A local LLM chat app runs a language model on your own computer, so you can chat with it without sending messages to a cloud service.
In plain words
Two parts usually work together. A model runner such as Ollama runs an open model on your machine and offers a small web API at a local address. A chat interface such as Open WebUI connects to that API and gives you a chat window that can also use cloud models.
A quick example
After installing Ollama, a one-line command starts a chat with a model in the terminal. Other apps on the same computer can send messages to its local address, for example asking why the sky is blue, and get the reply back as data.
Where you'll meet it
- Private chat when data must stay on the device.
- Offline use and experimenting with open models.
Related
Sources
- Docsollama, Ollama (GitHub) · read 29 Sept 2026
- Docsopen-webui, Open WebUI (GitHub) · read 29 Sept 2026
Checked by WhatIsAI against the sources above · 3 Nov 2026. Spotted an error? Report it.