Ollama is great for running LLMs locally, but it doesn’t ask where you want to store your 5GB–10GB+ models. On Macs with limited internal SSD space, that’s a problem.

Here’s how I tracked down Ollama’s hidden model cache, moved it to an external drive, and kept everything running smoothly — even on my M1 Mac.

TL;DR

Models are secretly stored in ~/.ollama/models

Why This Guide?

Other guides (like this gist) touch on this, but:

What You’ll Need

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Locate Ollama’s Storage Folder

Ollama doesn’t mention this anywhere, but it saves models to:

~/.ollama/models

Check if it exists:

ls -lah ~/.ollama/models

You’ll likely see folders and files totaling 5–15 GB, depending on how many models you’ve pulled.

2. Create a Destination on Your External Drive

Plug in your external and make a folder for Ollama:

mkdir -p /Volumes/_EXTERNAL_DRIVE_NAME/_PATH_TO_/ollama

3. Move the Models

mv ~/.ollama/models /Volumes/_EXTERNAL_DRIVE_NAME/_PATH_TO_/ollama

You now have freed up internal storage.

Ollama expects the folder to be in ~/.ollama/models, so we trick it:

ln -s /Volumes/_EXTERNAL_DRIVE_NAME/_PATH_TO_/ollama ~/.ollama/models

This way, the CLI keeps working as if nothing changed.

5. Test It

List models:

ollama list

Run a model:

ollama run deepseek-r1:7b

If it responds — your symlink works.

6. Optional: Set the OLLAMA_MODELS Environment Variable

You can use this instead of a symlink, but it’s less reliable in current builds:

echo ‘export OLLAMA_MODELS="/Volumes/2USBEXT/DEV/ollama"’ >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Use it only if you want to switch between different drives easily.

Bonus Section: Best Models for M1 Macs

I tested a bunch, and these are fast + stable:

Model Use Case Size Notes
phi3 Chat + reasoning ~2.2 GB Fast, small, ideal for M1
mistral Chat + code ~4.1 GB Great all‑rounder
llama3:8b Smarter conversation ~4.7 GB Best Meta model < 10 GB
codellama Code gen & fill ~5.6 GB If you’re building code tools
gemma:2b Lightweight anything ~1.4 GB Tiny model for light tasks

Pull with:

ollama pull phi3
ollama pull mistral
ollama pull llama3

All of them will now download straight to your external drive thanks to the symlink.

Cleanup Tip

Want to find where that space went?

du -sh ~/.ollama/*

Or if you’re really unsure where Ollama is hiding files:

sudo find /Users -name "*.gguf" 2>/dev/null

Cleanup Tip

Ollama is fast and powerful, but its CLI assumes you’re fine giving up 10–20 GB of SSD space without asking.

This guide puts that control back in your hands — and hopefully saves a few MacBook lives in the process.

END_OF_REPORT 🌿✨