janpio/jan

Jan is a free, open-source alternative to ChatGPT that runs entirely on your own computer. The biggest benefit is privacy: since everything runs locally, your conversations and data never leave your machine. You can download AI models and chat with them offline, giving you full control over the experience without relying on a cloud service. The app works like a desktop application you install on Windows, Mac, or Linux. Once installed, you can browse and download various AI models, and the app handles running them on your hardware. You can also create custom assistants tailored to specific tasks. Beyond just chatting, Jan can act as a local server, meaning other applications on your computer can talk to it just like they would talk to OpenAI's API. If you do want cloud models, you can connect to services like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Mistral from within the same app. This tool is for anyone who wants the convenience of ChatGPT without sending data to a third party. A lawyer drafting sensitive documents, a developer writing code with proprietary logic, or a founder brainstorming business strategy might prefer running models locally for confidentiality. It is also useful for people who work offline or want to experiment with different open-source AI models without paying subscription fees. Additionally, developers building apps that need AI capabilities can use Jan as a local backend, swapping it in for OpenAI's API during development. The project is built using Tauri, a framework for making desktop apps, and relies on llama.cpp under the hood to run AI models efficiently. It is worth noting that running these models locally requires decent hardware. You need at least 8GB of RAM for smaller models, and 16GB or 32GB for larger ones. Windows users benefit from having a dedicated GPU. The README does not go into deep detail on performance tradeoffs, but the core pitch is straightforward: it trades cloud convenience for local privacy and control.