---
title: "Deploy Ollama API"
description: "A powerful platform for running AI models securely through API"
category: "AI/ML"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/ollama-api
---

# Deploy Ollama API

A powerful platform for running AI models securely through API

**[Deploy Ollama API on Railway](https://railway.com/template/ollama-api)**

- **Creator:** ISDev
- **Category:** AI/ML
- **Total deploys:** 56

## Template content

### ollama https://ollama.com/public/assets/c889cc0d-cb83-4c46-a98e-0d0e273151b9/42f6b28d-9117-48cd-ac0d-44baaf5c178e.png

- **Image:** ollama/ollama
- **Start command:** `/bin/sh -c "ollama serve & pid=$!; sleep 5; ollama pull $MODEL; wait $pid"`

### Auth Proxy https://img.icons8.com/?size=80&id=AZ2LjCeHqRan&format=png

- **Source:** https://github.com/FraglyG/CaddyAuthProxy
- **Health check:** /health
- **Public domain:** Yes

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Ollama API on Railway

Ollama API enables you to run large language models and expose them via authenticated HTTP endpoints. This template provides a production-ready deployment with proxy authentication and customizable model selection through environment variables, making it easy to serve models like Llama, Mistral, and CodeLlama at scale.

## About Hosting Ollama API

Hosting Ollama API involves containerizing the Ollama runtime environment and exposing its REST endpoints through a secure proxy layer. This deployment handles model downloading, and request routing. The template includes authentication middleware to secure your API endpoints, automatic model installation based on configuration, and horizontal scaling capabilities to handle varying workloads efficiently.

## Common Use Cases

- **Private AI Chatbots**: Deploy custom language models for internal company use without sending data to external APIs
- **Content Generation Services**: Power content creation tools, writing assistants, and automated documentation systems
- **Code Completion APIs**: Serve specialized code models for IDE integrations and developer tools
- **Research and Experimentation**: Host multiple model variants for A/B testing and model comparison studies

## Dependencies for Ollama API Hosting

- **Ollama Runtime**: Core engine for running and serving large language models
- **Authentication Proxy**: Middleware layer for securing API access and request validation

### Deployment Dependencies

- [Ollama Official Documentation](https://github.com/ollama/ollama/tree/main/docs)
- [Ollama Model Library](https://ollama.ai/library)
- [Railway Documentation](https://docs.railway.com/)

### Implementation Details

The template uses a customizable `MODEL` service variable to specify which model to install:

```bash
# Set your desired model
MODEL=llama2:7b

# Or use other popular models
MODEL=mistral:latest
MODEL=codellama:13b
```

The authentication proxy validates requests before forwarding to Ollama, ensuring secure access to your deployed models while maintaining the standard Ollama API interface.

## Why Deploy Ollama API 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 Ollama API 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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