Local Gemini Alternative

This stack gives you a local alternative to cloud Gemini by running Gemma 4 12B on your own hardware. Use Ollama as the server and Open WebUI for a browser chat interface.

What you get

• Local multimodal AI with a modern browser UI
• No subscription, no cloud API calls
• A strong open model replacement for Gemini-like workflows

Architecture

Prerequisites

• CUDA GPU such as RTX 4080
• Docker or native Ollama install
• At least 60 GB disk space for model and UI cache

Setup

Save a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  ollama:
    image: ollama/ollama:latest
    ports:
      - "11434:11434"
    volumes:
      - ollama:/root/.ollama
 
  open-webui:
    image: ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main
    environment:
      - OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://ollama:11434
    ports:
      - "3000:8080"
    depends_on:
      - ollama
 
volumes:
  ollama:

Bring the stack up:

docker compose up -d
ollama pull gemma-4:12b

Open http://localhost:3000 and choose the model.

Use it

• Private chat for research and drafting.
• Multimodal prompts with local image and audio support.
• Team demo for local AI without cloud vendors.

Cost vs cloud

Troubleshooting

• UI cannot connect → check OLLAMA_BASE_URL and that Ollama is running.
• Model not found → confirm gemma-4:12b is pulled.
• Slow performance → use a larger GPU or lower model quality.

Swap components

• For a smaller local model, use Qwen 3.5 9B.
• Want local code workflows? Add Continue.