Open WebUI with Python

Open WebUI is an extensible, feature-rich, and user-friendly self-hosted AI platform designed to operate entirely offline. It supports various LLM runners like Ollama and OpenAI-compatible APIs, with built-in inference engine for RAG, making it a powerful AI deployment solution.

This extensive guide will teach you how to install and run it on your own PC step by step!

Software requirements

• Docker
• Python
• Ollama
• Any suitable LLM for your PC
• At least 8GB of RAM and 20GB of Storage

Getting started

1. Docker Desktop

Docker is a tool that helps applications using containers. This is important to run Open WebUI.

This first step is only for Windows OS. Run the following command on your CLI. The wsl package is essenential for Docker to run but it is not built into Windows OS, unlike Mac/Linux.

wsl --install

After installation, run the following command to ensure you have the latest version.

wsl --update

This ensures the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is up-to-date as it is required for Docker Desktop to run correctly.

NOTE: The following steps are now applicable for all OS.

Download the latest version of Docker Desktop here.

Once you have Docker Desktop installed, you will be prompted to Sign Up/Sign In. You may choose to do so, or simply press Skip as shown below.

Once done, you may be prompted with some software updates and that is okay. Just follow the steps on-screen for Docker Desktop. Once Docker Desktop's updates and Windows Subsystem for Linux has been installed, you will see the following Docker Dashboard.

NOTE: You may close this window but DO NOT end the background process

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2. Python

Download the latest version of Python if you have not already here.

To check your current version, simply use this command:

py --version

This next step is CRUCIAL as Open WebUI only runs on Python 3.11.

winget install python.python.3.11

This installs Python 3.11 on your system, but as a SECONDARY* Python version.

*Your default version will still be the one previously installed.

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3. Ollama

Ollama is a locally deployed AI model runner, designed to allow you to download and execute large language models (LLMs) directly on your PC.

Download the latest version here.

After installing, launch Ollama. Note that will NOT appear as a UI, but simply a background process.

Run the following to check that ollama has been successfully installed on your system.

ollama --version

Next, find your Ollama LLMS here. Ensure to get an LLM that is BEST SUITED for your own PC's RAM Capacity.

Let's use deepseek-r1 with 8b parameters for example.

ollama pull deepseek-r1 # to get the latest version of the LLM

Then run the following to get the 8b model.

ollama run deepseek-r1:8b

NOTE: This will take awhile depending on your internet and PC speed. Feel free to download as many models as you want as this can be used within Open WebUI!

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4. Open WebUI

Finally, after all the requirements, we can set up Open WebUI onto our system.

To install using Python 3.11, run the following command using py -3.11 -m. This might take awhile.

py -3.11 -m pip install open-webui

After installation, you can start Open WebUI by executing:

open-webui serve

Ensure that Docker Desktop is already running in the background. Then open up a new CLI and run the following:

docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --name open-webui --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:main

After installation, you can access Open WebUI at http://localhost:3000.

You have successfully set up Open WebUI on your own system! You can now play around with the different models you have on your system.

NOTE: You may revisit Step 3 to download more Ollama models.

Important Reminders

• Keep your Windows Subsystem for Linux up-to-date by running wsl --update before every launch of Docker Desktop.
• Open WebUI can only run on Python 3.11, so ensure Step 2 is done properly.
• ONLY install LLMs that are compatible with your own PC's RAM or your system may crash and Open WebUI may not work as expected.
• Ensure that BOTH Docker Desktop and Ollama are running in the background before executing Step 4.
• Containers created (in Step 4) only need to be done once, do NOT run the same command as you will run into errors.

Next steps

To close the Open WebUI local server, press CTRL+C or CMD+C in the CLI that you executed open-webui serve.

As the docker container has already been created, for future Open WebUI launches, simply execute open-webui serve on your CLI as the other steps have already been set up.

Conclusion

This repo is a long an extensive guide to teach you how to completely set up Open WebUI on your system. If you have any questions, feel free to create an issue and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you!