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MLX LM vs Ollama: catalog facts
MLX LM	Ollama
Free Free to install and use.	Freemium Running models locally is free. The optional hosted cloud inference starts at $20 a month.
macOS, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Runs models on Apple silicon through MLX One-command access to models on the Hugging Face Hub	One command to download and run a model, with no Python environment to build first A REST API on localhost, so editors, scripts and agents can use the local model
Apple silicon only Command line and Python, with no graphical interface	Model quality is bounded by your hardware; large models need a lot of VRAM or unified memory The company now also sells cloud inference, so read carefully which mode you are in
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: MIT
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 20, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.