A useful question: where does it run?.

Before comparing AI tools, separate three things: the interface you use, the model that answers and the services connected to it. They may live in different places.

Open WebUI and Ollama provide a useful example. Their documentation describes local and cloud connections. A clear diagram helps expose which parts of a workflow still need checking.

Try asking “where does this request go?” before asking “is this local?”. It is a more specific starting point for learning what you control and what you need to verify.