# ChatWise vs Jan

ChatWise records 14,673 monthly visits with -22.1% month-over-month growth and Freemium, Free Trial, Paid pricing. Jan records 291,894 monthly visits with -9.6% growth and Free pricing.

| Metric | [ChatWise](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatwise) | [Jan](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://chatwise.app | https://jan.ai |
| Categories | AI Chatbot, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI Assistant, AI Search Engine | AI Chatbot, AI Assistant, Open Source AI Models, Large Language Models (LLMs) |
| Pricing Model | Freemium, Free Trial, Paid | Free |
| Monthly Visits | 14,673 | 291,894 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -22.1% | -9.6% |
| Primary Market | China | United States |
| Direct Visits | 5,791 | 105,615 |
| Review Score | 4.3 | 4.6 |
| Saved Count | 1 | 6 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## ChatWise

ChatWise is a desktop AI chat application built around three ideas: simplicity, speed and privacy. Rather than juggling several browser tabs for different AI providers, you install one native app and talk to GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Llama and other models from the same window. The interface stays deliberately lean, with no feature bloat, and every interaction is optimised for the desktop experience rather than being a thin wrapper around a web page.

Privacy is the defining design decision. All of your chat history, attachments and settings are stored locally on your own machine and never leave the device, with the sole exception of the requests you explicitly send to your chosen LLM provider. That local-first architecture makes ChatWise attractive for people handling confidential material who still want the convenience of a consumer-grade AI chat client.

The feature set goes beyond plain conversation. ChatWise handles multimodal input including audio, PDFs, images and text files, renders artifacts such as HTML, React components, charts and documents, and adds real-time web search through Tavily's Search API or your local browser at no additional cost. With MCP support, the assistant can reach out to tools like Notion, Google Sheets and browsers to perform work on your behalf. It also integrates with existing AI subscriptions such as GitHub Copilot and Claude Pro/Max, letting you squeeze more value from plans you already pay for.

**Pricing & Plans:** ChatWise operates on a freemium model with a free trial and paid tiers listed on its pricing page. You can also run it on your own API keys — paying providers directly, often at lower token costs than bundled subscription plans — or bring an existing GitHub Copilot or Claude Pro/Max subscription. The site lists affiliate links for some integrations.

- **Any LLM, one client:** Works with GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Llama and other providers in a single desktop client, so you are not locked into one ecosystem.
- **Local-first privacy:** Chat history, attachments and settings all stay on your hard drive and never leave your device, apart from the requests sent to your model provider.
- **Multimodal input and artifacts:** Chat with PDFs, images, audio and text files, and render HTML, React components, charts and documents as live artifacts.
- **MCP tool connections:** Connect Notion, Google Sheets, browsers and other tools through MCP so the AI can actually take actions rather than only answer questions.
- **Bring your own key or subscription:** Use your own API keys for full cost control, or tap into existing GitHub Copilot and Claude Pro/Max subscriptions inside ChatWise.

**Strengths:** One lightweight desktop client covers virtually every major LLM, cutting tab-switching and subscription sprawl; Conversations and files stay on your own device, which is rare among AI chat apps; Flexible billing via your own API keys or existing subscriptions such as GitHub Copilot and Claude Pro/Max; Rich extras including artifacts, multimodal input, web search and MCP tool calling

**Limitations:** Local storage means you need to manage your own backups across devices; Requires some comfort with API keys or provider accounts for the most cost-effective setup; Desktop-only — there is no mobile app for chatting on the go

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatwise.md)

## Jan

Jan is a desktop application that positions itself as an open replacement for ChatGPT, with the key difference that inference happens on hardware you control. After installing the app you pick a model, and Jan downloads and runs it locally, so prompts, chat history, and files stay on your machine rather than on someone else's server. For heavier workloads you can connect an OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or Mistral key and route requests to the cloud while keeping the same chat interface and local history.

The project is developed in the open by Menlo Research and has accumulated tens of thousands of GitHub stars along with millions of downloads. It exposes OpenAI-compatible local endpoints, which means existing tooling and SDKs can point at Jan instead of a hosted service, and it supports custom assistants with their own instructions and model choices. Recent releases have added an agent surface alongside the classic desktop chat, and a memory feature is announced as coming to carry context and preferences between sessions.

Because it is open source, Jan can be audited, self-built, and extended, and there is no paid tier gating the desktop client. The practical tradeoff is that local model quality and speed depend entirely on your own GPU or CPU, so lighter machines will favor smaller quantized models while cloud keys remain the escape hatch for harder tasks.

**Pricing & Plans:** Jan is free and open source, with no paid tier for the desktop app. Costs only appear if you optionally connect your own paid cloud API keys for providers such as OpenAI or Anthropic.

- **Local-first inference:** Download and run open models such as Llama, Mistral, Qwen, Gemma, and DeepSeek directly on your own machine, with chat data kept on device.
- **Bring your own cloud models:** Optionally connect API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Mistral, and other providers to route requests to frontier models from the same interface.
- **OpenAI-compatible local API:** Jan exposes a local server endpoint that follows the OpenAI API shape, so existing SDKs and tools can talk to your local models without code changes.
- **Custom assistants:** Create assistants with their own system instructions, model selection, and parameters, then reuse them across conversations.
- **Open source and extensible:** The full desktop client and agent code are public on GitHub, so you can audit behavior, build your own version, and contribute improvements.

**Strengths:** Completely free and open source, with no account required to run local models; Conversation data stays on your device by default; Works across macOS, Windows, and Linux with an OpenAI-compatible local endpoint; Optional cloud key support lets you mix local and frontier models in one app

**Limitations:** Local model quality and speed are capped by your own hardware; Very large models may need substantial RAM or VRAM to be practical; Some cloud-connected and memory features are newer or still rolling out

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do ChatWise and Jan compare in monthly traffic?

ChatWise has 14,673 monthly visits, while Jan has 291,894. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

ChatWise has a month-over-month growth rate of -22.1%; Jan has -9.6%.

### How does pricing compare?

ChatWise: Freemium, Free Trial, Paid. ChatWise operates on a freemium model with a free trial and paid tiers listed on its pricing page. You can also run it on your own API keys — paying providers directly, often at lower token costs than bundled subscription plans — or bring an existing GitHub Copilot or Claude Pro/Max subscription. The site lists affiliate links for some integrations. Jan: Free. Jan is free and open source, with no paid tier for the desktop app. Costs only appear if you optionally connect your own paid cloud API keys for providers such as OpenAI or Anthropic.

## Alternatives

| # | Tool Name | Monthly Visits | MoM Growth Rate | Pricing Model | Summary | Profile (Markdown) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 1 | [ChatGPT](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4) | 6,048,022,723 | +2.2% | Freemium | OpenAI's flagship multimodal assistant powered by GPT-6 and GPT-5.6 for reasoning, coding, and deep research. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatgpt-4.md) |
| 2 | [Google Gemini](https://openaitools.app/tool/gemini-gemini-advanced) | 2,637,398,242 | -0.1% | Freemium | Google's multimodal AI assistant powered by Gemini 4 Carbon (Gemini Carbon 4), Gemini 4 Argon, and Gemini 3.8 Flash with a 1M-token context window and Workspace integration. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/gemini-gemini-advanced.md) |
| 3 | [DeepSeek](https://openaitools.app/tool/deepseek) | 372,761,591 | +4.3% | Freemium | High-efficiency open-weight and hosted reasoning AI powered by DeepSeek-V4 and R1 at ultra-low token costs. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/deepseek.md) |
| 4 | [Kimi AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/kimi-chat) | 19,632,261 | -23.4% | Free | Moonshot AI's long-context assistant for research, coding, and agentic work | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/kimi-chat.md) |
| 5 | [Ollama](https://openaitools.app/tool/ollama) | 9,421,973 | +4.3% | Free, Freemium, Paid | Provides a lightweight command-line runtime for local LLMs, though it lacks Jan's built-in graphical user interface. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/ollama.md) |
| 6 | [Chatbot App](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbot-app) | 2,170,883 | -9.7% | Freemium | Chat with 30+ leading AI models in one clean, fast workspace | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbot-app.md) |
| 7 | [Overchat AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/overchat) | 948,033 | -2.6% | Freemium | One AI super app for chat, images, video and everyday document tasks | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/overchat.md) |
| 8 | [Chat & Ask AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/askaichat-app) | 881,428 | +14.9% | Freemium | One subscription, many AI models — chat, search, analyze files and links | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/askaichat-app.md) |
| 9 | [Open WebUI](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui) | 804,534 | -2.8% | Freemium | Offers a powerful self-hosted web interface for local models, but requires manual Docker setup rather than desktop installation. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/open-webui.md) |
| 10 | [AnythingLLM](https://openaitools.app/tool/anythingllm) | 512,269 | +12.9% | Freemium | Specializes in document chat and local RAG workflows, though less focused on general-purpose model tinkering than Jan. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/anythingllm.md) |

---
Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/chatwise-vs-jan

More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)