Completely Uninstall Ollama on Linux (Including Leftover Cleanup)

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:16:29 +0800

If you need to remove Ollama completely from Linux, follow the steps below in order. This guide cleans up the service, executable, model directory, and the ollama user/group.

Before You Uninstall

The commands below will delete local Ollama model files (usually in /usr/share/ollama). Back up first if needed.
These commands use sudo by default. Make sure your account has administrator privileges.

1. Stop and Remove the systemd Service

sudo systemctl stop ollama
sudo systemctl disable ollama
sudo rm -f /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

2. Remove the Ollama Binary

OLLAMA_BIN="$(command -v ollama)"
if [ -n "$OLLAMA_BIN" ]; then
  sudo rm -f "$OLLAMA_BIN"
fi

3. Remove Ollama Library Directories (If Present)

If your installation wrote Ollama files into a lib directory, clean them up with:

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for d in /usr/local/lib/ollama /usr/lib/ollama /lib/ollama; do
  [ -d "$d" ] && sudo rm -rf "$d"
done

4. Remove Model and Data Directory

`1`	`sudo rm -rf /usr/share/ollama`

5. Remove System User and Group (If Present)

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id -u ollama >/dev/null 2>&1 && sudo userdel ollama
getent group ollama >/dev/null 2>&1 && sudo groupdel ollama

6. Verify Uninstall Completion

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command -v ollama || echo "ollama binary not found"
systemctl status ollama || true

If ollama is no longer found in the checks above, the uninstall is complete.

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