diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d34ba4443..70fcadb80 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -48,9 +48,10 @@ OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0 OLLAMA_ORIGINS=* ollama serve
 
 ### Using Docker 🐳
 
-```bash
-docker build --build-arg OLLAMA_API_BASE_URL='http://localhost:11434/api' -t ollama-webui .
+If Ollama is hosted on your local machine, run the following command:
 
+```bash
+docker build --build-arg OLLAMA_API_BASE_URL='' -t ollama-webui .
 docker run -d -p 3000:8080 --name ollama-webui --restart always ollama-webui
 ```
 
diff --git a/example.env b/example.env
index e7394bd89..09911a5c9 100644
--- a/example.env
+++ b/example.env
@@ -1,4 +1,6 @@
-PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL="http://localhost:11434/api"
+# must be defined, but defaults to 'http://{location.hostname}:11434/api'
+# can also use path, such as '/api'
+PUBLIC_API_BASE_URL=''
 
 OLLAMA_API_ID='my-api-token'
 OLLAMA_API_TOKEN='xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx'