Open WebUI Ultimate Guide - Run Local AI Models Like ChatGPT with This Open Source Platform (2026)

What is Open WebUI? Run Local AI Models Just Like ChatGPT



Open WebUI has surpassed 124,000 GitHub stars and allows you to run local AI models with the same UI as ChatGPT through Ollama or OpenAI-compatible APIs. You can use the latest open-source models like Llama 3, Mistral, Gemma, and DeepSeek without internet connection, keeping your data completely private.

Core Features of Open WebUI

1. Perfect Integration with Ollama

Open WebUI integrates best with Ollama, a runtime for running LLMs locally on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

brew install ollama
ollama serve
ollama pull llama3.2
ollama pull deepseek-r1:7b
ollama pull gemma3:12b

2. Multimodal Support

Supports text, images, documents, and voice. Connect LLaVA or other vision models to analyze uploaded images.

3. Built-in RAG

Upload documents and they are automatically stored in a vector database for the AI to reference when answering. Supports PDF, Word, and web page URLs as knowledge bases.

4. Multi-User Support

Multiple team members can log in with separate accounts maintaining independent conversation history. Administrators can set model access permissions per user.

Quick Start with Docker

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

Access at http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Recommended Local Models for 2026

Coding Tasks

  • DeepSeek-R1 7B/14B: Best performance for code generation and debugging
  • Qwen2.5-Coder 7B: Lightweight and fast coding assistant

General Conversation and Analysis

  • Llama 3.2 3B: Lightweight model that runs with just 4GB RAM
  • Gemma 3 12B: Excellent multilingual support from Google
  • Mistral Small 3: Great balance of speed and quality

Using as a Team AI Platform

Deploy Open WebUI on a NAS or office server to build a shared AI platform for your entire team. Apply Nginx reverse proxy with SSL for secure operation.

Open WebUI vs LM Studio vs Msty

Open WebUI is completely free and open source with Docker server deployment, multi-user support, built-in RAG, and pipeline extensions. LM Studio and Msty are desktop-only with limited multi-user and extension capabilities.

Conclusion - AI Platform That Respects Your Data

Open WebUI simultaneously achieves data privacy and cost reduction in the AI era. With 124,000 GitHub stars, it proves developer enthusiasm. Whether you need a team AI platform or want to escape ChatGPT costs, start with one Docker command. Experience complete AI freedom where all conversations stay only on your server!

댓글