Jan.ai
An open-source local AI chat client, which the official says can run open-source models locally and also connect to cloud models, supports multi-model switching and memory, is developed by Menlo Research, and is free and open-source on the desktop version.
Updated: 2026-10-26
What is Jan.ai?
Jan is an open-source chat client on jan.ai. Its official website positions itself as an "Open-Source ChatGPT Replacement". According to the official description, it can run open-source models locally and also connect to cloud-based models such as GPT and Claude. Developed by Menlo Research, the official website indicates that it has over 6 million downloads and tens of thousands of GitHub stars. It offers two product lines: Jan Desktop and Jan Agent, with the desktop version labeled as free and open-source.
Who is it for?
- Privacy-sensitive users who want to keep their conversations and models on their own computers.
- Engineers and researchers who need to run models in offline or intranet environments.
- Developers who want to mix small local models and large cloud models in the same client.
- Enthusiasts who are willing to tinker with model downloading, quantization and VRAM configuration on their own.
- Teams that require an open-source and auditable solution and do not accept closed-source clients.
Key features
6Run models locally
Positioned as an open-source alternative to ChatGPT, it allows running open-source models on your own machine.
Connect to Cloud Models
Officially stated to support connections to GPT, Claude, etc. The official website lists sources including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, Mistral, Qwen, DeepSeek, Gemma, Kimi, etc.
Models Directory
The official website lists a selection of models available to choose from HuggingFace and indicates the number of models.
Memory (Coming Soon)
The official memory feature that allows the continuation of context and preferences.
Jan Desktop
The desktop client listed in the official product section, which is officially described as free and open-source.
Jan Agent
A separate Agent entry in the product section of the official website.
How to use Jan.ai
- 1The official website primarily promotes macOS for download; before installation, confirm that your device's video memory and RAM are sufficient to run the target model.
- 2Start with a medium parameter size when running models locally; too large a size will easily cause a freeze. If it fails to run, switch to connecting to cloud models.
- 3The official labels Memory as Coming Soon, so don't take "remembering context" as an already launched feature.
- 4Open-source projects iterate rapidly; the version numbers and download counts displayed on the official website are subject to change. Check the latest release notes before installation.
- 5Although conversations are stored locally, it is still recommended to back up the data directory regularly to avoid losing configurations due to version upgrades.
Traffic & popularity
Data month Sep 2026
Jan.ai receives about 1.0M visits per month and ranks #51,136 worldwide.
Monthly visits
12 monthsTraffic sources
- Search47.9%
- Direct35.6%
- Referrals7.3%
- AI assistants7.2%
- Social2.0%
Top countries
- United States18.8%
- India9.0%
- France5.9%
- United Kingdom5.0%
- Philippines4.0%
Estimated from third-party traffic data.
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