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General Questions

Open WebUI is an extensible, feature-rich, and user-friendly self-hosted AI platform designed to operate entirely offline. It supports various LLM runners like Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs, with built-in inference engine for RAG, making it a powerful AI deployment solution.
Open WebUI supports:
  • Ollama (local models)
  • OpenAI-compatible APIs
  • LMStudio
  • GroqCloud
  • Mistral
  • OpenRouter
  • Anthropic
  • And many more OpenAI-compatible providers
Yes! Open WebUI is designed to operate entirely offline. You can run local models using Ollama without any internet connection. Just set the HF_HUB_OFFLINE=1 environment variable to prevent attempts to download models from the internet.
Minimum requirements:
  • Python 3.11 or higher (for pip installation)
  • Docker (recommended for containerized deployment)
  • 2GB RAM minimum (more recommended for larger models)
  • Storage space for models and data
For GPU acceleration:
  • Nvidia GPU with CUDA support
  • Nvidia CUDA container toolkit installed

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Installation & Setup

There are multiple installation methods:Using pip:
pip install open-webui
open-webui serve
Using Docker:
docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
See the Installation Guide for detailed instructions.
  • Standalone/pip installation: Port 8080 by default
  • Docker installation: Internal port 8080, typically mapped to external port 3000
  • With —network=host: Port 8080
You can access Open WebUI at http://localhost:3000 (Docker) or http://localhost:8080 (pip/network=host).
For Docker installations:
docker stop open-webui
docker rm open-webui
docker pull ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
# Run your docker run command again
For pip installations:
pip install --upgrade open-webui
Check the Updating Guide for more details.
  • :main - Stable release, recommended for production
  • :dev - Latest unstable features, use at your own risk
  • :ollama - Bundles Open WebUI with Ollama in one container
  • :cuda - Includes GPU acceleration support
For most users, :main is recommended. Use :dev only if you want bleeding-edge features and can tolerate bugs.

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Features & Usage

RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) allows you to provide documents to enhance your chat conversations. Open WebUI supports:
  • 9 vector database options
  • Multiple content extraction engines
  • Direct document upload to chat
  • Document library with # command access
Simply upload documents to your chat or add them to your document library, then reference them using # before your query.
Yes! Open WebUI supports many-models conversations, allowing you to engage with various models simultaneously and leverage their unique strengths for optimal responses.
Yes! Open WebUI includes hands-free voice and video call features using:
  • Speech-to-Text: Local Whisper, OpenAI, Deepgram, Azure
  • Text-to-Speech: Azure, ElevenLabs, OpenAI, Transformers, WebAPI
This allows for dynamic and interactive chat environments.
Use the Model Builder feature to:
  • Create Ollama models via the Web UI
  • Add custom characters/agents
  • Customize chat elements
  • Import models from Open WebUI Community
Open WebUI supports:
  • Local authentication (email/password)
  • OAuth providers
  • LDAP/Active Directory
  • SSO via trusted headers
  • SCIM 2.0 for automated provisioning

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Administration

Open WebUI includes granular Role-Based Access Control (RBAC):
  • Create detailed user roles and permissions
  • User groups for organized access management
  • Restrict model access and creation rights
  • Configure workspace sharing permissions
Yes! Open WebUI supports:
  • SQLite (default, with optional encryption)
  • PostgreSQL
  • Cloud storage backends (S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage)
Open WebUI has built-in OpenTelemetry support for:
  • Traces
  • Metrics
  • Logs
This enables comprehensive monitoring with your existing observability stack.
Yes! Open WebUI supports:
  • Redis-backed session management
  • WebSocket support for multi-worker deployments
  • Multi-node deployments behind load balancers

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Troubleshooting

This is often due to the Docker container not being able to reach the Ollama server. Use the --network=host flag:
docker run -d --network=host -v open-webui:/app/backend/data -e OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://127.0.0.1:11434 --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
See the Troubleshooting Guide for more solutions.
Always include the volume mount -v open-webui:/app/backend/data in your Docker command. This ensures your database is properly mounted and prevents data loss.

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Enterprise & Licensing

Yes! Open WebUI offers an Enterprise Plan with:
  • Custom theming and branding
  • Service Level Agreement (SLA) support
  • Long-Term Support (LTS) versions
  • And more!
Speak with our sales team for details.
Open WebUI uses a modified BSD 3-Clause License with an additional requirement to preserve “Open WebUI” branding. See the LICENSE file for complete details.The branding restriction does not apply to:
  • Deployments with 50 or fewer users
  • Official contributors with written permission
  • Enterprise license holders