Ollama is an open-source platform for running large language models locally. It allows users to easily set up and run various AI models on their own hardware, providing a self-hosted alternative to cloud-based AI chat services.
Last Updated: September 2026
AI Horde
VerifiedAI Horde is a crowdsourced cluster for running image and text models, including roleplay models, without your own GPU. Character-chat users search “AI Horde” and “Kobold Horde” as a free backend for SillyTavern and Agnai.
Crowdsourced free/cheap inference cluster used as a SillyTavern and roleplay backend.
Free InferenceCrowdsourcedSillyTavernKoboldRoleplayOpen Source
At a glance
- Primary category: Self Hosted AI Chat Bots
- Best for: Users who want a free or shared-worker backend for character roleplay without paying OpenAI
- Key features: Free Inference, Crowdsourced, SillyTavern, Kobold, Roleplay
- Also listed in: Self Hosted AI Chat Bots, Roleplay AI Chat Bots, AI Inference
Quick take
AI Horde is infrastructure with consumer search demand. Listing it captures horde ai, ai horde, and “sillytavern horde” queries and explains how it fits the character-card stack.
Why people choose AI Horde
Strengths pulled from our listing review and user-facing positioning.
- +Free/shared path into uncensored-friendly roleplay models. You can switch between different AI models depending on what you want (faster responses, better writing quality, etc.), which gives you more control than single-model apps.
- +Already wired into major character frontends. This is one of the reasons users pick AI Horde over alternatives in the same category.
- +Also covers image generation for character portraits. AI-generated images or photos during chat make conversations more engaging, especially for users who want a visual element alongside text.
Things to know before choosing AI Horde
Tradeoffs and limits worth considering before you commit.
- −Queue times and model choice vary. Worth weighing against the strengths before committing to AI Horde as your main tool.
- −Less private than a fully local stack. Worth weighing against the strengths before committing to AI Horde as your main tool.
- −Not a character UI by itself. Worth weighing against the strengths before committing to AI Horde as your main tool.
AI Horde features explained
What each feature means in practice, not just whether it exists.
Top AI Horde Alternatives
Ollama
Ollama is an open-source platform for running large language models locally. It allows users to easily set up and run various AI models on their own hardware, providing a self-hosted alternative to cloud-based AI chat services.
LocalAI
LocalAI is an open-source project that allows users to run AI models locally. It supports various language models and aims to be a drop-in replacement for OpenAI API, making it easy to integrate with existing applications.
LMStudio
LMStudio is a GUI-based application for running and fine-tuning large language models on local hardware. It provides an easy-to-use interface for interacting with various open-source models.
What is AI Horde?
AI Horde is a volunteer compute network. People contribute GPUs; everyone can spend kudos to run image or text models. Roleplay frontends including SillyTavern and Agnai can send requests to the Horde so you get character chat without a personal GPU or a $20/month API bill.
Horde vs local KoboldCPP
KoboldCPP is your machine, your model, your privacy. Horde is shared and slower or busier at peak, but it is the usual answer to “I have no GPU and no budget.”
FAQ
Is AI Horde free?
Yes, with a kudos system. Running a worker earns more kudos. You can use it without contributing, usually at lower priority.
Does AI Horde have characters?
No. Connect Horde as the backend in SillyTavern, Agnai, or a similar character-card app.
Alternatives and Similar Tools
LocalAI is an open-source project that allows users to run AI models locally. It supports various language models and aims to be a drop-in replacement for OpenAI API, making it easy to integrate with existing applications.
LMStudio is a GUI-based application for running and fine-tuning large language models on local hardware. It provides an easy-to-use interface for interacting with various open-source models.
Also known as oobabooga's text generation web UI, this is a gradio web UI for running large language models like LLaMA, llama.cpp, GPT-J, Pythia, OPT, and GALACTICA. It offers a user-friendly interface for interacting with various models locally.
llama.cpp is a popular C/C++ port of Facebook's LLaMA model, optimized for CPU usage. It allows users to run LLaMA and other large language models on consumer hardware, making it highly accessible for personal use and experimentation.
GPT4All is an ecosystem of open-source large language models that can run locally on consumer-grade hardware. It includes a chatbot, an API, and various pre-trained models, making it easy for users to deploy AI assistants on their personal devices wi...
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