The 6 Best LLM Tools To Run Models Locally

Rohit Sharma
3 min readOct 8, 2024

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Running large language models (LLMs) locally can be a game-changer for various applications, and there are several tools that can help you achieve this. From user-friendly interfaces to more technical options, the landscape offers a variety of choices.

Some of the best LLM tools to run models locally include:

  • LM Studio: A GUI-based tool that supports various models, including Llama 3.1, Phi 3, Mistral, and Gemma. It provides a user-friendly interface for configuring and experimenting with LLMs.
  • Ollama: A command-line tool that allows you to run LLMs locally with minimal setup. It supports popular models like Llama and Vicuña.
  • GPT4ALL: A desktop application with an intuitive GUI that supports local model running and offers connectivity to OpenAI with an API key. It stands out for its ability to process local documents for context, ensuring privacy.
  • Jan: A free, cross-platform, and open-source tool that provides a clean and simple interface to interact with LLMs. It keeps all your data and processing information locally.
  • Llamafile: A tool that converts LLMs into multi-platform executable programs that require no installation to run on various architectures. It provides one of the best options to integrate AI into applications.
  • LLaMa.cpp: The underlying backend technology that powers local LLM tools like Ollama and many others. It supports significant large language model inferences with minimal configuration and excellent local performance on various hardware.

Each of these tools has its unique features and benefits, and the choice ultimately depends on your specific needs and expertise.

Why Use Local LLMs?

Running LLMs locally offers several advantages, including:

  • Privacy: You can prompt local LLMs in a multi-turn manner without your prompt data leaving your localhost.
  • Customization Options: Local LLMs provide advanced configurations for CPU threads, temperature, context length, GPU settings, and more.
  • Support and Security: They provide similar support and security as OpenAI or Claude.
  • Subscription and Cost: These tools are free to use and do not require monthly subscriptions. For cloud services like OpenAI, each API request requires payment. Local LLMs help to save money since there are no monthly subscriptions.

Evaluating LLMs’ Performance To Run Locally

Knowing the performance of a large language model before using it locally is essential for getting the required responses. There are several ways you can determine the performance of a particular LLM, including:

  • Training: What dataset is the model trained on?
  • Fine-tuning: To what extent can the model be customized to perform a specialized task or can it be fine-tuned to for a specific domain?
  • Academic Research: Does the LLM have an academic research paper?

You can check excellent resources like Hugging Face and Arxiv.org to answer these questions. Additionally, Open LLm Leaderboard and LMSYS Chatbot Arena provide detailed information and benchmarks for varieties of LLMs.

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