# Alternatives to Jan Open source local-first ChatGPT alternative. Jan ranks #2 of 7 in Local LLM runners, with an Alt Score of 93. It is licensed under Apache-2.0, free from Free and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source. Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/jan/ Category: Local LLM runners ## Overview - **Who it's for**: Developers, privacy-conscious users, and anyone who wants to run LLMs on their own machine instead of sending data to a cloud API — no account or internet connection required. - **What you get**: A free, open-source desktop chat app (Windows, Mac, Linux) for running open-source LLMs (Llama, Mistral, Qwen, Gemma, DeepSeek, and others) locally. It includes a built-in, OpenAI-compatible API server so other apps can point at your machine instead of OpenAI's. You can also plug in cloud providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini within the same interface if you choose to. - **How it works**: Jan runs models locally using the llama.cpp inference engine, downloading open-weight models (GGUF format) to your computer so conversations and inference happen entirely offline, with no data sent to a server unless you explicitly connect a cloud model. ## Profile - **License**: Apache-2.0 (verified 2026-07-09) - **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-09) - **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-09) - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux - **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-09) ## Ranked alternatives | # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms | |---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------| | 1 | [LocalAI](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/localai.md) | 96 | MIT | Linux, macOS | | 2 | [LM Studio](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/lm-studio.md) | 85 | Proprietary (closed source); lms CLI and TypeScript SDK are MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 3 | [llama.cpp](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/llamacpp.md) | 81 | MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 4 | [Ollama](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/ollama.md) | 78 | MIT | macOS, Windows, Linux | | 5 | [GPT4All](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/gpt4all.md) | 70 | MIT | Windows, macOS, Linux | | 6 | [Open WebUI](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/open-webui.md) | 66 | Open WebUI License (BSD-3-Clause-based with branding restriction) | Linux, Windows, macOS, Web | Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/ ## Feature comparison Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified). | Local LLM runners checklist | Jan | LocalAI | LM Studio | llama.cpp | Ollama | GPT4All | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | Pricing model | Free | Free | Free | Free | Freemium | Free | | Starts at | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free | | License | Apache-2.0 | MIT | Proprietary (closed source); lms CLI and TypeScript SDK are MIT | MIT | MIT | MIT | | Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux | Linux, macOS | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux | macOS, Windows, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux | | GGUF model support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | GPU acceleration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | OpenAI-compatible API server | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Built-in model library | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | | Chat UI included | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | CLI | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | | Multi-modal (vision) support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | | Quantization options | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Runs fully offline | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | | Open source | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Model fine-tuning | No | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | | Hardware requirements shown | Yes | Partial | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | ## Sources Sources for Jan. Each alternative is sourced on its own page. - **Starts at**: Free — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “no cloud account, no usage fees, full privacy” - **Status**: active — (verified 2026-07-09) - Note: Jan 0.8.3 recently released. - Quote: “Updated: 2026-07-09” - **License**: Apache-2.0 — (verified 2026-07-09) - Note: License")" - Quote: “Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the ” - **Pricing model**: Free — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “no cloud account, no usage fees, full privacy” - **Platforms**: Windows, macOS, Linux — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Platform | Download ... Windows ... macOS ... Linux (deb) ... Linux (AppImage)” - **GGUF model support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Local models are managed through Llama.cpp, and these models are in a format called GGUF.” - **GPU acceleration**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Jan runs on Windows 10 and higher, supporting NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel Arc GPUs.” - **OpenAI-compatible API server**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Jan provides a built-in, OpenAI-compatible API server that runs entirely on your computer, powered by llama.cpp.” - **Built-in model library**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “The easiest way to get started is using Jan's built-in model hub (which is connected to HuggingFace's Model Hub)” - **Chat UI included**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “It comes with built-in foundation models and an application ecosystem that runs entirely on your hardware” - **CLI**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “The jan CLI lets you serve local AI models and launch autonomous agents from your terminal” - **Multi-modal (vision) support**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Jan-v2-VL is an 8B vision-language model … It combines language reasoning with visual perception” - **Quantization options**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Quantization tiers are grouped as Small, Balanced, or Large, with a Recommended tag on the default download.” - **Runs fully offline**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Jan Desktop ... macOS, Windows, and Linux apps with full offline support.” - **Open source**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Open source: Apache 2.0 licensed, built in public.” - **Model fine-tuning**: No — (verified 2026-07-09) - Note: Inference/chat application, not a training platform; no fine-tuning documented. - Quote: “Download and run LLMs with full control and privacy.” - **Hardware requirements shown**: Yes — (verified 2026-07-09) - Quote: “Minimum Requirements ... Operating System: macOS 13.6 or higher ... Memory: ... 8GB → typically up to 3B models comfortably” --- Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/