Ollama
Ollama is a macOS app for running, downloading, and chatting with large language models locally on your Mac.
What is Ollama?
Ollama is a desktop AI app for macOS that helps you download, run, and interact with large language models on your own computer. It is designed for people who want local model access for chat, coding help, document work, and development workflows without relying only on a browser-based service. The Mac app includes a graphical interface for chatting with models, and it also installs or links the `ollama` command-line tool so you can use the same environment from Terminal and scripts. Ollama supports working with files such as PDFs and text documents, and it can also be used through a local API for app development and automation. The app is especially relevant to developers, technical users, and privacy-conscious users who want local control over model execution and storage. Ollama is published by Infra Technologies, Inc.
Key features
- Download and run large language models on your Mac
- Chat with local models in a desktop interface
- Use the `ollama` command-line tool from Terminal workflows
- Process files such as PDFs and text documents in chats
- Send images to supported multimodal models
- Access a local API for app integrations and automation
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Safety overview
Status: Mostly safe
Ollama is a legitimate AI application, but it can consume significant disk space, memory, and compute resources because model files may be tens to hundreds of GB. Its background behavior and local model storage are consistent with its purpose. On macOS, it may ask to place or link the `ollama` CLI in `/usr/local/bin`, which is normal for Terminal access. If you did not intend to install a local AI runtime, check whether `Ollama.app`, the `ollama` CLI, and data in `~/.ollama` were added by you or another user on the Mac.
Recommendation: Keep Ollama if you use local AI models, Terminal-based AI workflows, or apps that connect to the local Ollama API. Remove it if you do not use local model features or want to recover substantial storage space from downloaded models and related app data.
Common paths
/Applications/Ollama.app/usr/local/bin/ollama~/.ollama
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/com.electron.ollama~/Library/Caches/ollama
Support paths
~/Library/Application Support/Ollama~/.ollama
Container paths
~/Library/WebKit/com.electron.ollama~/Library/Saved Application State/com.electron.ollama.savedState
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