How do I deploy Ollama | Self-Host Open-Source LLMs on Railway?

You can deploy Ollama | Self-Host Open-Source LLMs on Railway by clicking the "Deploy Now" button on this page. Railway will automatically set up all the necessary services and configurations for you.

What are the system requirements?

Railway handles all the infrastructure requirements. You only need a web browser to deploy and manage your application.

Is this template free to use?

Yes, this template is free to use within your existing Railway account.

Can I customize this template?

Yes, you can fully customize this template. After deployment, you will have full control of what you've deployed in your Railway project.

How do I get support for this template?

You can get support through our community forum: ollama-self-host-open-source-ll-ms-2b80f185, or join our Discord community for more assistance.

Ollama

Deploy and Host Ollama | Self-Host Open-Source LLMs on Railway

Ollama lets you run and serve open-source LLMs like Llama 3, Mistral, and Gemma — locally or in the cloud.
This Railway template deploys a fully configured Ollama model server that exposes an OpenAI-compatible API, ready for use with Flowise, AnythingLLM, LangChain, or your own apps.

About Hosting Ollama | Self-Host Open-Source LLMs

This one-click Railway template gives you a private, fully self-hosted ChatGPT alternative.
It runs Ollama (model backend) and OpenWebUI (browser chat interface) in a single cloud project, already networked together through Railway’s private environment variables.
Everything is pre-configured — from ports and URLs to security keys — so you can focus on using the models, not wiring the infrastructure.

Once deployed, you get:

A hosted Ollama API (http://ollama.railway.internal:11434)

It’s ideal for creators, developers, or teams who want local AI control with cloud simplicity.

How to Use This Template

Click “Deploy Now” on Railway.
Within a minute, your Ollama model server will be live and publicly accessible.
Locate the public URL in your Railway dashboard — e.g.
https://ollama-production-xxxxx.up.railway.app

Test it locally by running:

curl https://ollama-production-xxxxx.up.railway.app/api/version

You can now connect to it from:

Flowise → set Base URL to your Ollama domain
AnythingLLM → use it as your LLM backend
LangChain / LlamaIndex → just replace the openai base URL

🔗 Connecting Ollama to Other Tools

This template exposes Ollama’s public API so you can use it with your favorite LLM tools.

Flowise / LangFlow / AnythingLLM:
Set Base URL = https://.up.railway.app

LangChain (Python):

from langchain_community.llms import Ollama
llm = Ollama(base_url="https://ollama-production-xxxxx.up.railway.app", model="llama3")

Custom Web Apps: Send POST requests to /api/chat or /api/generate endpoints (same as OpenAI’s API format).

Ensure OLLAMA_ORIGINS="*" if connecting from browser-based apps.

Common Use Cases

🧠 Private AI Chatbot: Host your own ChatGPT-style assistant without sending data to third-party APIs.
⚙️ LLM API Sandbox: Use Ollama’s REST API for testing LangChain, Flowise, or custom agent setups.
🧩 AI Prototyping Environment: Quickly experiment with models, prompts, and workflows for R&D or content generation.

Dependencies for Ollama | Self-Host Open-Source LLMs Hosting

Ollama — runs and serves LLMs through an API endpoint.

Cost and Hosting Notes

Railway offers $5 of free monthly credits for all new users — enough to host this stack comfortably for exploration and small projects.
You can upgrade anytime for more compute or storage as your usage grows.

This setup runs entirely on Railway’s managed cloud, but you retain the self-hosting benefits:

Full control over your data
Bring-your-own models
Easy migration to your own server if needed

If you prefer local deployment, Ollama can also be self-hosted with Docker:

docker run -d -v ollama:/root/.ollama -p 11434:11434 ollama/ollama

Alternatives to Ollama

If you’re exploring open LLM backends, consider these realistic options:

LM Studio — A GUI-first local model runner that’s perfect for non-technical users who want a desktop chat experience.
LocalAI — An OpenAI-compatible, self-hostable inference engine designed for backend deployments and drop-in API replacement.
Text Generation WebUI — A highly customizable local web UI (oobabooga) for power users; great for plugins, LoRA, and advanced model tuning.

Why choose Ollama? Ollama strikes a nice balance between ease-of-use, lightweight performance, and programmatic access (CLI + REST API), making it ideal for developers who want a simple production-capable model server.

Alternatives to Railway

If you’re weighing deployment platforms, here are common alternatives and how they compare:

Railway vs Render — Very user-friendly, good for web apps and managed services; fewer prebuilt templates compared to Railway.
Railway vs Fly.io — Geographically distributed deployments and more control over instance types; requires more infra familiarity.
Railway vs Vercel / Netlify — Excellent for frontends and serverless functions, but not focused on stateful services like model servers or databases.

Railway’s sweet spot: rapid one-click templates, built-in private networking, persistent volumes, and an accessible developer experience — especially handy for composing small AI stacks (Ollama + WebUI + Postgres).

❓ FAQ

1. Is Ollama free to use?
Yes — Ollama is free and open-source. You only pay for the cloud resources (Railway credits/plan) when you deploy.

2. What are the minimum requirements to host Ollama?
A small model can run on ~4–8 GB RAM; larger models need more. On Railway, start with the default tier and scale up if you pull bigger models.

3. Can I use this template for free on Railway?
Railway provides initial credits (usually $5) for new users — enough for light experimentation. Upgrade when you need more runtime or storage.

4. How does this differ from running Ollama locally?
Railway removes local setup: no Docker, no port mapping, and automatic networking. Local hosting gives you total control and no recurring cloud cost.

5. Does Ollama include a web UI?
Ollama itself is CLI/API-first. If you are looking for a template with a webui, consider this template

6. How do I connect Flowise, LangChain, or other tools?
Point your tool to the Ollama API URL on Railway:

http://${{Ollama.RAILWAY_PRIVATE_DOMAIN}}:11434

or use the public domain if you enabled it:

https://${{Ollama.RAILWAY_PUBLIC_DOMAIN}}/api

Deployment Dependencies

Ollama Official Docs — https://docs.ollama.com/
Ollama Docker (Hub) — https://hub.docker.com/r/ollama/ollama
Ollama Model Library — https://ollama.com/library
Railway Docs (templates, env, volumes) — https://docs.railway.app/

Why Deploy Ollama | Self-Host Open-Source LLMs 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 | Self-Host Open-Source LLMs 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.