Local RAG vs Cloud RAG — Which Should You Choose?

Local RAG keeps your retrieval and generation stack on your own infrastructure, while cloud RAG relies on managed services. The right choice depends on data sensitivity, budget, latency, and your team’s operational capacity.

As a rule of thumb:

• Pick local RAG for strict data privacy, on‑prem requirements, or when you already operate your own infra.
• Pick cloud RAG when you value speed of delivery, elastic scale, and lower operational overhead.

The main RAG Systems pillar page dives deeper into evaluation metrics and testing checklists to validate either architecture.