Ollama Adds Official Claude Desktop Support
Ollama published a post on its own blog on August 25, 2026 announcing that developers can now configure Claude Desktop to work with Ollama as a third-party gateway provider. Everything below comes from that post.
Transcript
Ollama announced official Claude Desktop support, and says it configures the connection for you.
Ollama says developers can now configure Claude Desktop to work with Ollama as a third-party gateway provider.
Ollama says you select Claude inside Ollama and turn it on. Ollama configures the gateway. Turning it off restores your previous setup.
Ollama says you can use any model there, local ones on your own computer or models on Ollama's cloud, and toggle back to Anthropic models.
Ollama says telemetry is off by default, with a strict Zero Data Retention policy. Those are Ollama's own unaudited claims, and Ollama sells its cloud.
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Sources
Every claim in this video comes from the top ranking coverage of this topic. The claims and where each one came from:
- Developers can now easily configure Claude Desktop to seamlessly work with Ollama as a third-party gateway provider.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- Open Ollama and select Claude. Turn Claude on and Ollama will configure the third-party gateway for you.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- Turn Claude off in Ollama to restore to your previous setup.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- While connected, you can choose to use any model within Ollama, both local and on Ollama's cloud.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- Run open models directly on your computer. Use cloud models for larger coding and research tasks.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- Can I continue to use Anthropic models? Yes, you can switch between Anthropic models and Ollama by toggling the feature inside Ollama.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- Will my prompts or data be sent to Anthropic or Ollama? No. Telemetry is disabled by default.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- Ollama has a strict Zero Data Retention policy across all of our models and services whether you access them through our cloud or on your local machine.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)
- Can I use my local models with this integration? Yes, go to the Settings page and configure a local model.(Ollama's official announcement, Claude Desktop support with Ollama, published August 25, 2026)