---
title: "Deploy LocalAI"
description: "Zero Config | One Click | Fully Persisted | Secured UI"
category: "AI/ML"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/localai-1
---

# Deploy LocalAI

Zero Config | One Click | Fully Persisted | Secured UI

**[Deploy LocalAI on Railway](https://railway.com/template/localai-1)**

- **Creator:** YAV.AI
- **Category:** AI/ML
- **Total deploys:** 1

## Template content

### LocalAI Docker

- **Image:** localai/localai:latest
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host LocalAI on Railway

LocalAI is an open source, OpenAI-compatible API that allows you to run large language models, embeddings, image generation, and audio processing locally or on your own infrastructure. It acts as a drop-in replacement for OpenAI APIs while supporting multiple model families without requiring specialised hardware.

## About Hosting LocalAI

Hosting LocalAI on Railway enables you to run a fully self-managed AI backend without dealing with infrastructure complexity. Railway handles deployment, networking, and scaling, while LocalAI provides the inference layer for models such as LLMs, embedding models, and multimodal systems. With persistent storage configured, you can cache models, store generated outputs, and maintain configuration across deployments. This setup is ideal for building production-ready AI applications that require full control over data, cost, and performance.

## Common Use Cases

- Self-hosted OpenAI-compatible API for apps and agents  
- Embeddings generation for vector search and RAG pipelines  
- Running private LLMs, image generation, or speech models without external APIs  

## Dependencies for LocalAI Hosting

- Railway account  
- Docker-based deployment (LocalAI container image)  

### Deployment Dependencies

- https://hub.docker.com/r/localai/localai  
- https://localai.io/docs/  
- https://models.localai.io/  

### Implementation Details

Check out the ENV variables here -> https://localai.io/reference/cli-reference/

#### Volume Configuration (required for persistence)

Mount a Railway volume to:

/data

#### Recommended Environment Variables

API_KEY=your-secure-key

MODELS_PATH=/data/models  
LOCALAI_MODELS_PATH=/data/models  

LOCALAI_BACKENDS_PATH=/data/backends  
LOCALAI_CONFIG_DIR=/data/config  

GENERATED_CONTENT_PATH=/data/generated  
UPLOAD_PATH=/data/uploads  

#### Notes

- Only /data is persistent on Railway, so all paths should point inside it  
- Models and downloaded backends will persist across deployments  
- Without a volume, models will be re-downloaded on every restart  
- API_KEY protects both API and Web UI access  

## Why Deploy LocalAI on Railway?

Railway is a singular platform to deploy your infrastructure stack. Railway will host your infrastructure so you don't have to deal with configuration, while allowing you to vertically and horizontally scale it.

By deploying LocalAI on Railway, you are one step closer to supporting a complete full-stack application with minimal burden. Host your servers, databases, AI agents, and more on Railway.

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