Is 100% CPU Usage Normal for Ollama?

Short answer: on a CPU-only setup, yes

If you're following the mini PC guide, there's no GPU in the machine at all - the CPU is doing 100% of the work by design, not because something's wrong. Seeing 100% CPU in the PROCESSOR column of ollama ps while a response is generating is exactly what a healthy CPU-only setup looks like.

When it's a different situation: a GPU build

If you're on the full PC build with a discrete GPU, 100% CPU in that same column means the opposite of normal - it means the GPU isn't being used for this model at all. That's a real, different problem, covered in Why Isn't Ollama Using My GPU?.

How to tell if a CPU-only setup actually has a real problem

100% CPU alone isn't the symptom to watch. These are:

• Responses are painfully slow for the model size you're running - almost always a RAM problem, not a CPU one. See the mini PC guide's troubleshooting section.
• The system is swapping to disk while generating - check memory usage (Activity Monitor on Mac, htop on Linux) alongside CPU. Swapping, not CPU load, is what actually tanks performance.
• Sustained thermal throttling - a mini PC under sustained 100% CPU for long sessions can throttle if airflow is poor. If performance degrades the longer a session runs rather than staying consistent, check the machine isn't overheating.

If none of those apply and responses are simply taking the amount of time you'd expect for a CPU-only setup at that model size, there's nothing to fix - that's the actual, correct behavior.