Ollama unloads the model after ~5 min: `ollama ps` UNTIL drops from "24 hours from now" to "4 minutes from now"

Context

Source(s): https://github.com/ollama/ollama/issues/5272 , https://github.com/ollama/ollama/pull/5447 Status: reported working by source, not reproduced by us.

Problem

ollama run <model> --keepalive 24h shows "24 hours from now" in ollama ps. After one request from a client that doesn't send keep_alive, UNTIL resets to about 5 minutes and the model is unloaded from VRAM.

Error (redacted / normalized)

ollama ps UNTIL: "24 hours from now" → "4 minutes from now" after a request from another client

Applies when

Ollama serving several clients (OpenAI-style API callers, LlamaIndex, Page Assist); Linux systemd or Docker.

Confirm it is this problem

(our note) Run ollama ps, send one request from the suspect client, run ollama ps again: UNTIL dropped to ~5 minutes.

Not this when / boundary

The client sends its own keep_alive: a commenter found the per-request value overrides OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE, and removing it from the client payload fixed their case. Lines placed outside the [Service] section of override.conf are ignored ("Assignment outside of section").

Root cause

keep_alive is a per-request setting. In older versions a request that omitted it got the ~5 min default, which replaced the earlier per-model value. A collaborator called this a bug; it was fixed in July 2024 by PR #5447 ("Only set default keep_alive on initial model load"). On current versions, if UNTIL still resets, the client is most likely sending its own keep_alive.

Fix

1. Update Ollama to a version that includes PR #5447, and set the default on the server instead of per run: OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE=-1 ollama serve → expect: ollama ps shows UNTIL "Forever" (shown by a collaborator).
2. Linux systemd service: sudo systemctl stop ollama; add Environment="OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE=-1" under [Service] in /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service.d/override.conf; sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl start ollama (confirmed by a commenter).
3. Docker: set OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE on the container and restart the container; systemctl does not apply there. (Commenter suggestion, not confirmed.)

How to verify

Send a request from the client that caused the reset, then ollama ps: UNTIL still shows "Forever" (or your value).

What did not work

Setting --keepalive only on ollama run; putting the Environment line outside [Service]. Note: one collaborator reply misspells the variable as OLLAM_KEEP_ALIVE - use OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE.

Verified scope

Ollama issue #5272 / PR #5447 (merged 2024-07-03); checked Oct 2026