Jan
by Homebrew (formerly Menlo Research) · jan.ai ↗
Open-source desktop app for running open language models locally as an offline ChatGPT alternative.
open-source local-llm desktop privacy
- Category
- Platforms & Infrastructure
- Business model
- Open (open weights/source)
- Availability
- Global
- Launched
- 2023
- Record updated
- 2026-07-30
- License
- AGPL-3.0
- Founded
- 2023
- Headquarters
- SG
- Canonical URL
- https://globalaiproductindex.com/products/jan/
Overview
Jan is an open-source desktop app for running open language models locally, positioned as an offline ChatGPT alternative. It bundles a model library, local inference (via llama.cpp), an OpenAI-compatible API server, and optional connections to cloud models. Jan is free, runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and keeps data on-device by default.
Key features
- One-click download and run of open models
- Fully offline chat with local files staying private
- OpenAI-compatible local API server
- Optional cloud model connections and extensions
Use cases
- Private, offline AI chat on personal hardware
- Local development against an OpenAI-style API
- Experimenting with open models without a GPU cloud
Pricing
Jan is free and open source; users optionally pay third-party providers if they connect cloud models.
Frequently asked questions
Is Jan free?
Yes, Jan is a free, open-source desktop application.
Does Jan work offline?
Yes. Jan runs models locally so chats work without internet and data stays on-device.
Which platforms does Jan support?
Jan runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Similar products
- Amazon Bedrock — Managed AWS service for building applications with foundation models from multiple providers via one API.
- Amazon Nova — AWS portfolio of Amazon-built foundation models and services for text, multimodal, speech, custom model building, and UI-automating agents.
- Azure AI Foundry — Microsoft's platform for building, evaluating, and deploying AI applications and agents on Azure.
- Baseten — Platform for deploying and serving machine-learning models as scalable APIs.
- Cerebras — AI compute company whose inference cloud serves open language models on wafer-scale hardware.
- Civitai — Community platform for sharing and discovering open image-generation models, LoRAs, and generated art.
All Jan alternatives → · All Platforms & Infrastructure products →
Sources
This record was last reviewed on 2026-07-30.
Machine-readable record: /api/products/jan.json · Spot an error? Suggest a correction