Why local AI
Why run AI on your own computers?
Subscription AI is easy to start with. Running the model yourself changes three things: where your data goes, what it costs over time, and who decides how it works. Here is the honest comparison.
Local AI and subscription AI, side by side
| Local, with Toskar | Subscription AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Your data | Your dataChats, documents, and memory stay on your computers. Nothing leaves unless you turn on web search or a connected service. | Every question and file goes to the provider's servers, under their retention and training terms. |
| Cost | CostHardware you already own, or buy once. No license fee and no bill per person. | A monthly price for every person, for as long as you use it. |
| The model | The modelYou choose it, keep it, and decide when to change it. An answer that works today works the same next year. | The provider picks and changes models, prices, and limits. |
| Offline | OfflineWorks without the internet once models are installed. | Needs a connection for every question. |
| Your other apps | Your other appsAny app that speaks the OpenAI API or MCP can use it, with a key you create and limit. | Its own apps and integrations, on its terms. |
| The strongest models | The strongest modelsOpen models that run on a desktop computer are strong at writing, summarizing, documents, and code. | The largest hosted models still lead on the hardest reasoning tasks. |
Do the math
What a subscription adds up to
Use your own numbers. A subscription is paid every month for every person; the hardware is paid once.
Enter how many people would use it and what a subscription costs per person, and this shows what that adds up to over one to three years, next to a one-time hardware cost.
When a subscription is the better choice
You need the strongest model
For the hardest reasoning and research, the largest hosted models are still ahead.
Nobody can look after a computer
Local AI runs on a machine someone keeps on and updated. Yeix can do that for a business.
You use AI a few times a month
Light, occasional use is cheaper on a pay-as-you-go plan than on new hardware.
Who it's for
See it for your situation
Small business
One computer in the office, customer data that stays there, and no bill per employee.
Private AI for your office →
Developers
An OpenAI-compatible API on your own hardware, a key per developer, and MCP for your editor.
Local AI for developers →
Your home lab
Pair the computers you already own into one private AI. Free and open source.
Every computer, one AI →
Just try it
Install Toskar Core and see which models your computer runs.
Download →
Questions
- Is local AI as good as ChatGPT or Claude?
- For everyday work — drafting, summarizing, answering questions about your own documents, and writing code — open models that run on a desktop computer do well. The largest hosted models still lead on the hardest reasoning. Many people use both: local for anything private, a subscription for the rest.
- What computer do I need?
- More memory runs bigger models. Every model in Toskar's catalog runs on a Mac with 36 GB of unified memory or a PC with 32 GB of memory, and smaller ones run on much less. The home page's "What can my computer run?" shows what fits yours.
- Does anything leave my computer?
- Only what you allow. Answers come from models on your computers. Web search, reading web pages, and connected services are off until you turn them on, and Settings lists everything that left.
- Is Toskar free?
- Toskar Core is free, open-source software (AGPL-3.0). You pay for the hardware, and for help if you want it: Yeix sets it up and supports it for businesses.
- Can it read my documents?
- Yes. Connect folders, PDFs (scanned ones too), spreadsheets, and databases, and answers cite the passages they came from. The documents stay on your computers.
Try it, or have it set up
Install Toskar yourself, or let Yeix size, install, and support it for your business.