+++ title = "Overview" weight = 1 toc = true description = "What is LocalAI?" tags = ["Beginners"] categories = [""] author = "Ettore Di Giacinto" # This allows to overwrite the landing page url = '/' icon = "info" +++

> 💡 Get help - [❓FAQ](https://localai.io/faq/) [💭Discussions](https://github.com/go-skynet/LocalAI/discussions) [💭Discord](https://discord.gg/uJAeKSAGDy) > > [💻 Quickstart](https://localai.io/basics/getting_started/) [📣 News](https://localai.io/basics/news/) [ 🛫 Examples ](https://github.com/go-skynet/LocalAI/tree/master/examples/) [ 🖼️ Models ](https://localai.io/models/) [ 🚀 Roadmap ](https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3Aroadmap) **LocalAI** is the free, Open Source OpenAI alternative. LocalAI act as a drop-in replacement REST API that's compatible with OpenAI API specifications for local inferencing. It allows you to run LLMs, generate images, audio (and not only) locally or on-prem with consumer grade hardware, supporting multiple model families and architectures. Does not require GPU. It is created and maintained by [Ettore Di Giacinto](https://github.com/mudler). ## Start LocalAI Start the image with Docker to have a functional clone of OpenAI! 🚀: ```bash docker run -p 8080:8080 --name local-ai -ti localai/localai:latest-aio-cpu # Do you have a Nvidia GPUs? Use this instead # CUDA 11 # docker run -p 8080:8080 --gpus all --name local-ai -ti localai/localai:latest-aio-gpu-nvidia-cuda-11 # CUDA 12 # docker run -p 8080:8080 --gpus all --name local-ai -ti localai/localai:latest-aio-gpu-nvidia-cuda-12 ``` Or just use the bash installer: ```bash curl https://localai.io/install.sh | sh ``` See the [💻 Quickstart](https://localai.io/basics/getting_started/) for all the options and way you can run LocalAI! ## What is LocalAI? In a nutshell: - Local, OpenAI drop-in alternative REST API. You own your data. - NO GPU required. NO Internet access is required either - Optional, GPU Acceleration is available. See also the [build section](https://localai.io/basics/build/index.html). - Supports multiple models - 🏃 Once loaded the first time, it keep models loaded in memory for faster inference - ⚡ Doesn't shell-out, but uses bindings for a faster inference and better performance. LocalAI is focused on making the AI accessible to anyone. Any contribution, feedback and PR is welcome! Note that this started just as a fun weekend project by [mudler](https://github.com/mudler) in order to try to create the necessary pieces for a full AI assistant like `ChatGPT`: the community is growing fast and we are working hard to make it better and more stable. If you want to help, please consider contributing (see below)! ### 🚀 Features - 📖 [Text generation with GPTs](https://localai.io/features/text-generation/) (`llama.cpp`, `gpt4all.cpp`, ... [:book: and more](https://localai.io/model-compatibility/index.html#model-compatibility-table)) - 🗣 [Text to Audio](https://localai.io/features/text-to-audio/) - 🔈 [Audio to Text](https://localai.io/features/audio-to-text/) (Audio transcription with `whisper.cpp`) - 🎨 [Image generation with stable diffusion](https://localai.io/features/image-generation) - 🔥 [OpenAI functions](https://localai.io/features/openai-functions/) 🆕 - 🧠 [Embeddings generation for vector databases](https://localai.io/features/embeddings/) - ✍️ [Constrained grammars](https://localai.io/features/constrained_grammars/) - 🖼️ [Download Models directly from Huggingface ](https://localai.io/models/) - 🥽 [Vision API](https://localai.io/features/gpt-vision/) - 💾 [Stores](https://localai.io/stores) - 📈 [Reranker](https://localai.io/features/reranker/) - 🆕🖧 [P2P Inferencing](https://localai.io/features/distribute/) ## Contribute and help To help the project you can: - If you have technological skills and want to contribute to development, have a look at the open issues. If you are new you can have a look at the [good-first-issue](https://github.com/go-skynet/LocalAI/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22good+first+issue%22) and [help-wanted](https://github.com/go-skynet/LocalAI/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+label%3A%22help+wanted%22) labels. - If you don't have technological skills you can still help improving documentation or [add examples](https://github.com/go-skynet/LocalAI/tree/master/examples) or share your user-stories with our community, any help and contribution is welcome! ## 🌟 Star history [![LocalAI Star history Chart](https://api.star-history.com/svg?repos=go-skynet/LocalAI&type=Date)](https://star-history.com/#go-skynet/LocalAI&Date) ## 📖 License LocalAI is a community-driven project created by [Ettore Di Giacinto](https://github.com/mudler/). MIT - Author Ettore Di Giacinto ## 🙇 Acknowledgements LocalAI couldn't have been built without the help of great software already available from the community. Thank you! - [llama.cpp](https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp) - https://github.com/tatsu-lab/stanford_alpaca - https://github.com/cornelk/llama-go for the initial ideas - https://github.com/antimatter15/alpaca.cpp - https://github.com/EdVince/Stable-Diffusion-NCNN - https://github.com/ggerganov/whisper.cpp - https://github.com/saharNooby/rwkv.cpp - https://github.com/rhasspy/piper ## 🤗 Contributors This is a community project, a special thanks to our contributors! 🤗