Choose Ollama when
- You are one developer running models on your own computer.
- You want a command line for pulling and trying models.
- You only need chat, completions and embeddings endpoints.
AI Server vs Ollama
Ollama is a popular way to download and run open models on your own machine, with a command line and a local API. AI Server is built for the next step: one private server that a whole team, its apps and its tools can share safely.
At a glance
What each one is built for.
| AI Server | Ollama | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A packaged private AI server: Windows app, Docker image and Kubernetes chart that host models for a team and for the AI Suite apps. | An open-source tool for downloading and running open models locally, with a command line and a local HTTP API [1]. |
| OpenAI-compatible endpoints | /v1/chat/completions (streaming, tools, vision), /v1/embeddings, /v1/images/generations, /v1/audio/speech, /v1/audio/transcriptions, /v1/models | /v1/chat/completions, /v1/completions, /v1/embeddings, /v1/models and /v1/responses [1] |
| Image generation | Yes — text-to-image, image-to-image and inpainting | Not among the OpenAI-compatible endpoints [1] |
| Speech and transcription | Yes — text-to-speech, file transcription and live transcription | Speech and transcription endpoints are not supported [1] |
| Network authentication | API keys are required before the server will serve a network | The local server ignores the API key a client sends [1] |
| Multi-user governance | Pro Commercial: rate limits, quotas and budgets, content moderation, audit signing, model lifecycle | Not a built-in feature of the local server |
| Scale-out | AI Gateway mode: one endpoint in front of a pool of AI Server workers, with failover and canary rollouts | One local server per machine; scale-out is left to your own proxy |
| Desktop apps that use it | AI Client and the AI Suite apps discover and use it automatically | Used by many third-party tools that let you set its address |
| Licence and price | Free on one computer; Pro Personal US$9.99/month; Pro Commercial US$49.99/month per node | Free and open source |
Decide
When to choose which.
Choose AI Server when
- Several people, devices or apps need to share one model host.
- Network access must require API keys you can issue and revoke.
- You also need image generation, text-to-speech or transcription.
- You want governance, a gateway pool, a Windows service or a supported commercial licence.
Switching
Moving to AI Server.
- Install AI Server (free on your own computer) and download the models you use from its Models page.
- In each tool, change the OpenAI-compatible base URL to your AI Server address and add an API key.
- When the team is ready, turn on network serving with Pro and issue a key per person or app.
Questions
Answers before you choose.
Can I keep using my Ollama models? +
Download the models you need again from AI Server’s Models page. AI Server does not read another tool’s model folder.
Do tools built for Ollama work with AI Server? +
Tools that let you set an OpenAI-compatible base URL work with AI Server once you add an API key. Tools hard-wired to Ollama’s own API need that setting.
Is AI Server open source? +
No. AI Server is a commercial product with a free edition for local use. It manages its local inference runtimes for you, so there is nothing separate to install or update.
Sources
Checked on 2026-10-05 against each product’s public documentation; products change, so confirm current capabilities before deciding. Ollama is a trademark of its respective owner. Software Tailor is not affiliated with or endorsed by its maker.