LM Studio vs Ollama

In short

• Both: Choice of models, Self-hosted, No code retained, API, Runs models for you
• Only LM Studio states: Command line, Official SDKs, Search over your data
• Only Ollama states: VS Code

LM Studio

Runs open language models locally on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with chat, a programmable API, and optional cloud inference.

Plans

Free

Free

• Run local LLMs on your machine
• Bionic Agent
• Run local LLMs using llama.cpp and MLX
• State-of-the-art offline voice transcription
• LM Link for up to 5 devices
• Limited web search

Bionic+

• $ 20 USD / month

• US-hosted open source models: Kimi K3, GLM 5.3, DeepSeek V4 Flash, and more
• Discounted bulk tokens
• Web search and page extraction

Pro

• $ 100 USD / month

• 5× usage limits
• Discounted bulk tokens
• Early access to new features

Prices checked 2026-09-25 on the maker’s page.

Capabilities

• Command line — “LM Studio CLI (lms)” source
• Choice of models — “Download the latest local LLMs directly within the app and use them for simple chats or advanced agentic tasks.” source
• Self-hosted — “llmster is LM Studio's headless daemon for servers, cloud instances, and CI.” source
• No code retained — “Zero data retention means your prompts and responses are not stored by the provider.” source
• API — “Experiment with LLMs on your computer. Chat interface and programmable API.” source
• Official SDKs — “lmstudio-js lmstudio-python” source
• Runs models for you — “Bionic cloud inference is US-hosted, with Zero data retention (ZDR)” source
• Search over your data — “Fixed a bug where RAG document retrieval could fail with some llama.cpp models” source

Latest updates

• 2026-09-23 Bionic 1.1.6 (1.1.6)

  Canvas: board that both you and Bionic can edit; Markdown and source files in the in-app editor.

• 2026-09-19 Bionic 1.1.5 (1.1.5)

  Qwen3.8 inference using a new engine: Splash (by Inco AI); prompt-processing status for models without percentage progress.

• 2026-09-17 Bionic 1.1.4 (1.1.4)

  Introspection: agent can read messages earlier in its own history; supports @ referencing other sessions; tool-call argument streaming.

Ollama

Ollama runs open models locally or in the cloud and connects them to coding agents, applications, and an API.

Plans

Free

Free

• Run models locally
• Starter usage credits included
• Includes access to starter models
• Add credits to unlock all models
• No service fees

Pro

• $20 / mo.
• $200/yr billed annually
• $16.67 / mo. billed annually

• $60 of usage credits per month
• Access to larger pro models
• Run multiple models concurrently
• Fast mode (coming soon)

Max

• $100 / mo.

• $300 of usage credits per month
• Early access to the newest models
• 10 concurrent requests
• Everything in Pro

Team

• $500 / mo.

• Unlimited users
• $1,000 of usage credits per month, shared across the team
• Centralized billing and administration
• Priority support
• Shared projects, skills, and instructions (coming soon)

Enterprise

Price on request

• Model access controls
• Limit team access to specific models
• Set cost budgets for users and API keys
• Private Slack channel with dedicated support
• Custom security questionnaires

Prices checked 2026-09-26 on the maker’s page.

Capabilities

• VS Code — “Claude Code Codex OpenCode Hermes Agent OpenClaw VS Code Pi n8n” source
• Choice of models — “Switch models without changing your workflow.” source
• Self-hosted — “Run models locally” source
• No code retained — “Every request runs on dedicated compute in the US and Europe, plus Singapore for a limited set of Qwen models, with zero data retention.” source
• API — “Works with popular coding agents, including Claude Code and Codex, plus an API for your own tools” source
• Runs models for you — “Ollama hosts models and compute resources primarily in the United States.” source

Latest updates

• 2026-09-24 v0.34.4 (v0.34.4)

  Structured outputs on thinking models now apply in one pass; fixed model lookup and macOS app issues and changed Apple Silicon processing.

• 2026-09-22 v0.34.3 (v0.34.3)

  GET /api/show now exposes model thinking controls and defaults; Nemotron H vision models are supported on Apple Silicon with MLX.

• 2026-09-17 v0.34.2 (v0.34.2)

  Added first-run sign-in or local setup and an ollama://apps link to open the desktop app’s Apps page on macOS and Windows.