LM Studio#

LM Studio is a desktop app for discovering, downloading, and running local large language models. It provides a graphical interface for model management and a built-in chat UI, plus a local API server that other tools can connect to.

Getting Started#

Download LM Studio from lmstudio.ai. Browse and download models from within the app, then start a chat or launch the local API server. See the LM Studio documentation for details.

When to Use It#

LM Studio is a good choice if you prefer a GUI over the command line for managing and running local models. It also works well as a local API server that tools like OpenCode can point at. See Running Models Locally for guidance on choosing models and hardware requirements.