Reference · Cheatsheet

Local vs cloud models

Last updated Jul 17, 2026

- Sensitive docs, offline field work, air-gapped labs

| Factor | Local (Ollama) | Cloud API |

|--------|----------------|-----------|

| Privacy | Data stays on device | Sent to provider |

| Model size | Smaller open weights | Frontier models |

| Cost | Hardware + power | Per token |

| Ops | You manage updates | Vendor SLA |

| Offline | Yes | No |

Choose local when

Need best reasoning today, elastic scale, minimal setup

**Related:** `local-llms`, `choosing-a-model`