Run AI Models Locally: Docker Desktop’s New AI Model Runner

I Got Early Access to Docker Desktop’s New AI Model Runner — Here’s What You Need to Know

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Docker has just taken a major step forward with its newest addition to Docker Desktop: AI Model Runner. As a Docker captain I had early access to this feature and spent the last few days testing it out in real-world scenarios.

And let me tell you — this is a game-changer. 🚀

What Is the AI Model Runner?

The Docker Model Runner is a new experimental feature in Docker Desktop 4.40+ that gives you a Docker-native experience for running large language models (LLMs) locally. It’s available now on macOS with Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3), with Windows support on NVIDIA GPUs coming in end of April 2025.

This is not another containerized runtime. Docker runs the inference engine (like llama.cpp) directly on your host with GPU access, so you get:

• Direct GPU acceleration.
• No network latency
• Full control and privacy

Models are pulled as OCI artifacts from Docker Hub and dynamically loaded into memory — not packed in images.