I like Open WebUI but find it disappointing that it's not easily accessible online without requiring a Docker installation. Tonight, I purchased owui[dot]ai and plan to host Open WebUI for everyone. I'm not doing this project to make money. I'm doing this because I am convinced it is superior to all 'monopolistic' chat interfaces from the big labs, and it has real potential to become the next main platform for human-computer interaction and applications developed by a vibrant community of developers. Unlike Linux, this open-source software cannot reach its full potential without hosting services, and hosting services aren't as simple as distributing Linux for users to install (not saying that developing Linux was cheap! Just that it doesn't have costs proportional to usage). Given that hosting a platform like this will have costs proportional to usage, I don't think it can be completely free. I believe we could offer a free tier with limited features (like storing only 10 chats in history) if users bring their own API key. However, this might not be sustainable when hosting media in thousands of chats and providing RAG hosting services. I would appreciate your advice on how I could fairly cover these costs while also not taking advantage of Open WebUI's excellent open-source work. Open WebUI has features that let you export and import your chats and also allows you to connect to your privately hosted LLM and RAG services. In these cases, it would be free - we would essentially just be sending you the code in a slightly more convenient way than Docker. However, many people aren't willing to do all that and would be happy to have one place for easy access to an outstanding platform where the future of human-computer interaction will happen. We want these users to have access to that valuable experience. As a first step towards building in public and transparency: owui[dot]ai (pronounced "O-weee") cost $200. P.S. In French, "oh! oui!" (which sounds like O-wee) means "Oh yes!" It's quite a fitting and lovely name for describing the great interface made by Open WebUI contributors.

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