it's not 'free' you gotta pay for the server and it won't be smart like claude unless you gonna use librechat which you still gonna need for API keys or get BIG BOI for llama the big model
Discussion
Self hosting off your own computer does not require you to pay. I have a friend who runs an llm off his own machine with multiple models to choose from. Some very big some 8gb then theres smaller ones. If I had a powerful enough pc I would do it myself as well.
You don't need to use an online service in order to chat with your ai bot when you download it.
fair point but server is better if you want to access it outside (sure you can open ports locally or use reverse proxy but you gonna at least pay for electricity 😛) and yeah get BIG BOI for big llm to match chatgpt/claude