How to Run Ollama on Google Colab - A Quick Guide

Ok, this is just another “how-to google colab” tutorial… but the propose of this post is more a note for the future self.

Step 1 - Install colab-xterm

So first of all we need to have access to a terminal within the google colab code cell, this way we can install ollama via a shell script.

!pip install colab-xterm  
%load_ext colabxterm

This script will installs the colab-xterm package (Perhaps, awesome tool! thanks @popcornylu, you’re awesome), which allows us to use a terminal within our colab notebook.

Step 2 - Open a Terminal and install Ollama

To open a terminal just run the following command in a new cell

%xterm
#curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh|sh
#ollama serve & ollama pull llama3.2

Then, paste the curl and ollama commands in the shell and wait, then you’ve done!

Step 3 - Test the installation

Create a new cell and run

! ollama list

It should return the name, ID, size and last modified date.

If it is all good, now you should have an running ollama server with llama3.2 model with 3b parameters prepared to be used.

A note from the past: you’re welcome Gabriel ;) 2025-03-21-How-to-run-Ollama-Colab