# Self-Hosted Paperless-ngx + Optional Local AI: Private Documents and Improves OCR & Search (Full Setup)

DevFeed: [Self-Hosted Paperless-ngx + Optional Local AI: Private Documents and Improves OCR & Search (Full Setup)](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/self-hosted-paperless-ngx-optional-local-ai-private-documents-and-improves-ocr-search-full-setup-10621.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://technotim.com/posts/paperless-ngx-local-ai/>)

Author: Techno Tim

Published: 2026-01-27T13:00:00Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [Techno Tim](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/techno-tim.md>)

Topics: [Docker Compose](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/docker-compose.md>), [Local AI](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/local-ai.md>), [Docker](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/docker.md>), [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [configuration](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/configuration.md>), [Database](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/database.md>), [Redis](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/redis.md>), [Linux](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/linux.md>), [Server](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/server.md>), [GPU](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/gpu.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [compose](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compose.md>), [docker](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/docker.md>), [gpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/gpu.md>), [homelab](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/homelab.md>), [linux](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/linux.md>), [local](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/local.md>), [local-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/local-ai.md>), [ocr](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ocr.md>), [paperless-ngx](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/paperless-ngx.md>), [redis](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/redis.md>), [search](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/search.md>), [self-hosted](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/self-hosted.md>)

## AI overview

A tutorial for deploying a self-hosted Paperless-ngx document management stack with Docker Compose. It explains the core OCR, indexing, tagging, and search workflow, then adds optional local AI through Ollama, Open WebUI, Paperless-AI, and Paperless-GPT to improve OCR and metadata suggestions without using cloud services.

## Source excerpt

Build a complete Paperless-ngx stack in Docker and take control of your documents. We'll get Paperless running first (works great on its own), then optionally add local AI with Ollama + Open WebUI and upgrade OCR using Paperless-GPT and Paperless-AI for more accurate, searchable text and tags - no cloud required. This post walks through a complete, repeatable Docker Compose for Paperless-ngx, ...