head to head · open source

llama.cpp vs GPT4All

llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars, 25,063 forks, 2,464 open issues and last shipped yesterday. GPT4All has 77,347 stars, 8,261 forks, 771 open issues and last shipped 1.4 years ago. llama.cpp leads on adoption by 72% (133,181 vs 77,347 stars). llama.cpp is written in C++ under MIT; GPT4All is written in C++ under MIT. llama.cpp has attracted 19% as many forks as stars, GPT4All 11%. llama.cpp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.

Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.

llama.cpp ★ 133K GPT4All ★ 77K category AI & Machine Learning

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Side by side

	llama.cpp	GPT4All
GitHub stars	★ 133K	★ 77K
License	MIT	MIT
Written in	C++	C++
Last push	2026-11-02	2025-05-27
Forks	⑂ 25K	⑂ 8.3K
Self-hosting	Yes	Yes
Data ownership	Your server	Your server

pick llama.cpp if

You weight community size — 133K stars and counting
You want the MIT license terms
Your stack matches C++
You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance

full llama.cpp profile →

pick GPT4All if

You want the GPT4All feature set and don't need the biggest community
You prefer the MIT license terms
Your stack matches C++
You evaluated both and GPT4All fits your workflow better

full GPT4All profile →

About llama.cpp

llama.cpp LLM inference in C/C++ ggml / ops / maintainer PRs%20sort%3Aupdated desc) / dev stats / lib llama API / llama server REST API Quick start A few options to get llama.cpp installed on your machine: Visit and follow the instructions Run with Docker see our Docker documentation Download pre built binaries from the releases page Build from source by cloning this repository check out our build guide Once installed: VLM session with llama cli Built in web UI against llama serve Description The main goal of llama.cpp is to enable LLM (and VLM) inference with minimal setup and state of the art performance on a…

read the full llama.cpp overview →

About GPT4All

GPT4All Now with support for DeepSeek R1 Distillations Website • Documentation • Discord • YouTube Tutorial GPT4All runs large language models (LLMs) privately on everyday desktops & laptops. No API calls or GPUs required you can just download the application and get started . Read about what's new in our blog . Subscribe to the newsletter GPT4All is made possible by our compute partner Paperspace . Download Links — Windows Installer — — Windows ARM Installer — — macOS Installer — — Ubuntu Installer — The Windows and Linux builds require Intel Core…

read the full GPT4All overview →

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Frequently asked questions

Is llama.cpp or GPT4All more popular?

llama.cpp has 133,181 GitHub stars and GPT4All has 77,347. llama.cpp has the larger community by that measure.

Are llama.cpp and GPT4All free?

Both are open source. llama.cpp is licensed under MIT and GPT4All under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.

What is the difference between llama.cpp and GPT4All?

llama.cpp is written in C++ and GPT4All in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.

Which should I choose, llama.cpp or GPT4All?

Choose llama.cpp if you want the larger community (133,181 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose GPT4All if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.