Is Jan or TextGen free?

Both have a free option. Jan has a free plan: Open-source offline ChatGPT alternative (checked 2026-10-25). TextGen has a free plan: Free desktop app to run LLMs on your own computer (checked 2026-10-24).

Which free plan includes more?

It depends on what you need; here is what each free plan includes. Jan: Open-source offline ChatGPT alternative (source: jan.ai, checked 2026-10-25). TextGen: Free desktop app to run LLMs on your own computer (source: github.com, checked 2026-10-24).

How do I get each for free?

Jan: Download Jan from jan.ai/download; Run local models or connect your own keys (checked 2026-10-18). TextGen: Download the portable build for your system from GitHub releases; Unzip it and double-click textgen; Put a GGUF model in the user_data/models folder and start chatting (checked 2026-10-24).

Jan vs TextGen: free plans compared

Both are in Chatbots & LLMs. Here is what each gives you for free, from the vendors’ pricing pages, with the date we last verified each offer (latest 2026-10-25).

Jan: Jan is an open-source ChatGPT alternative that runs models locally or connects to cloud models.; How to get Jan free
TextGen: TextGen, the oobabooga project, runs GGUF and other open models locally on Linux, Windows and macOS. It offers chat and instruct modes, image and file attachments, tool calling, LoRA training and a local API that can stand in for the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs.; How to get TextGen free

Free plans compared: Jan, TextGen
	JanChatbots & LLMsTry	TextGenChatbots & LLMsTry
Free plan	Free forever Open-source offline ChatGPT alternative	Free forever Free desktop app to run LLMs on your own computer
How long it's free	Free forever	Free forever
Best for	Chat with an AI assistantPrivacy-minded users, Developers	Chat with an AI assistant, Use LLM & AI model APIsPeople who want a private, offline ChatGPT-style app, Developers who need a local OpenAI-compatible API, Hobbyists who fine-tune LoRAs on their own data
Limitations	Cloud models such as GPT and Claude need to see your messages to work; that is between you and the provider, while local models keep everything on your machine	You download model files yourself, for example GGUF files from Hugging Face Training, image generation and extra backends need the full installation, which takes about 10GB of disk space
How to get it free	Self-host 1Download Jan from jan.ai/download 2Run local models or connect your own keys Get the free plan	Self-host 1Download the portable build for your system from GitHub releases 2Unzip it and double-click textgen 3Put a GGUF model in the user_data/models folder and start chatting Get the free plan
Free offer verified	2026-10-25	2026-10-24

Jan vs TextGen: common questions

Is Jan or TextGen free?: Both have a free option. Jan has a free plan: Open-source offline ChatGPT alternative (checked 2026-10-25). TextGen has a free plan: Free desktop app to run LLMs on your own computer (checked 2026-10-24).
Which free plan includes more?: It depends on what you need; here is what each free plan includes. Jan: Open-source offline ChatGPT alternative (source: jan.ai, checked 2026-10-25). TextGen: Free desktop app to run LLMs on your own computer (source: github.com, checked 2026-10-24).
How do I get each for free?: Jan: Download Jan from jan.ai/download; Run local models or connect your own keys (checked 2026-10-18). TextGen: Download the portable build for your system from GitHub releases; Unzip it and double-click textgen; Put a GGUF model in the user_data/models folder and start chatting (checked 2026-10-24).

Jan vs TextGen: common questions

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