Linux Installation

Manual Installation

Download Binary

You can manually download the appropriate binary for your system from the releases page:

  1. Go to GitHub Releases
  2. Download the binary for your architecture (amd64, arm64, etc.)
  3. Make it executable:
chmod +x local-ai-*
  1. Run LocalAI:
./local-ai-*

Run your first model

Starting the binary on its own gives you an empty server. To get a working chat right away, run LocalAI with a model name and it will download and serve it from the gallery:

./local-ai-* run qwen3-4b

Once it is ready, open the WebUI at http://localhost:8080 or send a request to the API:

curl http://localhost:8080/v1/chat/completions -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{
  "model": "qwen3-4b",
  "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Hello!"}]
}'

System Requirements

Hardware requirements vary based on:

  • Model size
  • Quantization method
  • Backend used

For performance benchmarks with different backends like llama.cpp, visit this link.

Configuration

After installation, you can:

  • Access the WebUI at http://localhost:8080
  • Configure models in the models directory
  • Customize settings via environment variables or config files

Next Steps