---
title: "What is Ollama and how do I use it?"  
description: "What is Ollama and how do I use it?"  
author: "Ruslan Galiev"  
published: 2026-11-11  
updated: 2026-11-11  
canonical: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/119956/what-is-ollama-and-how-do-i-use-it  
category: "Open-Source AI Models"  
tags: ["ollama", "local AI", "tools"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# What is Ollama and how do I use it?



## Answers

### Answer by Saba Awan

Ollama is a free, open-source tool that makes it easy to run large language models on your own computer. With a single command, it downloads a model and starts a chat, handling the complicated technical setup behind the scenes. It works on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Before Ollama and similar tools, running a model locally meant installing many libraries, dealing with GPU drivers and writing code. Ollama turned this into something a beginner can do in minutes.

To get started:

1. Download Ollama from its official website, ollama.com, and install it.\
2. Open a terminal or command prompt.\
3. Type a command such as "ollama run" followed by a model name, for example a small Llama, Qwen, Gemma or Mistral model. Ollama downloads the model the first time and then opens a chat.\
4. Type your questions directly in the terminal.

Some useful commands:

"ollama list" shows models you have downloaded.\
"ollama pull" followed by a model name downloads a model without running it.\
"ollama rm" followed by a model name deletes a model to free disk space.

Ollama also has a desktop app with a simple chat interface for people who prefer not to use the terminal, depending on your version and platform.

Choosing a model: the Ollama website has a library of models with different sizes. Smaller models, around 1 to 8 billion parameters, run on ordinary laptops with 8 to 16 GB of RAM. Larger models need more memory or a good GPU. Start small, check the speed and then try larger models.

For developers, Ollama is especially useful because it runs a local API server. Your applications can send requests to Ollama on your own machine, and it even offers compatibility with the OpenAI API format, so some existing code can work with local models with minimal changes. This is great for building private prototypes, testing ideas without API costs or creating offline applications.

You can also customise models using a Modelfile, which lets you set a system prompt and parameters for a model you use often.

Keep realistic expectations: local models are generally less capable than the best cloud models, and speed depends on your hardware. But for privacy, learning, offline use and cost-free experimentation, Ollama is one of the best tools available.


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Original Source: https://answers.mindstick.com/qa/119956/what-is-ollama-and-how-do-i-use-it

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