How to quit Ollama, or stop Ollama itself from running?

Leon Chase

• 2 min read

If you want to stop Ollama from running or quit the service entirely, there are several methods depending on how you started it (e.g., via the command line, as a background process, or as a system service). Below are the steps to stop Ollama in different scenarios:

1. Stopping Ollama in an Interactive Session

If you started Ollama interactively in the terminal (e.g., using ollama run), you can stop it by interrupting the process.

Step 1: Interrupt the Process

  • Press Ctrl+C in the terminal where Ollama is running.
    • This will send an interrupt signal to the process and stop it.

Example:

$ ollama run llama2
>>> Hello!
Hello! How can I assist you today?
^C

Pressing Ctrl+C will terminate the session.

2. Stopping Ollama Running in the Background

If Ollama is running as a background process (e.g., as part of a server or API), you’ll need to identify and stop the process manually.

Step 1: Find the Process ID (PID)

Use the ps command to find the PID of the running Ollama process:

ps aux | grep ollama

This will list all processes related to Ollama. Look for the process that corresponds to the model or server you’re running.

Step 2: Kill the Process

Once you have the PID, use the kill command to stop the process:

kill <PID>

For example:

kill 12345

If the process doesn’t stop, you can force-kill it using:

kill -9 <PID>

3. Stopping Ollama Serve

If you started Ollama in server mode using ollama serve, you can stop the server by terminating the process.

Step 1: Stop the Server

  • If the server is running in the foreground, press Ctrl+C in the terminal where the server is running.
  • If the server is running in the background, you can stop it by finding and killing the process as described above.

Example:

$ ollama serve
Serving models on http://localhost:11434
^C

Pressing Ctrl+C will stop the server.

4. Restarting or Stopping Ollama as a System Service

If Ollama was installed as a system service (common on Linux or macOS), you can manage it using system commands.

Step 1: Check the Status of the Service

On Linux systems, you can check if Ollama is running as a service:

sudo systemctl status ollama

Step 2: Stop the Service

To stop the Ollama service:

sudo systemctl stop ollama

Step 3: Disable the Service (Optional)

If you don’t want Ollama to start automatically on boot, disable the service:

sudo systemctl disable ollama

Step 4: Restart the Service (Optional)

If you want to restart Ollama after stopping it:

sudo systemctl restart ollama

5. Using Homebrew to Manage Ollama (macOS)

If you installed Ollama using Homebrew on macOS, you can manage it as a service.

Step 1: Stop the Service

To stop Ollama:

brew services stop ollama

Step 2: Restart the Service (Optional)

To restart Ollama:

brew services restart ollama

6. Automating Cleanup with Scripts

If you frequently start and stop Ollama, you can create a simple script to automate the process of stopping it.

Example Bash Script:

#!/bin/bash

# Find and kill all Ollama processes
pkill -f ollama

echo "Ollama processes stopped."

Save this script as stop_ollama.sh and run it whenever you want to stop all Ollama processes:

bash stop_ollama.sh

7. Conclusion

To stop Ollama, follow these steps based on how it’s running:

  • Use Ctrl+C if it’s running interactively in the terminal.
  • Use ps and kill commands to stop background processes.
  • Use systemctl or brew services commands to manage Ollama as a system service.
  • Create scripts to automate stopping Ollama if needed.

By following these steps, you can effectively stop Ollama from running, whether it’s in interactive mode, as a background process, or as a system service.