Open WebUI: Self-Hosted AI Chat Interface

Open WebUI is a feature-rich, user-friendly web interface for interacting with large language models. With over 123,000 GitHub stars, it has rapidly become the go-to self-hosted frontend for AI chat. It connects to Ollama for local models, OpenAI-compatible APIs, and virtually any LLM provider through its flexible backend.

Self-hosting Open WebUI gives you a private, customizable ChatGPT-like experience where your conversations and data never leave your server.

Key Features

• Clean, responsive chat interface with conversation history and search
• Multi-model support — switch between Ollama local models, OpenAI, Anthropic, and other providers
• RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) with built-in document upload and knowledge base
• Multi-user support with role-based access control and admin panel
• Custom model presets with system prompts, temperature, and parameter tuning
• Image generation integration with DALL-E and Stable Diffusion
• Voice input and text-to-speech for hands-free interaction
• Plugin and function calling system for extending capabilities

Why Self-Host Open WebUI?

Complete conversation privacy. Every prompt and response stays on your infrastructure. For organizations handling proprietary data, legal documents, or sensitive research, this eliminates the compliance risks of sending data to third-party AI services. When paired with local models via Ollama, your AI pipeline is fully air-gapped.

Use any model, anywhere. Self-hosting removes vendor lock-in. Run Llama 3, Mistral, or Gemma locally through Ollama. Connect to OpenAI, Anthropic, or Groq APIs. Switch providers or models without changing your interface. You can even run multiple models simultaneously and compare outputs.

Multi-user without per-seat pricing. Cloud AI services charge per user, per API call, or per seat. Self-hosted Open WebUI supports unlimited users on your VPS at no additional cost. Perfect for teams, classrooms, or entire organizations that need AI access without escalating subscription fees.

Customization and integration. Modify the interface, add custom tools, build RAG pipelines with your own documents, and integrate with internal systems. Self-hosting means you own the full stack and can extend it to match your exact workflow.

System Requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	2 vCPUs	4+ vCPUs
RAM	2 GB	8 GB
Storage	10 GB SSD	50 GB SSD
OS	Ubuntu 22.04+	Ubuntu 24.04

These specs are for Open WebUI itself. If running local models with Ollama on the same server, you'll need significantly more RAM (16 GB+) and optionally a GPU. For API-only mode (connecting to OpenAI/Anthropic), the minimum specs are sufficient.

Getting Started

Deploy Open WebUI on your VPS using Docker Compose through Dokploy. Our guide covers the full setup including Ollama integration, persistent chat storage, and SSL configuration.

Deploy Open WebUI with Dokploy →

Alternatives

• LibreChat — Multi-provider AI chat with plugin support and conversation branching
• LobeChat — Modern AI chat framework with plugin ecosystem and multi-modal support
• Chatbot UI — Minimal open-source ChatGPT interface for self-hosting
• Big-AGI — Feature-rich AI chat with personas, drawing, and code execution

FAQ

Do I need a GPU to run Open WebUI? No. Open WebUI is just the web interface — it doesn't run models itself. You can connect it to remote API providers (OpenAI, Anthropic) with no GPU required. If you want to run local models via Ollama, you'll need either a GPU or enough RAM for CPU inference (slower but functional).

Can I use Open WebUI with OpenAI's API? Yes. Open WebUI natively supports OpenAI-compatible APIs. Add your API key in the admin settings and all OpenAI models (GPT-4o, o1, etc.) become available in the model selector alongside any local Ollama models.

How many users can it support? There's no hard limit. Open WebUI includes built-in user management with admin, user, and pending roles. A modest VPS (2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM) can comfortably serve a team of 20-50 concurrent users when connected to external APIs.

Is my conversation data stored securely? All data is stored locally in a SQLite database on your server. Conversations, user accounts, and uploaded documents never leave your infrastructure. You control the backups and encryption.

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App data sourced from selfh.st open-source directory.