Loco

Local AI fundamentals

What is local AI?

Local AI runs models on a computer or infrastructure you control instead of sending every request to a hosted inference provider.

It gives you more control over data, models and deployment. It can run without continuous internet access once the required software and model files are available. It also brings real hardware, security and maintenance responsibilities.

Read the practical introduction to local AI →

Local AI Desktop

Loco for Windows.

The easiest way to run a local AI inference server on your PC. Discover models, inspect hardware compatibility, chat privately, and expose your models to other apps.

Loco 2.0.2 model library showing GGUF model choices and hardware guidance — Command Centre: 3-tier hardware recommendations, live circular telemetry gauges, and server control.

Available today

Loco Free & Loco Pro.

Browse curated GGUF models & 1-click downloads
Automatic hardware telemetry & live gauges
3-tier hardware-calibrated recommendations
System One fast micro-decision engine
Loco Free: Chat, Server management, Speed Test, System One (Free forever)
Loco Pro: Advanced Engines, API Keys, MCP Servers, Unlimited AI Assistants & Web Portal ($6/mo or $39/yr)

Current release: Loco 2.0.2 for Windows x64.

Download Installer Compare Plans & Pricing →

Autonomous Capabilities

AI Assistants & Automated Workflows

Create purpose-built chatbots equipped with private document retrieval (RAG), external Model Context Protocol (MCP) tool calling, and automated event-driven execution chains.

Custom system instructions and model routing per assistant
MCP tools and live web search integration
15 configurable workflow triggers and action steps
One-click sharing over your secure LAN Web Portal

Loco Assistants and Automations studio — Assistants & Automations studio: configure tools, MCP servers, and active agents.

Ultra-Fast Micro-Decisions

System One: Fast Local AI for Simple Decisions

Not every task requires a massive 70B parameter model. System One runs ultra-compact, high-speed models specifically tuned for instantaneous, deterministic decisions without consuming heavy GPU VRAM.

Instant email classification, sentiment analysis, and document routing
Runs concurrently alongside your primary inference server
Deterministic structured JSON outputs for business pipelines
Zero GPU starvation—designed for continuous background throughput

Loco System One fast decision engine — System One: Dedicated isolated runtime for millisecond-level classifications and routing.

Frontier Open-Weights

Curated GGUF Catalogue & 1-Click Downloads

Explore top open-source models verified for your computer's exact RAM and VRAM footprint. Filter by task, quantisation level, and publisher directly inside the application.

Instant HuggingFace catalogue search and direct URL downloads
Real-time download resumption and integrity checking
Accurate memory overhead estimation before downloading
Manage multiple quantisations with simple start/stop controls

Loco GGUF Model Library — Model Library: Curated catalogue, download manager, and local storage inspector.

Interactive Walkthrough

See Loco in Action

Watch how easy it is to download Loco from the website, step through the guided tour, fetch your first model, spin up the local inference server, and start chatting privately.

The EASIEST Way to Run AI Locally on Your PC (FREE!) Watch on YouTube ↗

Step 01

Download from Site

Download the Windows installer directly from the website and open Loco with zero complex environment setup.

Step 02

Guided Onboarding Tour

Take the interactive tour to understand the Command Centre, hardware dials, telemetry, and controls.

Step 03

Download a Model

Browse curated GGUF models calibrated for your PC's RAM and VRAM, and download your chosen model in 1 click.

Step 04

Start Server & Chat

Spin up the private local server and chat with your local AI model directly on your own machine.

Download Loco for Windows → View Loco Pro

Curated & Tested

The Big 6 Trending Models & Benchmarks

The definitive frontier open-weight models shaping local AI. These "Big 6" leaders deliver an optimal balance of cutting-edge reasoning, multimodal understanding, and agentic workflows for local execution in Loco.

Alibaba #1 Multimodal MoE

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B

Massive multimodal Mixture-of-Experts architecture with 17B active parameters. Delivers extraordinary reasoning, coding precision, and autonomous agent capabilities with sparse compute efficiency.

Multimodal MoE 17B Active Coding & Agents 262k Context

Parameters397B Total (17B Active)

Context Window262,144 tokens

Recommended GGUFQ4_K_M / MoE-Quant

Hardware TierWorkstation / Offload

Official Publisher Benchmarks Score

HumanEval (Code)

88.4%

MATH (Reasoning)

84.2%

MMLU-Pro

78.5%

MMMU (Vision)

68.0%

View GGUF on HuggingFace ↗

Z.ai #1 1M Context & Agents

GLM-5.3

Frontier open-weight reasoning, coding, and autonomous agent model from Z.ai. Features an expansive 1-million-token native context window with deep structured function calling for complex enterprise tasks.

1M Context Agentic Model Frontier Coding Deep Reasoning

ParametersFrontier Open-Weight

Context Window1,000,000 tokens (1M)

Recommended GGUFQ4_K_M (~8.2 GB)

Hardware Tier16 GB min (32 GB rec)

Official Publisher Benchmarks Score

AgentBench

86.8%

HumanEval (Code)

85.1%

MMLU (General)

81.4%

Needle-In-Haystack

99.8%

View GGUF on HuggingFace ↗

DeepSeek #1 Capability per Compute

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash

Revolutionary 552B Mixture-of-Experts foundation with only 8B active parameters for input and 16B for output. Delivers lightning generation speeds and unmatched capability per unit of compute.

552B Sparse MoE 8B/16B Active Ultra-Low Latency High Throughput

Parameters552B (8B in / 16B out)

Context Window128,000 tokens

Recommended GGUFFlash-Sparse Q4_K_M

Hardware TierEfficient Offload (16GB+)

Official Publisher Benchmarks Score

MATH-500

91.6%

GSM8K (Math)

89.4%

HumanEval (Code)

82.3%

Compute Efficiency

96.0%

View GGUF on HuggingFace ↗

Moonshot #1 Enormous Context & Vision

Kimi K3

Frontier open-weight release from Moonshot AI featuring enormous context windows and native multimodal capabilities. Excels at long-form document synthesis, full codebase reasoning, and visual intelligence.

Frontier Open-Weight 2M+ Context Multimodal Vision Lossless Recall

ParametersFrontier Dense/MoE

Context Window2,000,000+ tokens

Recommended GGUFQ4_K_M (~9.4 GB)

Hardware Tier16 GB min (32 GB rec)

Official Publisher Benchmarks Score

LongBench (Recall)

94.7%

DocVQA (Vision)

88.5%

Math & Logic

83.0%

MMLU-Pro

79.2%

View GGUF on HuggingFace ↗

Google #1 Practical Local Powerhouse

Gemma 4 31B

Engineered by Google DeepMind with extraordinary intelligence per parameter. Hits the sweet spot of frontier cognitive performance while remaining practical for serious local hardware and single workstations.

High Intel/Param Workstation Practical Deep Reasoning 128k Context

Parameters31.2 Billion

Context Window128,000 tokens

Recommended GGUFQ4_K_M (~18.6 GB)

Hardware Tier24 GB - 32 GB RAM/VRAM

Official Publisher Benchmarks Score

GSM8K (Math)

89.7%

MMLU (General)

84.6%

HumanEval (Code)

78.4%

MATH (Reasoning)

76.2%

View GGUF on HuggingFace ↗

Mistral AI #1 Open Multimodal Flagship

Mistral Large 3

Open-weight multimodal flagship from Mistral AI. Built with world-class general reasoning, advanced software engineering, robust multilingual translation, and native agentic tool calling.

Multimodal Flagship General Reasoning Coding & Agents 128k Context

Parameters123 Billion

Context Window128,000 tokens

Recommended GGUFQ4_K_M / Q3_K_M

Hardware TierHigh-End Workstation / Studio

Official Publisher Benchmarks Score

DocVQA (Vision)

86.4%

MMLU (General)

84.0%

HumanEval (Code)

81.2%

Math Olympiad

77.8%

View GGUF on HuggingFace ↗

The Big 6: Model Comparison & Benchmark Matrix

Side-by-side comparison of technical specifications, hardware requirements, and why each model earned its place among the frontier Big 6 open-weight architectures.

#	Model	Developer	Why it's in the Big 6	Parameters	Context Window	Recommended Hardware Tier
1	Qwen3.5-397B-A17B	Alibaba	Massive multimodal MoE, 17B active parameters, excellent reasoning, coding and agents	397B (17B Active)	262k	Workstation / Offload
2	GLM-5.3	Z.ai	Frontier open-weight reasoning, coding and agent model, 1M context	Frontier Dense/MoE	1,000,000 (1M)	16 GB - 32 GB RAM
3	DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash	DeepSeek	552B MoE with only 8B active for input and 16B for output, extremely strong capability per compute	552B (8B in / 16B out)	128k	16 GB+ Efficient Offload
4	Kimi K3	Moonshot	Frontier open-weight model with enormous context and multimodal capabilities	Frontier Open-Weight	2,000,000+	16 GB - 32 GB RAM
5	Gemma 4 31B	Google	Extremely strong intelligence per parameter and actually practical for serious local hardware	31.2B Dense	128k	24 GB - 32 GB System RAM
6	Mistral Large 3	Mistral AI	Open-weight multimodal flagship with strong general reasoning, coding and agent capabilities	123B Flagship	128k	High-End Workstation / Studio

Simple, Transparent Plans

Choose Your Loco Plan

Get started with Loco for free, or upgrade to Loco Pro to unlock unlimited autonomous capabilities.

Private local AI for everyday chats and exploration.

$0 forever

✓ Chat with local GGUF models
✓ Model Library & direct downloads
✓ Hardware telemetry & monitoring
✓ 1 Autonomous AI Agent
✓ 1 Automated Workflow
✓ 1 LAN Device connection

Download Loco

Pro Monthly

Loco Pro Monthly

Full power, memory, and automation flexibility.

$6 / month

✓ UNLIMITED AI Agents & Memory
✓ UNLIMITED Workflows
✓ Up to 5 LAN Devices / Workers
✓ Distributed LAN Inference
✓ Scheduled Automations (Cron)
✓ Webhooks & REST API access

Subscribe for $6/mo →

Best Value

Loco Pro Annual

Continuous productivity with massive annual savings.

$39 / year ($3.25/mo)

✓ All Loco Pro capabilities
✓ UNLIMITED AI Agents & Tools
✓ UNLIMITED Workflows
✓ Up to 5 LAN Devices & Distributed Inference
✓ Priority updates and support
✓ Save over 45% compared to monthly

Subscribe for $39/yr →

View all 4 plans (Monthly, 3 Month, 6 Month, Annual) & FAQ →

Local Coding Inference

Connect Loco to Your AI Coding Tools

Supercharge Zed, OpenCode, Kilo Code, Roo Code, Continue, Aider, VS Code, and JetBrains with your local models. Zero telemetry, zero cloud API fees.

⚡

Standard OpenAI-Compatible API

Loco exposes a high-speed /v1/models and streaming /v1/chat/completions service directly on your PC.

🛠

Turnkey Connector Setup

Select any coding tool in Loco to generate exact configurations, copy required settings, and test live inference with one click.

💻

Local & LAN Coding

Run heavy models on your primary GPU workstation and code seamlessly from your laptop over your private home network.

Read AI IDE Connectors Guide →

Why local AI?

More control over where AI work happens.

Cloud AI remains valuable. Local AI creates another option when privacy, control, connectivity or infrastructure ownership matter.

01

Privacy

Keep supported model inference and sensitive working data closer to systems you control.

02

Control

Choose the model, runtime settings, hardware and deployment environment for the task.

03

Independence

Use downloaded models without depending on a hosted model account for every conversation.

04

Practical economics

Compare owned hardware and operating costs with recurring subscriptions and API usage.

Clear boundary: local does not automatically mean secure, compliant, free or completely offline. Hardware, software, networks and configured external services remain part of the system.

The Loco vision

Loco & Loco Pro.

Loco is building beyond the desktop application: practical local-AI software, clearer model and hardware guidance, and tools that can help businesses run AI with greater control.

Read the Loco vision →

Under development

Business tools are part of the direction.

Future Loco tools will explore private deployment, administration and integration for businesses. Capabilities will only move onto product pages when they are ready.

Educational

Research local AI with confidence.

Loco Learn is being built as a connected knowledge platform for models, hardware, runtimes, benchmarks and practical deployment—not a stream of generic AI posts.

Fundamentals

What is local AI?

Understand what runs locally, what still uses a network and where local AI fits alongside cloud services.

Read the guide →

Formats

GGUF explained

Learn what a GGUF file contains, why quantised variants exist and how runtimes use the format.

Read the guide →

Hardware

How much RAM does local AI need?

A practical method for estimating model-weight memory, context overhead and usable headroom.

Read the guide →

Benchmarks

How to read local AI benchmarks

Understand the evidence and test details required to compare performance responsibly.

Read the methodology →

Explore the Loco Learn knowledge base →

AI that runs where you do.

What is local AI?

Loco for Windows.

Loco Free & Loco Pro.

AI Assistants & Automated Workflows

System One: Fast Local AI for Simple Decisions

Curated GGUF Catalogue & 1-Click Downloads

See Loco in Action

Download from Site

Guided Onboarding Tour

Download a Model

Start Server & Chat

The Big 6 Trending Models & Benchmarks

Qwen3.5-397B-A17B

GLM-5.3

DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash

Kimi K3

Gemma 4 31B

Mistral Large 3

The Big 6: Model Comparison & Benchmark Matrix

Choose Your Loco Plan

Loco

Loco Pro Monthly

Loco Pro Annual

Connect Loco to Your AI Coding Tools

Standard OpenAI-Compatible API

Turnkey Connector Setup

Local & LAN Coding

More control over where AI work happens.

Privacy

Control

Independence

Practical economics

Loco & Loco Pro.

Business tools are part of the direction.

Research local AI with confidence.

What is local AI?

GGUF explained

How much RAM does local AI need?

How to read local AI benchmarks

Run local AI. Understand what you are running.