Alternatives to oterm

A terminal chat client for Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic and other language model providers. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as oterm.

  • AIChat

    A command-line tool for chatting with language models, with a shell assistant, RAG and agents.

    FreeOpen sourceCommand line

    AIChat is a dual MIT or Apache-2.0 terminal tool for many providers and Ollama that adds a shell assistant, RAG and agents, configured through YAML files.

  • Elia

    A keyboard-driven terminal app for chatting with cloud and local large language models.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOSLinuxCommand line

    Elia is a keyboard-driven terminal chat app for cloud and local models, listed for macOS and Linux but not Windows.

  • LLM

    A command-line tool and Python library for prompting remote and locally installed language models.

    FreeProprietaryCommand line

    LLM is a command-line tool and Python library that logs prompts to SQLite and uses plugins, needing an extra plugin for local models.

  • ShellGPT

    A command-line AI assistant that generates shell commands, code snippets and documentation from prompts.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    ShellGPT is an MIT-licensed terminal assistant focused on generating shell commands and code, needing an API key or configured model backend.

  • tgpt

    A cross-platform command-line tool for chatting with AI models in the terminal without API keys.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxCommand line

    tgpt is a single Go binary that chats with AI models without API keys, relying on third-party providers that can change or stop working.

Also worth comparing

These listings name oterm as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • Ollama App

    A cross-platform chat client for talking to language models running on an Ollama server.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinuxAndroid

    oterm is an MIT licensed terminal chat client for Ollama and hosted providers like OpenAI and Anthropic, installed with one uvx command but without a graphical interface.

  • Ollamac

    A native macOS app for chatting with language models served by a local Ollama installation.

    FreeOpen sourcemacOS

    oterm is an MIT licensed terminal client for Ollama and hosted providers, trading the native macOS window for a keyboard-driven terminal interface.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.