Ollama and LM Studio are the two names most people meet first when they want to run a chatbot on their own PC. They solve similar problems in different ways: Ollama is a background service with a simple command line and an API, while LM Studio is a graphical app for browsing, downloading and loading models. You can install both; you do not have to pick only one for ever.
Forge PC has not benchmarked these apps against each other, and we have not measured tokens per second or VRAM use. The comparison below comes from Ollama's and LM Studio's official documentation, read on 13 November 2026. Our install guide covers getting either one running; this page is about which to start with. For the letters in GGUF file names, see our quantisation explainer.
At a glance
| Ollama | LM Studio |
|---|
How you mainly use it | Install it, then run models from a terminal (ollama run) or from any app that can talk to its API | A desktop window for search, download, chat and loading options |
Default API | http://localhost:11434
| http://localhost:1234 (OpenAI-compatible /v1 endpoints, according to LM Studio's docs)
|
Windows requirements | Windows 10 22H2 or newer, Home or Pro | x64 CPU with AVX2, or Windows on Arm; 16GB of RAM and 4GB of dedicated VRAM recommended |
GPU support (from official docs) | NVIDIA (compute capability 5.0 or higher), AMD ROCm v7 / Vulkan | Windows documentation focuses on RAM and a 4GB VRAM recommendation; check the in-app runtime options for your GPU |
macOS | Check Ollama's current macOS documentation for the exact supported Macs; this comparison uses the Windows and GPU pages linked below | Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or newer; Intel Macs are not supported |
Model files | Ollama's library, or import your own | GGUF and, on Apple Silicon, MLX, searched from Hugging Face in the Discover tab |
Ollama: a service you talk to with commands
Ollama's Windows documentation says it runs as a native app, with NVIDIA and AMD Radeon GPU support, and that after setup it sits in the background. The ollama command then works in Command Prompt, PowerShell or another terminal, and the API is served at http://localhost:11434.
Official Windows requirements:
Windows 10 22H2 or newer, Home or Pro.
NVIDIA driver 551.61 or newer if you have an NVIDIA card. Ollama's separate hardware page also says NVIDIA GPUs need compute capability 5.0 or higher and driver 550 or newer, with cards in the 5.0–6.2 range needing 570 or newer. If those two pages ever disagree on your exact card, install the newer of the stated drivers.
For AMD, a ROCm v7 / HIP7-capable driver for ROCm acceleration, or a Vulkan-capable Radeon driver. Ollama says Vulkan is enabled by default, and is the recommended fallback on some RX 6000-series systems that do not expose ROCm v7 on current Windows drivers.
The installer does not need Administrator rights and, by default, goes into your home directory. Ollama says you should allow at least 4GB for the app itself, plus far more for models, which can run to tens or hundreds of gigabytes. You can point models at another drive with the OLLAMA_MODELS user environment variable, then quit the tray app and relaunch it.
This is the app to choose if you like a terminal, you want an always-on API for other tools, or you are following a guide that says "install Ollama and run this model name". It is also the usual back end for a browser-based chat UI that expects a service on port 11434.
LM Studio: a workbench with a Discover tab
LM Studio is the friendlier window. Its documentation describes a built-in downloader that searches Hugging Face, a model loader where you set context length and GPU offload, and a warning if a model is likely to run out of memory. You can chat in the app, or start a local server, typically on port 1234, for other software on the PC.
That makes it the better starting point if you want to browse models, compare file sizes and change offload sliders without editing config files. It can also run fully offline once the files are on disk.
The price of that convenience, on paper, is slightly narrower official hardware support on the Mac (no Intel Macs) and recommended, rather than tiny, memory figures: 16GB of RAM, and 4GB of VRAM on Windows. AVX2 is required on x64 PCs.
Can you use both?
Yes. They store models in different ways by default and listen on different ports, so they will not cancel each other out just by being installed. What you should not do is load the same huge model in both at once on a 16GB machine. Pick one app to serve a model at a time.
If you already use Ollama and just want a nicer chat window, a web UI in front of port 11434 may be enough. If you already use LM Studio and just want another app to call a local API, turn on LM Studio's server rather than switching stacks.
Hardware is still the limit that matters most: system RAM, VRAM and a recent driver. Our CPU vs GPU for local AI and NVIDIA vs AMD for local AI pieces cover those choices.
Our verdict
Start with LM Studio if you want a desktop app to search, download and chat with a model, and to see memory warnings before a load fails. Start with Ollama if you want a small background service, a command line and an API on port 11434 for other tools. Many people end up with both installed and only one model loaded at a time. We have not timed them against each other; this comparison comes from the official documentation.
