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Ollama Mobile Is Here: Use Ollama on Your Phone
Heads up: Ollama Mobile is an unofficial, community-built client. It is not made by, endorsed by, or affiliated with the Ollama project. It is a phone app that talks to your Ollama setup.
Ollama Mobile is out now on iPhone and Android. If you already run Ollama on your computer, you can now use those same models from your phone, on your home Wi-Fi or through Ollama Cloud.
What it is
Ollama Mobile is a phone client for Ollama. The important part, and the good news for your battery and storage, is that your phone does not run the model:
- Your Ollama server does the work: Ollama on your desktop, laptop, home server, or on Ollama Cloud.
- Your phone is the client: it sends your message, the server generates the reply, and the app shows it to you.
So there are no multi-gigabyte model downloads on the phone. You connect in one of two ways:
| How you connect | When it is right | Internet needed? |
|---|---|---|
| Same Wi-Fi (local network) | You are home, server is on the same network | No, stays on your LAN |
| Ollama Cloud | You do not want to host anything yourself | Yes |
What you can do with it
- Chat with your own models and compare answers side by side.
- Vision: hand the model an image or a document to read and summarize.
- Image generation from your models.
- Local and cloud: connect over your home Wi-Fi or through Ollama Cloud, and keep everything private to a server you control.
Get it on your phone
Each guide walks you through both setup paths step-by-step, with screenshots taken on that exact device.
Ollama on iPhone
Connect your iPhone to your own computer on the same Wi-Fi, or to Ollama Cloud with an API key.
Ollama on Android
The same two paths on Android: your computer over Wi-Fi, or Ollama Cloud with an API key.
Where Ollama Mobile fits
There are other ways to reach Ollama from a phone, mostly self-hosted web chat UIs you open in a mobile browser. They work, but they ask you to stand up and maintain extra infrastructure first.
Ollama Mobile is the native-app route. You install it, point it at an Ollama server you already run or at Ollama Cloud, and you are chatting. No extra server to host, no reverse proxy to babysit.
Frequently asked questions
Does Ollama Mobile run the model on my phone?
No. The model runs on your Ollama server, which is either your own computer or Ollama Cloud. The app is a client that sends prompts to it and displays the answers. Your phone is not doing the inference.
Do I need an internet connection?
It depends on how you connect. On the same Wi-Fi as your server, everything stays on your local network and no internet is required. For Ollama Cloud, yes, you need a connection to reach the server.
Should I connect over my local network or use Ollama Cloud?
Use your local network when you are home and want everything to stay on your own Wi-Fi with no internet. Use Ollama Cloud when you do not want to run a server yourself, or when you are away from home. You can save both in the app and switch between them.
Is Ollama Mobile private?
Privacy here comes from where the model runs. Connect to your own server on your own network and your conversations go to a machine you control rather than a third-party AI service. If you use Ollama Cloud, your prompts go to that service, so pick the path that matches how private you need to be.
Is this the official Ollama app?
No. Ollama Mobile is an independent, community-built client. It works with Ollama but is not made or endorsed by the Ollama project.
What is Ollama, exactly?
Ollama is a tool that runs open large language models on your own hardware with a
simple setup. If you have run ollama run llama3.2 in a terminal, that is the server
Ollama Mobile talks to. New to Ollama? Start at ollama.com, get
it working on a computer first, then come back here to add your phone.
Get started
- Get Ollama running on a computer, or sign up for Ollama Cloud.
- Install Ollama Mobile from the App Store or Google Play.
- Follow the guide for your phone: iPhone or Android. You will be chatting with your own model in a couple of minutes.