# Open WebUI

> Open WebUI is a self-hosted chat interface that talks to local Ollama models or any OpenAI-compatible API, with document RAG, web search via SearXNG and others, voice, and multi-user RBAC. Install via pip (Python 3.11/3.12) or Docker, including a bundled-Ollama image. It ships no model weights: answer quality and the weights licence depend on the model you connect. Licence is NOT plain BSD any more: the custom Open WebUI License forbids removing its branding for deployments over 50 users in 30 days without permission or an enterprise licence.

- Repository: https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui
- Official docs: https://docs.openwebui.com/
- Checked: 2026-10-15

## What it replaces
- ChatGPT Plus: Chat assistant, Chat with your documents, Web search answers (partial). Replaces the chat interface; answer quality depends on the model you run. Local models are generally less capable than paid frontier models.
- Perplexity Pro: Web search answers (partial). Web search injected into chat via SearXNG and other providers; answer quality depends on the model you run.

## Facts, with sources

| Question | Status | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Confirmed | Yes, self-hosted web app via pip or Docker; can run fully offline | https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui#readme | 2026-10-15 |
| Code licence | Partial | Open WebUI License (BSD-3 style + branding clause); not OSI-approved | https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-15 |
| Model weights licence | Confirmed | No bundled weights; licence depends on the model you connect | https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui#readme | 2026-10-15 |
| Commercial use | Partial | Yes, but branding must stay above 50 users/30 days unless enterprise licence | https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-10-15 |
| Paid services needed? | Confirmed | None required with local Ollama; paid APIs and Enterprise plan optional | https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui#installing-open-webui-with-bundled-ollama-support | 2026-10-15 |
| Hardware | Partial | GPU optional (CUDA image falls back to CPU); RAM not documented; depends on model | https://docs.openwebui.com/getting-started/quick-start/ | 2026-10-15 |
| Operating systems | Confirmed | macOS, Linux (x86\_64, ARM64) and Windows (Docker via WSL) | https://docs.openwebui.com/getting-started/quick-start/ | 2026-10-15 |
| Setup effort | Confirmed | Easy; pip install open-webui (Python 3.11) or one Docker command | https://github.com/open-webui/open-webui#how-to-install- | 2026-10-15 |

GitHub: 155861 stars, 22686 forks, last push 2026-10-16, archived: no.
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Source: RepoQuarry (https://repoquarry.dev/projects/open-webui). Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Quotes are from project documentation and belong to their authors.