Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms

Parent: Ollama alternatives and model sourcing · Published reference · snapshot 2026-10-14 · skill ollama-expert/references/ollama-alternatives-and-model-sourcing.md

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Everything the scanned sources say about Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms: 31 source-anchored units across 10 sources, grouped by facet.

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Definitions

(a) "Agreement" or "Gemma Terms of Use" means these terms and conditions that govern the use, reproduction, Distribution or modification of the Gemma Services and any terms and conditions incorporated by reference. [source]
Gemma 4, as a release, is an invitation. Whether you are a scientific researcher exploring the language of dolphins, an industry developer building the next generation of open AI agents, or a public institution looking to provide more effective, efficient, and localized services to your citizens, Google is excited to continue building with you. The Gemmaverse is your playground, and with Apache 2.0, the possibilities are more boundless than ever. [source]

Structure and components

All Distributions (other than through a Hosted Service) must be accompanied by a "Notice" text file that contains the following notice: "Gemma is provided under and subject to the Gemma Terms of Use found at ai.google.dev/gemma/terms". [source]
i. If you distribute or make available the Llama Materials (or any derivative works thereof), or a product or service (including another AI model) that contains any of them, you shall (A) provide a copy of this Agreement with any such Llama Materials; and (B) prominently display “Built with Llama” on a related website, user interface, blogpost, about page, or product documentation. If you use the Llama Materials or any outputs or results of the Llama Materials to create, train, fine tune, or otherwise improve an AI model, which is distributed or made available, you shall also include “Llama” a [source]
iii. You must retain in all copies of the Llama Materials that you distribute the following attribution notice within a “Notice” text file distributed as a part of such copies: “Llama 4 is licensed under the Llama 4 Community License, Copyright © Meta Platforms, Inc. All Rights Reserved.” [source]

How it works

Because Ollama pulls weights under upstream licenses, a pulled model is not automatically free for commercial or redistributed use: check the model's license blob for user-count gates, attribution, naming and acceptable-use clauses before shipping or redistributing. [source]
Clarity: By applying the industry-standard Apache 2.0 license terms, we are providing clarity about developers' rights and responsibilities so that they can build freely and confidently from the ground up without the need to navigate prescriptive terms of service. [source]
The Open Source AI Definition does not require a specific legal mechanism for assuring that the model parameters are freely available to all. They may be free by their nature or a license or other legal instrument may be required to ensure their freedom. We expect this will become clearer over time, once the legal system has had more opportunity to address Open Source AI systems. [source]

Measurements and reference values

The Qwen distilled models are derived from Qwen-2.5 series, which are originally licensed under Apache 2.0 License, and now finetuned with 800k samples curated with DeepSeek-R1. [source]

Problems, failure modes and limitations

OSI's Open Source AI Definition 1.0 requires freedoms to use, study, modify and share, plus data information, complete training/run code and parameters under OSI-approved terms. The OSI states Llama 3.x is 'still not Open Source by any stretch of the imagination' (2025-02-18), citing field-of-use limits, user discrimination, and an EU exclusion; so 'open-weight' is the accurate label for Llama. [source]
for the restricted uses set forth in the Gemma Prohibited Use Policy at ai.google.dev/gemma/prohibited_use_policy ("Prohibited Use Policy"), which is hereby incorporated by reference into this Agreement; or [source]

Comparisons and alternatives

Licensed projects under an OSI-approved licenseMore than two-thirdsRedMonk, License Distribution on Hugging Face, May 2026 [source]

Changes and history

Gemma 4 ships under the OSI-approved Apache 2.0 license (Google open source blog, 2026-04-02), described as the first Gemma family release under Apache 2.0; the Gemma terms page points Gemma 4 to a separate Apache 2.0 license. [source]
Llama 4 Community License (effective 2025-04-05): products with more than 700M monthly active users in the prior month must request a license from Meta, which may refuse; distributors must display 'Built with Llama'; models created, trained, fine-tuned or improved using Llama materials or outputs must have names starting with 'Llama'; use must follow the Acceptable Use Policy. [source]
Gemma Terms of Use (last modified 2026-04-01) apply to Gemma 1-3: Gemma Prohibited Use Policy incorporated by reference, Google reserves the right to restrict usage 'remotely or otherwise', redistribution of Gemma or Model Derivatives (including distilled/synthetic-data-trained models) requires passing on use restrictions and a copy of the terms; Google claims no rights in outputs. [source]
| Fullname | License identifier (to use in repo card) | | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | Apache license 2.0 | `apache-2.0` | | MIT | `mit` | | OpenRAIL license family | `openrail` | | BigScience OpenRAIL-M [source]
The release of Gemma 4 under the Apache 2.0 license — our most capable open models ranging from edge devices to 31B parameters — provides cutting-edge AI models for this community of developers. The industry-standard Apache license broadens the horizon for Gemma 4's applicability and usefulness, providing well-understood terms for modification, reuse, and further development. [source]

Facts and statements

Each Ollama library model exposes its upstream license text as a blob; the llama3.2 blob shows the Llama 3.2 Community License Agreement (version date 2024-09-25), so the upstream license, not an Ollama license, governs the weights. [source]
For over a year, Ollama’s README contained no mention of llama.cpp. Not in the README, not on the website, not in their marketing materials. The project’s binary distributions didn’t include the required MIT license notice for the llama.cpp code they were shipping. This isn’t a matter of open-source etiquette, the MIT license has exactly one major requirement: include the copyright notice. Ollama didn’t. [source]
Foundry Local SDK is licensed under the MIT license. For more details, see the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file. Foundry Local CLI is licensed under the Microsoft Software License Terms. For more details, read the [LICENSE](LICENSE) file. [source]
You want a single, fully open-source license across the entire product — Foundry Local's CLI carries Microsoft's own proprietary license terms, not MIT, even though the SDK is MIT-licensed [source]
Context: RedMonk’s license scan finds Apache-2.0 has about 2.5 times more licensed projects than MIT, and the Economies of Open Intelligence paper found open-weights models surpassed truly open source models (with open training data) for the first time in 2025. Open weights and open source are diverging. [source]
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates. [source]
iv. Your use of the Llama Materials must comply with applicable laws and regulations (including trade compliance laws and regulations) and adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy for the Llama Materials (available at https://developer.meta.com/ai/llama4/use-policy), which is hereby incorporated by reference into this Agreement. [source]
LLAMA 3.2 COMMUNITY LICENSE AGREEMENT [source]
a copy of this Agreement with any such Llama Materials; and (B) prominently display “Built with Llama” [source]
Gemma 4: Expanding the Gemmaverse with Apache 2.0 [source]
We are disheartened to see a couple of individuals entangling their criticisms of the Open Source AI Definition with Meta’s abuse of the term Open Source referring to Llama. The OSAID did not create any confusion about the proprietary nature of Llama; in fact, Meta’s open washing, and our response to it, predate the OSAID entirely. [source]
These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of the services provided by Ollama Inc. (“Ollama,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), including our website, software, APIs, and related services (the “Service”). By accessing or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these Terms by reference. If you do not agree, do not use our services. [source]
Code: The complete source code used to train and run the system. The Code shall represent the full specification of how the data was processed and filtered, and how the training was done. Code shall be made available under OSI-approved licenses. [source]

Related concepts

Llama — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Llama 4 Community License — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Apache 2.0 — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Gemma — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Ollama — is a related of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
model license — is a hyponym of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
open-weight — is a synonym of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Ollama library — is a hyponym of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Open Source AI Definition — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
open source license — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Gemma Terms of Use — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Foundry Local — is a hyponym of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Ollama Terms of Service — is a instance of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
Hugging Face Hub — is a hyponym of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
inference engine — is a part of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
MAU — is a measure of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms
curated catalog — is a part of Open-weight model licenses and Ollama library terms

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