`	3B, ~2GB	Fast, good for chat
`llama3.1:8b`	8B, ~5GB	Best balance
`mistral`	7B, ~4GB	Very smart
`codellama`	7B, ~4GB	For programming
`llama3.1:70b`	70B, ~40GB	GPT-4 level (needs 48GB+ VRAM)

Chat with the Model

After download, a chat starts automatically:

>>> Explain quantum computing in simple terms

Imagine regular computers are like coins...

✅ DONE!

You now have a local AI chatbot!

>> GRAPHICAL INTERFACE

Terminal not your thing? There are nice Web UIs!

🌐 OPEN WEBUI (Recommended)

The best UI for Ollama – looks like ChatGPT!

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Then open http://localhost:3000

🖥️ JAN.AI

Native desktop app with beautiful UI. jan.ai

🔌 VS CODE EXTENSION

Continue – AI coding assistant directly in VS Code!

>> USING THE API

Ollama provides a REST API – perfect for your own projects!

# Example: API request with curl
curl http://localhost:11434/api/generate \
-d '{"model": "llama3.2", "prompt": "Hello!"}'

# Python example
import ollama

response = ollama.chat(
model='llama3.2',
messages=[{'role': 'user', 'content': 'Hello!'}]
)
print(response['message']['content'])

>> RESOURCES

📚

Ollama Model Library

Browse all available models

📦

Ollama GitHub

Source code & documentation

🌐

Open WebUI

ChatGPT-style interface for Ollama

>> CONCLUSION

With Ollama you have ChatGPT-like AI right on your PC! Completely free, private, and works offline.

Try different models and find the best one for your use case. Have fun experimenting! 🦙