How to uninstall Ollama on Mac

Stop running models before removing the app. Downloaded models sit in ~/.ollama/models, or in the folder you set with OLLAMA_MODELS, and they are often much larger than the app. Decide whether to keep them before you delete anything. The steps cover the official Mac download and the Homebrew cask ollama-app; Homebrew removal has one extra risk, described below.

Separate memory use from disk space

Open Terminal and run these read-only commands. The first lists downloaded models; the second lists loaded models. A model stored on disk is not necessarily using working memory.

ollama ls
ollama ps

If the command cannot connect to Ollama, open the app before checking. A connection error does not prove that your models have been deleted.

Stop a model to release its memory

Finish tasks that use the model. Replace MODEL_NAME below with its full NAME from ollama ps, including the tag after the colon.

ollama stop MODEL_NAME
ollama ps

The model should disappear from the running list. Stopping unloads it from memory without deleting its downloaded files. Another client can load it again by making a request.

Remove unused models to reclaim disk space

This deletes the model rather than moving it to Trash. Public models can usually be downloaded again; keep the source and backups for custom models. Check ollama ls first. Replace MODEL_NAME with a model you no longer need, then run:

ollama rm MODEL_NAME
ollama ls

Confirm the name disappears from the list. Shared files can make reclaimed space differ from the listed model size.

If you installed it with Homebrew

Mole skips --zap when its list reaches unchecked or shared data, or cannot be fully checked, and still cleans the leftovers you selected.

The ollama-app cask’s zap list includes ~/.ollama, which holds your models and configuration, plus ~/Library/Application Support/Ollama. Running brew uninstall --cask --zap ollama-app yourself moves them to the Trash, whatever you ticked in Mole. ~/.ollama sits outside ~/Library and is not selected by default, so Mole removes a Homebrew install without --zap.

If you want to keep the models, copy ~/.ollama somewhere outside that path first, or remove only the app and leave the zap step out:

brew uninstall --cask ollama-app

In the recorded Homebrew test, the zap moved ~/.ollama to the Trash. Anything moved there still takes disk space until you empty the Trash, and it can be restored until then.

Quit Ollama and remove the app

1. Finish active tasks and quit Ollama from its menu bar menu. Closing a conversation window does not necessarily stop the service.
2. Search for Ollama in Activity Monitor and check whether its processes have exited. If you started ollama serve in Terminal, stop it in that terminal too.
3. Find Ollama in Finder’s Applications folder and move it to Trash. If macOS says it is in use, return to the previous step before deleting its data.
4. Open System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions. In the recorded test, Ollama had registered a login item and a background item labelled com.ollama.ollama. If an Ollama entry is still listed after the app is gone, turn it off there.

Docker containers and remote servers running Ollama are separate installations; a missing app icon does not establish that those are gone.

Review models, configuration, and caches

In Finder, press Shift + Command + G and inspect these public locations individually. Skip missing paths. Review existing contents before moving anything to Trash; do not remove the parent Library or Application Support folder.

The default model directory is ~/.ollama/models. If you set OLLAMA_MODELS, also check that custom location. Apart from the preferences file, these locations come from the official uninstall instructions; not every Mac has every entry.

Ollama macOS · Ollama CLI · Ollama FAQ

Check the command-line entry and the result

After removing the app, run these read-only checks:

pgrep -il ollama
launchctl list | grep -i ollama
command -v ollama
ls -l /usr/local/bin/ollama
ls -d ~/.ollama

• No output from pgrep means no Ollama process is running. A listed process means the app or a separately started ollama serve is still active; quit it before deleting data.
• No output from launchctl list means no Ollama job is loaded in your session. A com.ollama.ollama line means the background item is still registered; turn it off in Login Items & Extensions.
• If /usr/local/bin/ollama remains, inspect whether it is a symbolic link to the Ollama.app you just removed. Only after confirming ownership, open /usr/local/bin in Finder and remove that ollama entry. Administrator authorization may be required. Do not remove the bin directory.
• If command -v points to Homebrew or another location, check that installation separately. No output from command -v only means the current shell’s PATH cannot resolve the command. It does not prove that symbolic links or other files are gone.
• ls -d ~/.ollama printing the path means your models are still there, which is expected if you kept them. “No such file or directory” means the folder is gone; a permission error is a different result, so investigate it first.

Deliberately kept models are not a cleanup failure.

For other local model tools and their storage, see How to Delete Ollama and LM Studio Models on Mac.

Reinstalling or removing everything

For a reinstall, keep ~/.ollama: downloaded models can be much larger than the app. Confirm that the new installation can read them before considering an old copy for cleanup. For a complete removal, first check that no other tool still uses the Ollama service, then inspect both the default model directory and any path configured through OLLAMA_MODELS.

An empty ollama ps means no model is loaded now; it is not proof that model files are gone from disk.

What Mole lists

For an Ollama app installed from the official download:

• ~/.ollama is listed but not selected, so you choose between reclaiming space and keeping recoverable models. Mole’s Clean tab never offers ~/.ollama/models as a cache.
• ~/Library/Application Support/Ollama is listed but not selected.
• ~/Library/Caches/com.electron.ollama, the com.electron.ollama preferences file, saved window state and WebKit data are selected by default.
• /usr/local/bin/ollama is not removed. It is a root-owned link, so check it with the commands above.

For a Homebrew install, the zap list reaches ~/.ollama, so Mole leaves --zap out and the row stays your choice. Custom model directories and separately installed command-line tools are outside Mole’s list.

What this test covered

Ollama was installed from the Homebrew cask ollama-app and uninstalled on September 17, 2026, with a development build of Mole. Homebrew’s zap step moved ~/.ollama to the Trash, and the review list did not appear in that run, so the test does not show models being kept. The Homebrew ollama link in /opt/homebrew/bin was removed; a root-owned /usr/local/bin/ollama link that no longer pointed anywhere was left behind. The ~/.ollama review row was added to Mole after this test. No model download is recorded. On September 26, 2026, Ollama 0.34.4 from its official zip was installed and opened once for a test with a development build of Mole. The first launch asked for an administrator password to install the command-line tool, and with nobody at the Mac the app quit before Mole's Status page could sample it. ~/.ollama was listed as an unselected row and was ticked for the test; the app and ~/.ollama went to the Trash, nothing from the list was left on disk, and no startup item remained.