# Jan vs ReadyRunner

Jan records 291,894 monthly visits with -9.6% month-over-month growth and Free pricing. ReadyRunner records 0 monthly visits with 0% growth and Freemium, Paid pricing.

| Metric | [Jan](https://openaitools.app/tool/jan) | [ReadyRunner](https://openaitools.app/tool/readyrunner) |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| Website URL | https://jan.ai | https://www.readyrunner.ai |
| Categories | AI Chatbot, AI Assistant, Open Source AI Models, Large Language Models (LLMs) | AI Assistant, AI Chatbot, AI Code Assistant, AI Writing Assistants |
| Pricing Model | Free | Freemium, Paid |
| Monthly Visits | 291,894 | 0 |
| MoM Growth Rate | -9.6% | 0% |
| Primary Market | United States | Global |
| Direct Visits | 105,615 | 0 |
| Review Score | 4.6 | 3.8 |
| Saved Count | 6 | 2 |
| Supported Platforms | Website | Website |

## 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)

## ReadyRunner

ReadyRunner is a ChatGPT-powered assistant that runs both as a native desktop app for macOS and Windows and as a web app. It is aimed at people who want an AI assistant always one keystroke away rather than a browser tab. A configurable global hotkey opens it on top of whatever you are doing, so you can ask a question without leaving your current task.

The app organizes work around three chat types. Assistant chat is standard AI conversation with customizable system prompts. ScratchPad adds an editable text or code pane beside the chat so the assistant can edit, explain or fix content in place. Document Chat accepts long documents, scans them and answers questions from their contents, with links to the relevant passages so you can verify the answer.

ReadyRunner uses the OpenAI GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 models and exposes a system prompt library, an explicit memory indicator and a model switcher you can change mid-conversation. Pricing includes a free tier with 10 messages per month, plus Dev, Plus and Pro plans; the Dev plan lets you bring your own OpenAI API key and removes message limits.

**Pricing & Plans:** Free tier with 10 messages per month and no credit card. Dev is $8/month ($6 when billed yearly) and uses your own OpenAI API key with no message caps. Plus is $12/month ($10 yearly) with 150 GPT-3.5 and 50 GPT-4 messages. Pro is $19/month ($15 yearly) with 1,000 GPT-3.5 and 150 GPT-4 messages. Plans can be changed or cancelled any time.

- **Desktop and web, hotkey access:** Run ReadyRunner on macOS and Windows, or in the browser, and reach it instantly from anywhere with a configurable global hotkey so you don't break your flow.
- **Document Chat:** Attach long or complex documents and ask questions about them. The assistant scans the file, answers from its contents and lets you jump to the relevant passages.
- **ScratchPad side-by-side editing:** An editable text or code pane sits beside the chat. Ask for edits, explanations or fixes and collaborate on the content in place, including code.
- **System prompt library:** Build reusable prompts for translation, summarizing, coding, debugging or personas, and apply them as system messages that shape every reply.
- **Model switcher and visible memory:** Switch between GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 mid-conversation, and see exactly which messages are in memory with explicit memory dots you can clear.

**Strengths:** Native Mac and Windows apps plus a web app, with instant hotkey access; Bring-your-own-key Dev plan removes message limits and lets you pay OpenAI directly; ScratchPad and Document Chat support practical coding and long-document workflows; Explicit memory dots and cleared memory give more control over context

**Limitations:** Model lineup still centers on GPT-3.5/GPT-4, so it trails services that constantly add the newest models; Traditional plans cap messages; heavy users must upgrade or bring their own key; Message counts differ per model, which can make spend harder to predict; Best value depends on owning your own OpenAI API key

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

## Frequently Asked Questions

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

Jan has 291,894 monthly visits, while ReadyRunner has 0. Traffic estimates describe audience size, not product quality.

### How do their growth rates compare?

Jan has a month-over-month growth rate of -9.6%; ReadyRunner has 0%.

### How does pricing compare?

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. ReadyRunner: Freemium, Paid. Free tier with 10 messages per month and no credit card. Dev is $8/month ($6 when billed yearly) and uses your own OpenAI API key with no message caps. Plus is $12/month ($10 yearly) with 150 GPT-3.5 and 50 GPT-4 messages. Pro is $19/month ($15 yearly) with 1,000 GPT-3.5 and 150 GPT-4 messages. Plans can be changed or cancelled any time.

## 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 | [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) |
| 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 | [Cursor](https://openaitools.app/tool/cursor) | 23,297,751 | +8.4% | Freemium | The AI coding agent for building ambitious software | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/cursor.md) |
| 5 | [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) |
| 6 | [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) |
| 7 | [Z.ai](https://openaitools.app/tool/z-ai) | 9,176,366 | -8.4% | Free | Free GLM-powered assistant that turns prompts into slides, sites and code | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/z-ai.md) |
| 8 | [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) |
| 9 | [ChatPDF](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatpdf) | 1,044,477 | -3.7% | Freemium | Chat with any PDF, video, or website and get cited answers in seconds | [.md](https://openaitools.app/tool/chatpdf.md) |
| 10 | [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) |

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

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