The best free local LLM runners (12)

Every option in the catalog for when you need to run a model on your own machine, fully offline — 12 local LLM runners, 12 of them free or freemium, with the pricing tier printed on every row.

12tools listed
12free or freemium
11with no paid plan at all
1sub-categories covered

Best Free Local LLM runners — straight answers

What are the best free local LLM runners?

Flocci AI Tools lists 12 of them, ordered free tiers first: AnythingLLM, GPT4All, Jan, KoboldCpp and llama.cpp. Every one of them is free or has a free tier. Each entry states what it uniquely does rather than a score.

Which of these are completely free?

11 on this page are marked fully free with no paid plan at all: AnythingLLM, GPT4All, Jan, KoboldCpp and llama.cpp. The remaining 1 are freemium, trial or paid, and each is labelled with its exact tier so nothing surprises you at sign-up.

How is this list ordered?

Free tools first, then freemium, then trial, then paid, and alphabetically inside each tier. Nobody pays to appear higher: Flocci AI Tools carries no ads, no sponsored slots and no paid listings, so the order reflects price and nothing else.

All 12 tools, free tiers first

Browse Local LLM Runners →
Best Free Local LLM runners: pricing tier, category and the capability each tool is listed for.
ToolPricingTypeListed for
AnythingLLMFreeLocal LLM RunnersAll-in-one local RAG and agents app
GPT4AllFreeLocal LLM RunnersPrivate local chat with your documents
JanFreeLocal LLM RunnersOpen-source, offline ChatGPT alternative
KoboldCppFreeLocal LLM RunnersShips as a single portable executable with a bundled web UI (KoboldAI Lite)
llama.cppFreeLocal LLM RunnersPure C/C++ inference engine with minimal dependencies, runs on CPU-only hardware
LM StudioFreeLocal LLM RunnersPolished desktop GUI for local models
MLX-LM (Apple)FreeLocal LLM RunnersPurpose-built for Apple Silicon's unified memory architecture, faster than llama.cpp for many models on Mac
OllamaFreeLocal LLM RunnersThe default way to run LLMs locally
Open WebUIFreeLocal LLM RunnersSelf-hosted ChatGPT-style interface
SGLangFreeLocal LLM RunnersRadixAttention for automatic prefix-cache reuse across requests
vLLMFreeLocal LLM RunnersPagedAttention memory management for high-throughput multi-request GPU serving
MstyFreemiumLocal LLM RunnersNexus module: unified gateway for managing model connections, credentials and usage policy across providers

AnythingLLM

Local LLM Runners
free
  • All-in-one local RAG and agents app
  • Chat with your docs privately
  • Works with local or cloud models
  • Free and open-source

GPT4All

Local LLM Runners
free
  • Private local chat with your documents
  • Runs on modest laptops
  • LocalDocs RAG built in
  • Free and open-source

Jan

Local LLM Runners
free
  • Open-source, offline ChatGPT alternative
  • No-config, privacy-first GUI
  • Runs fully on your device
  • Free forever

KoboldCpp

Local LLM Runners
free
  • Ships as a single portable executable with a bundled web UI (KoboldAI Lite)
  • Generates text, image, video and speech from one local app
  • Runs on CPU or GPU with no installation required

llama.cpp

Local LLM Runners
free
  • Pure C/C++ inference engine with minimal dependencies, runs on CPU-only hardware
  • Powers the GGUF format used by Ollama, LM Studio and most local runners under the hood
  • Broad quantization support (2-bit to 8-bit) for running large models on consumer hardware

LM Studio

Local LLM Runners
free
  • Polished desktop GUI for local models
  • Discover, download and chat with GGUF models
  • Local server with OpenAI-compatible API
  • Free for personal use

MLX-LM (Apple)

Local LLM Runners
free
  • Purpose-built for Apple Silicon's unified memory architecture, faster than llama.cpp for many models on Mac
  • Built-in LoRA/QLoRA fine-tuning support, not just inference
  • Direct Hugging Face Hub integration for pulling and pushing quantized models

Ollama

Local LLM Runners
free
  • The default way to run LLMs locally
  • One command to run Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek…
  • OpenAI-compatible local API
  • Free and open-source

Open WebUI

Local LLM Runners
free
  • Self-hosted ChatGPT-style interface
  • Works with Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs
  • RAG, tools and multi-user
  • Free and open-source

SGLang

Local LLM Runners
free
  • RadixAttention for automatic prefix-cache reuse across requests
  • Day-0 support for newly released open models (e.g. Kimi K3) among the fastest of any runner
  • Scales from single GPU to distributed multi-node clusters with speculative decoding

vLLM

Local LLM Runners
free
  • PagedAttention memory management for high-throughput multi-request GPU serving
  • Supports 200+ model architectures with an OpenAI-compatible API server
  • Originated at UC Berkeley Sky Computing Lab, now the de facto standard for self-hosted production LLM serving

Msty

Local LLM Runners
freemium
  • Nexus module: unified gateway for managing model connections, credentials and usage policy across providers
  • Governance features (SSO, audit logs, zero telemetry) aimed at private/enterprise use
  • Combines local model chat, agents (Go), and knowledge packages (Stack) in one app

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