Try it out

Once LocalAI is installed, you can start it (either by using docker, or the cli, or the systemd service).

By default the LocalAI WebUI should be accessible from http://localhost:8080. You can also use 3rd party projects to interact with LocalAI as you would use OpenAI (see also Integrations ).

After installation, install new models by navigating the model gallery, or by using the local-ai CLI.

Tip

To install models with the WebUI, see the Models section. With the CLI you can list the models with local-ai models list and install them with local-ai models install <model-name>.

You can also run models manually by copying files into the models directory.

You can test chat models from the CLI without keeping a separate curl command around:

# Terminal 1
local-ai run

# Terminal 2
local-ai chat --model gpt-4

local-ai chat connects to a running LocalAI server, opens an interactive chat prompt, and exits when you type /exit, /quit, or /bye. Use /models to list installed models, /model <name> to switch models, and /clear to reset the current conversation. If the server exposes exactly one model, LocalAI uses that model automatically:

# Terminal 1
local-ai run llama-3.2-1b-instruct:q4_k_m

# Terminal 2
local-ai chat

When more than one model is configured, pass --model with the installed model name to avoid ambiguity. Use --endpoint to connect to a non-default server, for example local-ai chat --endpoint http://127.0.0.1:8081 --model gpt-4.

You can also test out the API endpoints using curl, few examples are listed below. The models we are referring here (gpt-4, gpt-4-vision-preview, tts-1, whisper-1) are examples - replace them with the model names you have installed.

Text Generation

Creates a model response for the given chat conversation. OpenAI documentation.

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{ "model": "gpt-4", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "How are you doing?", "temperature": 0.1}] }'

GPT Vision

Understand images.

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{ 
        "model": "gpt-4-vision-preview", 
        "messages": [
          {
            "role": "user", "content": [
              {"type":"text", "text": "What is in the image?"},
              {
                "type": "image_url", 
                "image_url": {
                  "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg/2560px-Gfp-wisconsin-madison-the-nature-boardwalk.jpg" 
                }
              }
            ], 
          "temperature": 0.9
          }
        ]
      }'

Function calling

Call functions

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4",
    "messages": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "content": "What is the weather like in Boston?"
      }
    ],
    "tools": [
      {
        "type": "function",
        "function": {
          "name": "get_current_weather",
          "description": "Get the current weather in a given location",
          "parameters": {
            "type": "object",
            "properties": {
              "location": {
                "type": "string",
                "description": "The city and state, e.g. San Francisco, CA"
              },
              "unit": {
                "type": "string",
                "enum": ["celsius", "fahrenheit"]
              }
            },
            "required": ["location"]
          }
        }
      }
    ],
    "tool_choice": "auto"
  }'

Anthropic Messages API

LocalAI supports the Anthropic Messages API for Claude-compatible models. Anthropic documentation.

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/messages \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4",
    "max_tokens": 1024,
    "messages": [
      {"role": "user", "content": "How are you doing?"}
    ],
    "temperature": 0.7
  }'

Open Responses API

LocalAI supports the Open Responses API specification with support for background processing, streaming, and advanced features. Open Responses documentation.

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/responses \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4",
    "input": "Say this is a test!",
    "max_output_tokens": 1024,
    "temperature": 0.7
  }'

For background processing:

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/responses \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "gpt-4",
    "input": "Generate a long story",
    "max_output_tokens": 4096,
    "background": true
  }'

Then retrieve the response:

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/responses/<response_id>

Image Generation

Creates an image given a prompt. OpenAI documentation.

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/images/generations \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
          "prompt": "A cute baby sea otter",
          "size": "256x256"
        }'

Text to speech

Generates audio from the input text. OpenAI documentation.

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/audio/speech \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "tts-1",
    "input": "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.",
    "voice": "alloy"
  }' \
  --output speech.mp3

Audio Transcription

Transcribes audio into the input language. OpenAI Documentation.

Download first a sample to transcribe:

wget --quiet --show-progress -O gb1.ogg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/George_W_Bush_Columbia_FINAL.ogg

Send the example audio file to the transcriptions endpoint :

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/audio/transcriptions \
    -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
    -F file="@$PWD/gb1.ogg" -F model="whisper-1"

Embeddings Generation

Get a vector representation of a given input that can be easily consumed by machine learning models and algorithms. OpenAI Embeddings.

curl http://localhost:8080/embeddings \
    -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -d '{ 
        "input": "Your text string goes here", 
        "model": "text-embedding-ada-002"
      }'

Tip

Don’t use the model file as model in the request unless you want to handle the prompt template for yourself.

Use the model names like you would do with OpenAI like in the examples below. For instance gpt-4-vision-preview, or gpt-4.