# Jan

> Run open-source AI models locally or connect to cloud models

- Page on StartupList: https://startuplist.tech/launches/jan
- Website: https://www.jan.ai/
- Category: AI Assistants
- Price: Free
- Company: Menlo Research (https://startuplist.tech/companies/menlo-research)
- Used for: Answer questions with AI, Analyse data

## At a glance

- The problem it solves: People who want an AI assistant often have to choose between paid cloud services and keeping their conversations private on their own computer
- Who it's for: Consumers (B2C)

## About

Jan is an open-source desktop app for chatting with AI models. You can run open-source models on your own computer, or connect it to cloud models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Mistral, all from one interface. The page presents it as an open-source alternative to ChatGPT.

The site lists a range of model families that Jan can use, including Llama, Qwen, DeepSeek, Gemma and Kimi, alongside hosted options from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Mistral AI. Users choose which model answers each conversation, so the same app can work with a local model for private use or a hosted model when they need one.

The page also describes a memory feature, marked as coming soon. It is meant to carry context and preferences from one conversation to the next, so users do not have to repeat themselves. The example on the page shows a designer's preferences, such as wanting brief answers and a minimalist interface, being kept between sessions.

Jan is available for Mac, and the site links to Windows and Linux downloads in its documentation. The page says it is free and open source, and that it has had over 6 million downloads. The project's code is public on GitHub, and the company invites people to join its Discord community.

The product is aimed at people who want a general AI assistant and prefer to keep their conversations on their own machine, as well as people who want to switch between different AI providers without changing apps. The site also lists Jan Agent as a separate product and offers documentation and a changelog for developers and users who want more detail.

Jan is built by Menlo Research, which the page names as the company behind the product. The site says the project is built in public, with its development visible to the community on GitHub.

## Links

- [Jan on StartupList](https://startuplist.tech/launches/jan)
- [Website](https://www.jan.ai/)