FAQ

Can I use my local AI model on my phone?

Yes. That is the point of Olace. Run the model on a computer with Ollama, LM Studio, or llama.cpp, pair your phone once, and stream from it directly over your network at home or through an encrypted relay when you are away.

Do I need a VPN, Tailscale, or port forwarding?

No. Your computer only makes outbound connections, so there is nothing to configure and nothing exposed to the internet. Olace also works fine alongside an existing VPN.

Can Olace read my conversations?

No. Not even Olace can read your local and paired chats, and synced conversations are zero-knowledge encrypted, so only your devices hold the key. When a local or paired chat uses a tool like web search, your model writes the query on your device and only the query goes out, which is what any search engine needs to run; the conversation itself stays private. See Privacy & data and Security & open source.

Is it free?

Local and paired AI is free: the model itself never spends a credit. The free plan (Local in the app) is everything that runs on your hardware, forever. Cloud features draw from credits, with the cost shown before anything metered runs.

Can my coding tools and agents use my models?

Yes. The Olace Bridge is a local endpoint on your machine that speaks the OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic Messages APIs. Point a coding agent (Claude Code, Codex CLI), editor, or chat UI at it and it can use your local models and every paired host's models, including the big GPU at home while you work from a laptop.

What happens when my computer is off?

Paired models on it are unreachable, like any machine that is asleep. Your synced conversations remain available everywhere, and Olace Cloud models can cover the gap if you choose to use them.

Do I need an account?

Not for local AI on a computer. An account (passwordless, one-time codes) adds Remote Access, sync, and cloud models.

Which platforms does Olace run on?

Windows, macOS, Linux, iPhone, Android, and the web. On phones the app runs in portrait, and there is no iPad version. The web app covers cloud chat, your own API keys, and synced conversations; local AI and pairing hosts need a computer.

Can other apps use my models?

Yes. Turn on the Olace Bridge and any OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-compatible tool can use your local and paired models through 127.0.0.1:5578.

Do my API keys leave my device when I bring my own key?

No. BYOK keys stay on your device and calls go directly from it to the provider. With sync on, keys are encrypted before syncing to your other devices, unreadable to Olace.

What data does Olace collect?

Aggregate, privacy-safe operational metrics at most, with no conversation content and no identifiers. Reliability reporting has a visible switch, Help improve Olace, under Settings › Privacy & Data that you can turn off any time. Details in Security & open source and the Privacy Policy.

I lost my PIN. Am I locked out?

Use your Recovery Key, or approve from a device that already has your key. See Encrypted sync.