NAS Drive Compatibility › AI on NAS › Synology

Synology NAS and AI — what's official, what's DIY

Photos AI (faces/objects) is official; LLM = Container Manager + Ollama, not a Synology feature

Synology's official AI surface is Synology Photos: face, object and location recognition on DSM, on-device for supported models. There is no Synology LLM package — the company's own community forum carries an open feature request for local-LLM integration, and the practical route today is Container Manager (Docker) running Ollama on an x86 model. ARM DiskStations and the 2025 Ryzen-based units without iGPU are CPU-only for inference.

What works

AI photo library (faces, albums, search) on Synology Photos — official, free
3B-class local LLMs via Container Manager + Ollama on 8 GB x86 models
7-8B models with a RAM ceiling you accept (slow, CPU-only)

What breaks / isn't offered

No official Synology LLM/assistant package (feature request still open)
No NPU in any current Synology consumer/plus model
ARM models cannot run mainstream Ollama x86 images

Key facts (as of 2026-11)

Synology Photos provides on-device face/object/location recognition — the official AI feature Synology ships on every photos-capable model.
No official LLM integration exists as of 2026-11; Synology's community forum has an open feature request thread for local LLM support.
The working route on x86 DiskStations is Container Manager (Docker) + Ollama; ARM models (J-series) cannot run the common x86 images.
The 2025/2026 Ryzen V1500B generation (DS425+/DS925+/DS1825+) has no integrated GPU — every LLM token is CPU-generated, which caps usable model size.
RAM ceilings: DS925+ ships 4 GB ECC, DS1825+ 8 GB ECC — 7-8B Q4 models are the practical ceiling after DSM takes its share.

Sources

FAQ

Can a Synology NAS run ChatGPT-like AI locally?

Not as an official feature. As of 2026-11 Synology ships no LLM package; the route is Container Manager (Docker) running Ollama with a small open model (3-8B). It works on x86 models with enough RAM, but it is community-supported, not Synology-supported.

Does Synology Photos AI run on the NAS or in the cloud?

On the NAS. Face, object and location recognition in Synology Photos runs on-device for supported models — no photo data needs to leave your DiskStation for indexing.

Which Synology is best for local AI?

An x86 model with the highest RAM ceiling you can get — the more RAM, the larger the model. The 2025 Ryzen generation (DS925+/DS1825+) works but has no iGPU, so expect CPU-speed inference. See our local LLM hardware table for model-size fit.

Sizing the hardware, then the drives

For model-size fit on specific boxes see the local LLM hardware table and the Ollama requirements page. Then come back to what this site does best: every model's official drive compatibility list.