How to Run Ollama AI on a Raspberry Pi 5: A Guide

8/12/2025

So You Want to Run Ollama on a Raspberry Pi Without it Exploding? Here's How.

Listen, the idea of running your own private AI model on a tiny, affordable computer like a Raspberry Pi is pretty awesome. No cloud costs, your data stays yours, & you get to feel like a mad scientist in your own home lab. But let's be honest, getting a memory-hungry beast like a large language model to play nice with a credit-card-sized computer can be… tricky.

If you've tried it, you might have been met with frustrating crashes, hangs, or performance so slow you could knit a sweater in the time it takes to get a response. I've been there. But turns out, you absolutely CAN run Ollama on a Raspberry Pi without it constantly crashing. You just need to know the secrets.

So, grab a coffee, & let's get into the nitty-gritty of making this work.

First Things First: Why Bother With a Pi?

Before we dive into the "how," let's talk about the "why." Running an LLM locally on a Pi isn't about getting the fastest response times on the planet. It's about a few key things:

Privacy: When you use a cloud-based AI, your data is sent to a server somewhere else. With a local setup, everything happens on your device. This is HUGE if you're working with sensitive information.
Learning: This is a fantastic way to get your hands dirty with AI & machine learning. You'll learn how these models work, their limitations, & how to optimize them for specific hardware.
Offline Access: No internet? No problem. Your local AI will still work perfectly, which is pretty cool for off-grid projects or just when your Wi-Fi is being flaky.
Customization: You can build all sorts of custom applications on top of your local LLM. Think custom chatbots for your personal website, a voice assistant for your smart home, or even a tool to help you with coding projects.

Speaking of custom chatbots, this is where things get REALLY interesting for businesses. Imagine having a chatbot on your website that's trained on your OWN data—your products, your services, your internal knowledge base. That's exactly what platforms like Arsturn are all about. It lets you build a no-code AI chatbot that can provide instant, personalized customer support 24/7. While running a full-blown customer service bot on a Pi might be a stretch for a high-traffic site, the principle is the same: leveraging AI to create better customer experiences. It's a powerful concept, & starting with a project like this on a Pi is a great way to understand the fundamentals.

The Right Gear: Don't Bring a Knife to a Gunfight

Here's the thing: not all Raspberry Pis are created equal. If you want to avoid a world of pain, you need to start with the right hardware.

The Brains: You ABSOLUTELY need a Raspberry Pi 5. A Pi 4 might technically work, but it will be painfully slow. The Pi 5 has the processing power to make this a usable experience.
The Memory (This is a BIG one): Get the 8GB RAM version of the Raspberry Pi 5. I can't stress this enough. LLMs are incredibly memory-hungry. Trying to run them on a 4GB model is a recipe for disaster & constant crashes. Some of the larger, yet still "small," models can easily eat up 4.7GB of RAM or more.
The Operating System: You MUST be running a 64-bit operating system. Ollama won't even work on a 32-bit system. The latest Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm) with a 64-bit kernel is your best bet. You can check your version by opening a terminal & typing
1uname -m
. If it says
1aarch64
, you're good to go.
Cooling: Don't forget about cooling! An active cooler for your Pi 5 is a wise investment. Running these models will push the CPU, & you don't want thermal throttling to slow you down.

Setting Up Ollama: The Easy Part

Honestly, the Ollama team has made the installation process ridiculously simple. Here’s how you do it:

Update Your System: First, let's make sure your Pi is up to date. Open a terminal & run these commands: