Ollama vs OpenAI API: A TypeScript Developer's Honest Comparison

Ollama vs OpenAI API: A TypeScript Developer's Honest Comparison You're building an AI app in TypeScript. Do you go local with Ollama, or cloud with OpenAI? Here's what actually matters after running both in production. I've spent the last six months switching between these two approaches. Sometimes I wanted the raw power of GPT-4o. Other times I needed to process sensitive data without it leaving my machine. The answer isn't always obvious, and anyone who tells you "just use X" is selling something. This post is about the real trade-offs: latency, cost, privacy, and model quality. And how to use both without maintaining two codebases. The Setup: Both Providers in NeuroLink Here's how you configure each provider in NeuroLink, a TypeScript-first AI SDK that unifies 13+ providers under one API: import { NeuroLink } from "@juspay/neurolink"; // Ollama (local, free, private) const local = new NeuroLink({ provider: "ollama", model: "llama3.1", // No API key needed — runs on your machine });