# Helper (Ai Helper) vs Jan Helper (Ai Helper) records 0 monthly visits with -100% month-over-month growth and Freemium, Paid pricing. Jan records 291,894 monthly visits with -9.6% growth and Free pricing. | Metric | [Helper (Ai Helper)](https://openaitools.app/tool/helper) | [Jan](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | Website URL | https://helper.im | https://jan.ai | | Categories | AI Chatbot, AI Assistant, AI Productivity Tools | AI Chatbot, AI Assistant, Open Source AI Models, Large Language Models (LLMs) | | Pricing Model | Freemium, Paid | Free | | Monthly Visits | 0 | 291,894 | | MoM Growth Rate | -100% | -9.6% | | Primary Market | Global | United States | | Direct Visits | 0 | 105,615 | | Review Score | 3.9 | 4.6 | | Saved Count | 4 | 6 | | Supported Platforms | Website | Website | ## Helper (Ai Helper) Helper is a lightweight desktop shell for conversational AI. It installs as a real application on macOS, Windows and Linux, then connects to ChatGPT so you can ask questions, draft copy, debug snippets or brainstorm ideas without leaving the program you are working in. The project markets itself to entrepreneurs, developers and marketers, three groups that tend to spend their day switching between editor, terminal, analytics dashboard and inbox. The appeal of a native client over a web app comes down to friction. A desktop app can be launched with a keyboard shortcut, stays resident in the background, and can be summoned instantly — no address bar, no tab hunting, no re-login. Helper leans on that convenience idea rather than trying to be an all-in-one agent platform. Because it is a third-party client, Helper needs your own ChatGPT/OpenAI credentials or subscription to do the heavy lifting; it is a front end, not a model provider. The project offers a free tier with paid plans for users who want more, and it is distributed directly from its own site. **Pricing & Plans:** Freemium with paid tiers. A free download is available, with paid plans for users who need additional capacity or features. Check helper.im for current plan pricing and any licensing terms. - **Native desktop app:** Runs as a real application on macOS, Windows and Linux instead of another browser tab. - **ChatGPT in your workflow:** Summon an AI assistant while you stay inside your editor, terminal or marketing tool. - **Built for makers:** Tuned for the day-to-day needs of entrepreneurs, developers and marketers. - **Fast invocation:** Quick keyboard access keeps the assistant one keystroke away, cutting context switching. - **Cross-platform install:** One product experience whichever desktop operating system your team happens to use. **Strengths:** Free to download and try; True native app on all three major desktop platforms; Less context switching than a browser-based chat client; Aimed at practical, everyday professional tasks **Limitations:** Requires your own ChatGPT/OpenAI access to be useful; Feature depth depends on the underlying model provider; Desktop-only, so mobile users need a different solution [Profile (Markdown)](https://openaitools.app/tool/helper.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 Helper (Ai Helper) and Jan compare in monthly traffic? Helper (Ai Helper) has 0 monthly visits, while Jan has 291,894. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality. ### How do their growth rates compare? Helper (Ai Helper) has a month-over-month growth rate of -100%; Jan has -9.6%. ### How does pricing compare? Helper (Ai Helper): Freemium, Paid. Freemium with paid tiers. A free download is available, with paid plans for users who need additional capacity or features. Check helper.im for current plan pricing and any licensing terms. 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 | [Claude](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-2) | 1,253,439,413 | +23.8% | Freemium | Anthropic's frontier AI workspace powered by Claude 5.5 for agentic coding, analysis, and nuanced writing. | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/claude-2.md) | | 4 | [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) | | 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 | [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) | | 8 | [Raycast](https://openaitools.app/tool/raycast) | 710,581 | -24.5% | Freemium, Free Trial | An extendable launcher that puts your tools, AI, and automations one keystroke away | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/raycast.md) | | 9 | [MiniMax Agent](https://openaitools.app/tool/minimax-agent) | 679,573 | +2.8% | Freemium | An AI supercompanion that handles tasks, code and creative work end to end | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/minimax-agent.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/helper-vs-jan More Markdown: [Categories](https://openaitools.app/categories.md) · [Traffic rankings](https://openaitools.app/rankings.md) · [llms.txt](https://openaitools.app/llms.txt)