Unlocking DeepSeek-R1 on Ollama: A Step-by-Step Guide to Running Advanced AI Locally



DeepSeek focuses on enhancing long-context understanding and reasoning capabilities. If you're trying to run **DeepSeek-R1** via **Ollama** (a tool for running LLMs locally), here's what you need to know:

Current Status

1 Ollama Support

   As of now, DeepSeek-R1 is **not officially available** in Ollama's model library. Ollama primarily supports models like Llama 3, Mistral, Phi-3, and other open-source models.  

   - To use DeepSeek-R1 with Ollama, you would need to:

     1. Convert the model to a format compatible with Ollama (e.g., GGUF).

     2. Create a custom `Modelfile` to load it.


2. Accessing DeepSeek-R1

   - Check if DeepSeek has released the model weights publicly (e.g., on Hugging Face). If yes, you can download and convert it for local use.

   - If the model is proprietary or restricted, you may need to request access from DeepSeek directly.

Steps to Run a Custom Model in Ollama

If you have the model weights (e.g., in GGUF format), follow these steps:

1. Install Ollama

   Download and install Ollama from [ollama.ai](https://ollama.ai/).


2. Create a Modelfile

   Write a `Modelfile` to load the model. Example:

   ```Modelfile

   FROM ./deepseek-r1.Q4_K_M.gguf

   PARAMETER temperature 0.7

3.Build and Run

   ```bash

   ollama create deepseek-r1 -f Modelfile

   ollama run deepseek-r1

Alternatives

If DeepSeek-R1 is unavailable:

1. Use other Ollama-supported models (e.g., `llama3`, `deepseek-llm`).

2. Try the official DeepSeek API if available.

Previous Post Next Post