# Models.dev vs Ollama

Models.dev records 200,451 monthly visits with -3.9% month-over-month growth and Free pricing. Ollama records 9,421,973 monthly visits with +4.3% growth and Free, Freemium, Paid pricing.

| Metric | [Models.dev](https://openaitools.app/tool/models-dev) | [Ollama](https://openaitools.app/tool/ollama) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://models.dev | https://ollama.com |
| Categories | AI Models, AI API, Open Source AI Models, AI Tools Directory | Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Developer Tools, Open Source AI Models |
| Pricing Model | Free | Free, Freemium, Paid |
| Monthly Visits | 200,451 | 9,421,973 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -3.9% | +4.3% |
| Primary Market | China | China |
| Direct Visits | 136,316 | 4,020,134 |
| Review Score | 4.4 | 4.8 |
| Saved Count | 0 | 0 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | app, open-source, website |

## Models.dev

Models.dev exists to answer a very practical developer question: which model should I use, and what will it cost? The site organises every entry under a canonical identifier in the form provider/model, so the same model served by several providers can be compared directly rather than guessed at. Columns cover context window, maximum output, whether input and output are supported, reasoning, tool calling, structured output, temperature control, open versus closed weights, price per million tokens, and release and update dates.

Because model releases move fast, the catalogue is built to stay current, with sortable and searchable tables that let you scan by lab or provider and filter down to what matters. Entries include both closed flagship models and open-weight alternatives, making it useful for cost planning as well as capability research.

The project is open source and free to use, and it is intended to be consumed programmatically. Developers can pull the catalogue into their own tooling through a JSON API or a type-safe SDK, which makes it a practical backend for dashboards, routing logic, or internal cost calculators rather than just a reference page to browse.

**Pricing & Plans:** Models.dev is free and open source. It is a reference database, so the prices it lists are the per-million-token rates charged by the model providers themselves, not a fee for using the site.

- **Canonical model identifiers:** Every model uses a consistent provider/model format so the same model across providers can be compared directly.
- **Specification comparison:** Side-by-side context window, output limit, reasoning, tool calling, structured output, and temperature support.
- **Pricing transparency:** Input and output prices per million tokens listed alongside release and update dates.
- **Open and closed models:** Covers closed flagship APIs and open-weight models from many labs in one sortable catalogue.
- **Developer access:** Consume the catalogue through a JSON API or a type-safe SDK for your own tools and dashboards.

**Strengths:** Free and open source with no account required; Consistent canonical identifiers make cross-provider comparison reliable; Covers pricing, limits, and capabilities in one sortable table; Available as a JSON API and type-safe SDK for programmatic use

**Limitations:** It is a reference catalogue, not an inference or hosting service; Data quality depends on community and maintainer updates keeping pace with releases; Interface is aimed at developers and offers little guidance for non-technical users

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/models-dev.md)

## Ollama

Ollama has become the default way many developers get started with open models. A single install gives you a local server and a command line that pulls model weights, manages versions, and exposes a simple HTTP API on your machine. Because everything runs locally, prompts and responses never leave your computer, which makes it a natural fit for privacy-sensitive prototyping, offline work, and experiments that should not be metered per token.

The project has expanded well beyond a local runtime. Ollama now also serves open models in the cloud, so you can reach larger or more capable checkpoints without owning a high-end GPU. The company reports over nine million monthly installs, more than a billion model downloads, and hundreds of trillions of tokens served, which reflects how widely the tool is embedded in AI developer workflows.

Pricing stays approachable: running models on your own hardware is free and unlimited, while cloud usage is metered per token, with subscription plans for individuals, power users, and teams. Model weights are supplied by the upstream publishers, and Ollama states that prompt and response data are never logged or used for training.

**Pricing & Plans:** Running models on your own hardware is free. Cloud use is pay-as-you-go per million tokens, with Pro around $20/month, Max around $100/month, Team around $500/month including shared usage credits, and custom Enterprise pricing. Yearly billing discounts are offered.

- **One-command local models:** Install once and pull open-weight models by name; Ollama handles weights, quantization and versioning for you.
- **Local HTTP API and CLI:** A built-in server exposes a straightforward REST API, so scripts, editors and agents can talk to local models with minimal setup.
- **Cloud models for bigger jobs:** Route requests to hosted open models when your laptop cannot hold the checkpoint you need, with per-token pricing and concurrency tiers.
- **Broad model catalog:** Access families such as Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, Gemma, Mistral and gpt-oss from a single interface.
- **Privacy by default:** Local inference keeps prompts and outputs on your own device, with no logging or training on your data.

**Strengths:** Extremely quick to install and use, with a friendly CLI and API; Local inference means strong privacy and no per-token cost on your own hardware; Wide, actively updated catalog of open-weight models; Cloud option scales to larger models without new hardware

**Limitations:** Local performance depends heavily on your GPU and RAM; Cloud usage is billed per token and large models add up quickly; Advanced serving features are less extensive than dedicated inference servers

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/ollama.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do Models.dev and Ollama compare in monthly traffic?

Models.dev has 200,451 monthly visits, while Ollama has 9,421,973. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Models.dev has a month-over-month growth rate of -3.9%; Ollama has +4.3%.

### How does pricing compare?

Models.dev: Free. Models.dev is free and open source. It is a reference database, so the prices it lists are the per-million-token rates charged by the model providers themselves, not a fee for using the site. Ollama: Free, Freemium, Paid. Running models on your own hardware is free. Cloud use is pay-as-you-go per million tokens, with Pro around $20/month, Max around $100/month, Team around $500/month including shared usage credits, and custom Enterprise pricing. Yearly billing discounts are offered.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [OpenRouter](https://openaitools.app/tool/openrouter-ai) | 19,941,437 | -6.2% | Paid | Cloud API gateway providing instant access to thousands of models, trading local hardware privacy for cloud compute. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/openrouter-ai.md) |
| 2 | [Dify](https://openaitools.app/tool/dify-ai) | 819,691 | -15% | Freemium | Open-source platform for building visual agentic workflows and RAG pipelines using local or cloud models. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/dify-ai.md) |
| 3 | [Open WebUI](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui) | 804,534 | -2.8% | Freemium | Feature-rich self-hosted web chat interface designed to manage and query local models like Ollama. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui.md) |
| 4 | [AnythingLLM](https://openaitools.app/tool/anythingllm) | 512,269 | +12.9% | Freemium | Privacy-first desktop app focused specifically on local document chat and RAG, unlike Ollama's general-purpose CLI runtime. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/anythingllm.md) |
| 5 | [LlamaIndex](https://openaitools.app/tool/llamaindex) | 387,910 | +19.9% | Freemium, Contact for Pricing | Development framework for connecting local models to external document stores and structured data sources. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/llamaindex.md) |
| 6 | [Jan](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan) | 291,894 | -9.6% | Free | Open-source desktop app for running models locally with a graphical interface, but heavier than Ollama's lightweight CLI. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan.md) |
| 7 | [Stork](https://openaitools.app/tool/stork) | 201,544 | +2.3% | Free | Includes model pricing trackers and developer news alongside tools directories, but less focused on raw API specs. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/stork.md) |
| 8 | [Lemonade](https://openaitools.app/tool/lemonade-ai) | 96,232 | -34.4% | Free | Open-source local AI server supporting multimodal inference including vision and speech, expanding beyond Ollama's text focus. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/lemonade-ai.md) |
| 9 | [Open Interpreter](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-interpreter) | 57,487 | -29% | Free | Local coding agent that executes natural language instructions directly inside your terminal environment. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-interpreter.md) |
| 10 | [InfraBase.ai](https://openaitools.app/tool/infrabase-ai) | 39,072 | -13.6% | Free | Catalogues and compares AI infrastructure tools and services across categories, but lacks deep per-token pricing tables. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/infrabase-ai.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/models-dev-vs-ollama

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)