Copy & Remove Models in Ollama

From the Ollama cheat sheet · Model Management · verified Jul 2026

Create model aliases and delete models from local storage.

bash

# Copy/alias a model to a new name
ollama cp llama3.2 my-model

# Remove a model
ollama rm my-model

💡 Copying a model creates a lightweight alias — it does not duplicate the model files

⚡ Use cp to alias models to OpenAI-compatible names (e.g., gpt-3.5-turbo)

📌 Removing a model frees up disk space by deleting its layers

🟢 You can always re-pull a removed model from the registry later

copyremovealias

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