🔥 Great question — Bolt.new is an awesome UI for working with large language models (LLMs), and yes, you can use it 100% free with local LLMs, no rate limits, no paywalls.

Here's a full guide on how to do that:

🚀 What is Bolt.new?
Bolt is a sleek web-based playground (like ChatGPT) but built for connecting to your own models, locally or remotely.

🧠 Supports OpenAI-compatible APIs (like LM Studio, Ollama, etc.)

💻 Works with local LLMs — no cloud billing or rate caps

🎨 Clean UI — prompt history, markdown, code blocks, multi-chat

🛠� How to Use Bolt.new with Local LLMs (Step-by-Step)
✅ Option 1: Using LM Studio
Download and install LM Studio

Mac, Windows, or Linux

Load a GGUF model (like Mistral, LLaMA 3, etc.)

Enable the OpenAI API server in LM Studio

It'll run at http://localhost:1234 by default

Go to https://bolt.new

In the API Settings, enter:

Base URL: http://localhost:1234/v1

Leave the API key field blank (or enter anything — it's not required)

Click Save → Start chatting 🚀

✅ Option 2: Using Ollama
Install Ollama on your machine

brew install ollama or download from the website

Pull a model (e.g.):

bash
Copy
Edit
ollama run llama3
Ollama will automatically start a local API at http://localhost:11434

Go to Bolt → Settings

Base URL: http://localhost:11434

Model: llama3 or whatever you're running

Format may vary — Ollama doesn't use /v1, but Bolt may support it with plugins

Save and test it out

🧠 Recommended Local Models
Mistral 7B – great balance of performance and speed

LLaMA 3 8B/70B – latest from Meta, best quality so far

Gemma 7B – Google's efficient open model

Phi-2 – lightweight and surprisingly smart

🤯 Why Use Bolt.new with Local LLMs?
🔓 No API keys

🚫 No limits or pay-per-token fees

💨 Ultra-fast response time (especially with quantized models)

🔒 Private — runs entirely on your machine

🧩 Easily connect multiple backends: local, cloud, or custom

🧩 Pro Tip: Run on Local Network (or Remote)
You can host your LM Studio or Ollama instance on a different machine (even a server) and access it from Bolt by entering the correct IP in the base URL.

Example:

arduino
Copy
Edit
http://192.168.1.42:1234/v1
If you want a template Bolt setup or need help choosing the best local model for your task (chat, code, analysis, etc.), I've got you — just let me know your goals + specs.