Aider is a specialized AI coding assistant designed for pair programming with integrated git workflows, while Ollama is a local LLM runtime that lets you run any open-source language model on your machine. Aider requires an API key for cloud models, whereas Ollama runs models entirely offline.
Aider vs Ollama — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
AI pair programming assistant with git integration and multi-model support via APIs.
Local large language model runtime for running open-source models offline on consumer hardware.
Primary Use Case. Model Access Method. Offline Capability. Git Integration. Setup Complexity. Monthly Cost (Average Usage). Code Context Window
Choose Aider if you want a purpose-built coding assistant with git workflows, automatic commit messages, and access to the most capable frontier models like Claude 3.5 Sonnet. Choose Ollama if you prioritize privacy, offline operation, zero costs, and want full control over which open-source models run on your hardware.
Aider: 0.24x (4.2x better) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Open-Source (MIT/Apache) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Any CLI + limited plugins (Git Bash, Zsh, Bash) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 15-30 (CLI configuration required) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Full repository with git awareness | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Free (open-source, no paid plan) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: All languages (LLM dependent, typically 40+) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Yes—multi-file edits with git diff review | Ollama: N/A
Code Generation Accuracy (HumanEval Benchmark)
Aider: 92% (Claude 3.5 Sonnet) | Ollama: 68% (Llama 2 70B)
Monthly Operating Cost (5,000 token average session)
Aider: $3-8 | Ollama: $0 (hardware only)
Aider: 0 (cloud-based) | Ollama: 8GB (Llama 2 7B)
Aider: 1-2s | Ollama: 5-10s (CPU) / 2-4s (GPU)
Aider: 70+ languages | Ollama: 50+ languages
Data Privacy (0=external servers, 1=local only)
Aider: Yes (git diffs) | Ollama: No (suggestions only)
Aider: 5 minutes | Ollama: 15-30 (CLI, GPU setup)
Aider: 200,000 (with Claude 3.5) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Free (open-source) or variable API costs | Ollama: $0 (Free)
Aider: Full project (unlimited via file listing) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 0 (terminal-based tool) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Yes—can edit and create files | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 4 (terminal + chat interaction) | Ollama: N/A
Average Response Time for Code Suggestion
Aider: 2-5 (multi-turn conversation) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 8-12 steps (install, configure API key, learn CLI) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: $0 (BYOK) to $20/month (optional commercial) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Manual git commits, indirect via prompts | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Up to 200,000 tokens (depends on model) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: None—single-developer only | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Yes—with local models (Ollama, LM Studio) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Manual—requires explicit user prompt | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4, Claude 3 Opus, Llama 2, local/self-hosted models | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 2000-5000ms per suggestion | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Variable ($0-50 based on Claude API usage; typical $20-30/month for heavy use) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Multi-file editing (10+ files per session) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: VS Code, Vim, Neovim, JetBrains, Emacs, other terminals | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Native with auto-commit staging | Ollama: None
Aider: Yes: can use Claude 3, GPT-4, Llama, or fine-tune locally | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 200,000 (Claude 3.5 Sonnet) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 5-7 steps (pip install, API key setup, editor config) | Ollama: Medium (CLI setup required)
Aider: 6+ models (GPT-4, Claude 3.5, Llama 2, local models, Ollama) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Unlimited (pay-per-API-token) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Up to 200K tokens (with Claude 3.5) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: Manual git commands; optional GitHub API integration | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 30% (manual invocation required) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 30-60 (with user oversight) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: All platforms (Git-agnostic) | Ollama: N/A
Aider: 5-10 minutes | Ollama: 30-120 minutes
Aider: 200,000 (Claude 3.5 Sonnet) | Ollama: 200,000 (Llama 2 70B via Ollama)
Aider: Partial (local models only) | Ollama: Full (all models run offline)
Aider: Depends on API provider | Ollama: 110+ (Llama 2 405B)
Aider: 12+ via API (Claude, GPT-4, Llama, Mistral, etc.) | Ollama: 100+ open-source models available
Typical Code Generation Quality (Subjective Rating)
Aider: 9.2 (with Claude 3.5 Sonnet) | Ollama: 7.1 (best open-source models)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Full native support
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Manual CLI required
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 3 (macOS, Linux, Windows)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 15-45 sec (CPU), 3-8 sec (GPU)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Not required after setup
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Requires external plugins/API setup
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 4GB (minimum); 8GB recommended
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Unlimited (fully free)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: $0 (fully open-source)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 100% local processing
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 10,000+ GitHub stars, active Discord
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 15-50 (GPU-dependent)
Total Cost of Ownership (12 months, 1M daily tokens)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: $0 (hardware amortized)
Inference Latency (7B model, first token)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 8GB RAM + 4GB GPU (Llama 7B)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 8-10 (including model download)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 1-5 (limited by local hardware)
Model Inference Speed (Llama 2 7B on RTX 4090)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Command-line interface
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 3-5 minutes (depends on internet)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Yes (OpenAI-compatible /v1 endpoints)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: NVIDIA CUDA, AMD ROCm, Metal (Apple)
Throughput (tokens/second, batch size 32)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 4 GB (with offloading)
Setup Time (from download to first inference)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 15-30 minutes (download, install, configure)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 200+ open-source models
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Only for initial model download; runs offline after
Multimodal Capabilities (Vision, Image Gen)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Limited; vision support emerging in some models
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Weekly updates (as of 2026)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Full support with graceful degradation
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 200-5000ms (hardware dependent)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 1-10 (single device)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Community-only (none)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Unlimited (local only)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: No external data transmission (100% offline)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Model registry only, 0 community features
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Not applicable (CLI tool)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: None (CLI/API only)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 100+ open-source models (single source)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 5-15 minutes (install + model download)
Privacy Level (0=cloud-only, 100=fully local)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Extensive REST API documentation
Inference Throughput (RTX 4090, Llama 2 13B)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 4 (CPU, Metal, CUDA, Vulkan)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: No (sequential only)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Custom REST endpoints
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 70B (Mixtral 8x22B)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 32GB (for optimal performance)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 5-30 seconds (varies by hardware/model)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 100% local—zero external data transmission
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Limited—basic vision models available
Typical Response Quality (Reasoning Tasks)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: Good for general tasks; weaker on complex reasoning (88% MMLU benchmark score)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: OpenAI-compatible REST API
Aider: N/A | Ollama: 6+ (GGUF, GGML, etc.)
Aider: N/A | Ollama: NVIDIA, AMD, Intel (manual setup)
Aider vs Ollama — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Aider vs Ollama. Contains 151 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Aider vs Ollama — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Aider vs Ollama.
Aider requires minimal disk space (45MB+ for CLI). Ollama requires downloading model files (4GB for Mistral 7B up to 110GB+ for larger models). If storage is constrained, Aider with cloud APIs is vastly more space-efficient.
Ollama is superior for privacy. All model execution happens locally with zero data sent to external servers. Aider, when using cloud API models (Claude, GPT-4), sends your code to external services unless you configure it with a local Ollama instance.
Ollama costs $0/year. Aider costs approximately $300-600/year assuming typical development usage (~$25-50/month on API calls). However, you can reduce Aider's cost by using it exclusively with Ollama's free local models.
Partially. Ollama provides the underlying LLM capability, but it lacks Aider's specialized coding features like git integration, staged editing, file management, and conversation context. Many developers use Ollama with other tools (VS Code extensions, custom scripts) to replicate some of Aider's functionality.
Yes. Aider explicitly supports Ollama as a local model provider. You can run `aider --model ollama/llama2` or any other Ollama model, combining Aider's git integration and coding features with Ollama's offline-capable models.
Primary Use Case: Aider has AI pair programming assistant for code generation and editing, while Ollama has Local runtime for running open-source language models.
Model Access Method: Aider has API-based (Claude, GPT-4, local models supported), while Ollama has Direct local execution (no API required).
Offline Capability: Aider has Limited (requires API keys for primary models), while Ollama has Full offline operation with downloaded models.
Git Integration: Aider has Native git integration with automatic commits, while Ollama has No built-in git features.
Setup Complexity: Aider has Simple CLI setup with model selection, while Ollama has Requires downloading 4GB-110GB+ model files.
Monthly Cost (Average Usage): Aider has $10-50 (Claude API or GPT-4 usage), while Ollama has $0 (free and open-source).
Code Context Window: Aider has 200KB+ tokens with file handling, while Ollama has Varies by model (4K-200K tokens).