Basic

What is a local LLM?

A local LLM is a language model that runs on your own computer instead of on a company's servers. You keep your data private, and it works without the internet.

About 1 min of reading

Data Flow

A model file is downloaded, loaded onto your computer, and then answers your questions without ever leaving your machine.
1 Download a model
↓
2 Load it on your computer
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3 Type a question
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4 Get an answer locally
Why this works
Download the brain

A local model is a file you download and run. It is smaller than a cloud model but still can have billions of parameters. The bigger the file, the smarter but slower it tends to be.

No internet needed

Once installed, a local model works offline. There is no account, no monthly fee, and no one reading your history. That privacy is the main reason people run models at home.

Examples

Your own model

Cloud model:   your question -> company server -> answer
Local model:   your question -> your computer -> answer

With a local model, your prompts never leave your machine. That privacy is the whole reason most people bother with one.

Works offline

No internet? No problem.
Model already loaded on your disk
Answer comes back in seconds

A local model does not phone home. Once it is loaded, you get answers even with the wifi unplugged. Privacy is automatic, not something you switch on.

A brain of numbers

A local model is a file that learned from huge amounts of text. You cannot see the knowledge inside, but it can finish sentences, answer questions, and summarize.

Think of it like a brain made of numbers. Those numbers get tuned during training, then shipped to you as a single file you can run anywhere.

Words this lesson uses

Each one is defined here on this site. Open the entry for the full definition and the other words it points at.

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