# ExplainTXT vs Merlin AI

ExplainTXT records 0 monthly visits with 0% month-over-month growth and Freemium pricing. Merlin AI records 1,382,634 monthly visits with +13.1% growth and Freemium pricing.

| Metric | [ExplainTXT](https://openaitools.app/tool/explaintxt) | [Merlin AI](https://openaitools.app/tool/merlin-ai-plugins) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://explaintxt.com | https://www.getmerlin.in |
| Categories | AI Translate, AI Summarizer, AI Text Generator | AI Assistant, AI Summarizer, AI Writing Assistants, AI Chatbot |
| Pricing Model | Freemium | Freemium |
| Monthly Visits | 0 | 1,382,634 |
| MoM Growth Rate | 0% | +13.1% |
| Primary Market | Global | United States |
| Direct Visits | 0 | 695,322 |
| Review Score | 4.1 | 4.3 |
| Saved Count | 0 | 17 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Browser Extension |

## ExplainTXT

ExplainTXT turns any web page into something you can interrogate. After installing the Chrome extension, a single shortcut (⌘⇧E on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+E on Windows) reads whatever is in front of you. With nothing selected it summarizes the entire page — one line on what it is, followed by the key points. With text highlighted it explains just that passage in plain words and opens a sidebar where you can keep asking follow-up questions.

The workflow is designed to keep you in the text rather than bouncing to another tab or chatbot. Long articles, dense documentation, contracts full of legalese, forum threads and emails all become easier to skim. You can trigger it from the keyboard, from a highlight context menu, or from the toolbar icon, and the shortcut can be rebound at any time in Chrome. A dashboard on explaintxt.com lets you choose your language and text size.

The extension is free to install and monetized through in-app purchases, and the developer notes that mobile browsers do not yet support extensions. The Chrome listing reports version 4.4.0, a 4.2 rating and a few hundred users, positioning ExplainTXT as a lightweight utility for students, researchers, professionals and anyone who reads a lot of dense material online.

**Pricing & Plans:** Free to install with in-app purchases (freemium model). The developer does not publish fixed subscription tiers on the site; payments happen through the Chrome extension's in-app purchase flow.

- **One-shortcut page summaries:** Press ⌘⇧E (Ctrl+Shift+E on Windows) with nothing selected to get a concise summary of the whole page, led by a one-line gist and then the key points.
- **Highlight-to-explain:** Select any term, clause or paragraph and ExplainTXT explains just that part in plain language, right where you are reading.
- **Sidebar follow-up chat:** Answers open in a sidebar so you can ask additional questions about the page without leaving it or opening a separate chatbot tab.
- **Flexible triggers:** Run it from the keyboard shortcut, a highlight context menu, the toolbar icon, or an alternate ⌘⇧S shortcut, and rebind the keys in Chrome.
- **Language and text-size controls:** A dashboard on explaintxt.com lets you set your preferred explanation language and reading text size.

**Strengths:** Zero-friction workflow: one shortcut works on any website without copying text; Sidebar answers keep you in context and allow follow-up questions; Keyboard, mouse and toolbar triggers with rebindable shortcuts; Works across articles, docs, contracts, emails and forums

**Limitations:** No mobile support yet, since mobile browsers do not run extensions; Currency of full feature set depends on the extension, so the website itself is thin; Fixed pricing tiers are not published, only in-app purchases

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

## Merlin AI

Merlin is built around a simple idea: instead of opening a separate chat tab for every task, you summon one assistant with a click while staying inside whatever you are reading or working on. The extension injects a sidebar on any web page, so it can read the article, the PDF, the YouTube transcript or the Gmail thread you currently have open and respond with that context already loaded. That makes summarization, rewriting, replying and research feel like part of the page rather than a separate tool.

Under the hood Merlin routes requests across a broad set of models — OpenAI's GPT family, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral, Meta's Llama and others — so you can pick the model that suits a task without holding separate subscriptions for each. Beyond chat there is an image generator with multiple models and aspect ratios, a search mode that answers questions from live web results, document and video summarization, and a library of saved prompts. Newer additions like Projects (reusable knowledge bases) and Crafts (generated diagrams, mind maps and charts) push it toward light research and prototyping work.

Merlin is available as a Chrome extension, a web app, an iOS app and an Android app with synced history, custom prompts and custom bots across devices. The vendor highlights GDPR, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 alignment for data handling, and positions itself as accessible in 200+ countries where some other assistants are restricted. It is squarely a productivity assistant rather than a developer platform.

**Pricing & Plans:** Freemium. A free tier covers everyday use, and Merlin Pro is promoted at $2/month as a special offer, with the standard plan advertised around $19/month billed annually and described as replacing roughly $130/month of separate AI subscriptions. Paid tiers add higher limits, more capable models and advanced features.

- **Multi-model access in one place:** Switch between GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Mistral and Llama class models from a single interface instead of juggling separate subscriptions.
- **Universal page summarization:** Summarize articles, YouTube videos, PDFs and documents in place, then ask follow-up questions grounded in that content.
- **Writing and social drafts:** Draft and reply to emails in Gmail, compose posts and comments for X and LinkedIn, and repurpose web pages or videos into blogs and articles.
- **Image generation:** Generate images from prompts using more than 20 image models and multiple aspect ratios for web and social output.
- **Projects, Crafts and custom bots:** Build reusable knowledge bases, generate diagrams and charts from a prompt, and assemble custom chatbots from your own instructions and context.

**Strengths:** Replaces several separate AI subscriptions with one interface and one bill; Works inline on any page, so context is captured without copy-pasting; Covers a wide range of tasks: chat, summarization, writing, images, search and light research; Syncs across browser, web, iOS and Android with custom prompts and bots preserved

**Limitations:** The free tier is limited, and heavy use pushes you toward the paid plan; Covering so many features means individual tools may be less deep than dedicated apps; Requires trusting a third party with the pages and documents you send it, even with the stated compliance certifications

[Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/merlin-ai-plugins.md)

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How do ExplainTXT and Merlin AI compare in monthly traffic?

ExplainTXT has 0 monthly visits, while Merlin AI has 1,382,634. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

ExplainTXT has a month-over-month growth rate of 0%; Merlin AI has +13.1%.

### How does pricing compare?

ExplainTXT: Freemium. Free to install with in-app purchases (freemium model). The developer does not publish fixed subscription tiers on the site; payments happen through the Chrome extension's in-app purchase flow. Merlin AI: Freemium. Freemium. A free tier covers everyday use, and Merlin Pro is promoted at $2/month as a special offer, with the standard plan advertised around $19/month billed annually and described as replacing roughly $130/month of separate AI subscriptions. Paid tiers add higher limits, more capable models and advanced features.

## 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 | Provides superior core reasoning and advanced coding agents, but lacks Merlin's seamless one-click browser tab integration and sidebar shortcuts. | [.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 | Offers massive context windows and Google Workspace integration, but functions as a standalone web app rather than an inline sidebar. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/gemini-gemini-advanced.md) |
| 3 | [Claude](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-2) | 1,253,439,413 | +23.8% | Freemium | Excels at nuanced document analysis and writing, but operates as a dedicated web workspace rather than a browser extension. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-2.md) |
| 4 | [Perplexity](https://openaitools.app/tool/perplexity-ai) | 88,310,223 | -3.7% | Freemium | Delivers superior citation-backed web research and real-time search, but lacks Merlin's multi-purpose browser writing tools and sidebar utilities. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/perplexity-ai.md) |
| 5 | [Poe](https://openaitools.app/tool/poe) | 5,894,702 | +9.1% | Freemium | Aggregates diverse frontier models into one conversational interface, but operates primarily as a web/app client rather than a native extension. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/poe.md) |
| 6 | [Monica](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai) | 4,512,775 | -11.3% | Freemium | Provides comparable all-in-one browser assistance and multi-model chat, but includes more robust built-in painting and drawing suites. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/monica-ai.md) |
| 7 | [Sider](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider) | 2,644,740 | -10.6% | Freemium | Offers a similar browser sidebar experience with multi-model support, but features cleaner tab integration and smoother reading tools. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/sider.md) |
| 8 | [Glasp](https://openaitools.app/tool/glasp) | 889,564 | -14.1% | Freemium | Highlight the web, learn in public, and build your AI clone | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/glasp.md) |
| 9 | [Tabbit Browser](https://openaitools.app/tool/tabbit-ai) | 670,981 | -30.2% | Freemium | Integrates AI directly into an independent browser environment, whereas Merlin runs as an extension across existing browsers. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/tabbit-ai.md) |
| 10 | [Chatbox](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbox) | 567,170 | -16.1% | Freemium | Delivers a cross-platform AI chat client with local file Q&A, but requires desktop installation rather than browser extension access. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatbox.md) |

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Source: https://openaitools.app/compare/explaintxt-vs-merlin-ai-plugins

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