We introduce the concept of a local metric of the Gaussian free field (GFF) $h$, which is a random metric coupled with $h$ in such a way that it depends locally on $h$ in a certain sense. This definition is a metric analog of the concept of a local set for $h$. We establish general criteria for two local metrics of the same GFF $h$ to be bi-Lipschitz equivalent to each other and for a local metric to be a.s. determined by $h$. Our results are used in subsequent works which prove the existence, uniqueness, and basic properties of the $γ$-Liouville quantum gravity (LQG) metric for all $γ\in (0,2)$, but no knowledge of LQG is needed to understand this paper.