Skip to content
ReviewRamble

The best AI tools for running LLMs locally in 2026

Running a model on your own laptop or server keeps your data at home and the per-token bill at zero. You need two things: software to run the model and an open model small enough for your hardware, so this list has both.

By Andrew Miller and Sheela · Updated Oct 26, 2026 · How we review

How we chose: each pick is a product, model or project we have reviewed that does this job according to our review of it, ranked by our rating out of 5. We take no affiliate commission.

Also ranked: the best open-source tools to run LLMs locally, the best open-source LLMs

  1. 1

    GitHub Repos: Run models locally

    llama.cpp

    If an open model runs on a laptop, it almost certainly runs through llama.cpp, and nothing else covers as much hardware.

    Best for: Developers who want direct control over running open models locally, on edge devices or on modest servers.

    Price: Free and open source under the MIT licence. No paid edition.

    Read our llama.cpp review
    4.8/5
  2. 2

    GitHub Repos: Run models locally

    Ollama

    Local models in one command, with defaults (a 4,096-token context, one request at a time, no login) that suit a laptop and nothing bigger.

    Best for: Developers and individuals who want open models running locally with minimal setup.

    Price: Open source (MIT) and free to run locally. Optional Ollama Cloud: Free with starter credits; Pro $20/month ($60 credits); Max $100/month ($300 credits); Team $500/month ($1,000 shared credits, unlimited users); Enterprise custom.

    Read our Ollama review
    4.6/5
  3. 3

    AI Models: General purpose

    Qwen3.8-27B

    A 27B model with an Apache licence that, on Alibaba's own numbers, edges past Claude Opus 4.6 Max at coding and fits on a single 24 GB card at 4-bit.

    Best for: Developers who want the strongest permissively licensed model that fits on one high-end GPU, especially for coding and computer-use agents.

    Price: Free weights under Apache 2.0. Qwen Cloud: $0.50 input / $3.00 output per 1M tokens ($0.10 cached). Third-party hosts on OpenRouter from about $0.04 / $1.25.

    Read our Qwen3.8-27B review
    4.5/5
  4. 4

    AI Models: Small & on-device

    Gemma 4

    Gemma 4 is now the default open family below 32B parameters, because its licence finally matches its quality.

    Best for: Developers building on-device, local or single-GPU apps who want a permissive licence and multimodal input.

    Price: Free weights under Apache 2.0. Hosted on Google Cloud and third parties; OpenRouter lists 31B at $0.20/$0.40 and 26B A4B at about $0.08/$0.26 per 1M tokens.

    Read our Gemma 4 review
    4.4/5
  5. 5

    GitHub Repos: Run models locally

    MLX

    MLX turns a high-memory Mac into a credible box for local inference and LoRA tuning; off Apple silicon it is a port, not a reason to switch.

    Best for: Mac-based developers and researchers who want native speed and Python control on Apple silicon.

    Price: Free and open source under the MIT license.

    Read our MLX review
    4.4/5
  6. 6

    GitHub Repos: Chat apps & UIs

    Jan

    A fully open, account-free desktop home for local models that has quietly grown into an agent, so its defaults now matter more than its looks.

    Best for: Privacy-minded individuals who want to run open models offline in a desktop app.

    Price: Free and open source (Apache 2.0). No paid tier; cloud models use your own API keys.

    Read our Jan review
    4.2/5
  7. 7

    GitHub Repos: Run models locally

    llamafile

    The simplest way to hand someone a working local model, but less capable than the llama.cpp it wraps.

    Best for: People who need to share or run a local model with zero setup, including offline.

    Price: Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, with MIT-licensed changes to llama.cpp.

    Read our llamafile review
    3.9/5
  8. 8

    AI Models: Small & on-device

    gpt-oss-20b

    Fourteen months on, gpt-oss-20b is still the cheapest competent reasoning model to host, but Gemma 4 now does more in the same 16GB.

    Best for: Developers who want a free, private and fast reasoning model on a laptop or single consumer GPU, and do not need image input.

    Price: Free weights under Apache 2.0. Hosted from $0.018 input / $0.09 output per 1M tokens on OpenRouter; Artificial Analysis lists $0.07 / $0.25.

    Read our gpt-oss-20b review
    3.8/5

More AI for tasks