Ollama: Your Local AI Lab.

Install Ollama, pull your first model, and start running AI on your own machine in under 10 minutes.

After this lesson you'll know

How to install and configure Ollama on macOS, Linux, and Windows
Pulling, running, and managing models from the command line
Using the Ollama API for programmatic access
Essential Ollama commands every user should know

What Is Ollama?

Ollama is the Docker of local AI. It packages large language models into a simple command-line interface -- pull a model, run it, done. No Python environments, no dependency hell, no CUDA driver nightmares. It handles model downloading, quantization selection, memory management, and GPU acceleration automatically.

Ollama supports hundreds of open-source models: Llama 3.1, Mistral, Gemma 2, Qwen 2.5, DeepSeek, Phi-3, and more. It runs on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Linux, and Windows. It exposes a local API on port 11434 that any application can connect to -- making it the foundation for everything we build in this course.

Installation

macOS:

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

Or download the .dmg from ollama.com. Both methods install the CLI and the background service. Apple Silicon Macs get automatic GPU acceleration through Metal.

Linux:

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

Supports Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, Fedora 36+, and most modern distributions. NVIDIA GPU acceleration requires CUDA drivers (installed separately).

Windows:

Download the installer from ollama.com. Requires Windows 10 or later. NVIDIA GPU support included. AMD GPU support is in preview.

Verify installation:

ollama --version

You should see the version number. If not, ensure the Ollama service is running.

First-time setup: Ollama starts a background service automatically. On macOS, you'll see an Ollama icon in your menu bar. On Linux, it runs as a systemd service. The service must be running before you can pull or run models.

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