Alternatives guide

Venice AI alternatives: private AI apps compared

Alternatives to Venice AI include Duck.ai, Lumo, Brave Leo, Kagi Assistant, Confer, Maple, and local apps such as LM Studio, and each protects your chats in a different way. Bearly puts Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok in one app with ZDR mode and end-to-end encrypted chats, but unlike Venice, it isn't sold as an uncensored AI.

Checked against each company’s own pages. We make Bearly, which this guide also covers.

Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, and more in one app, with a Zero Data Retention setting.

What Venice offers

Venice describes its free plan as "Private & uncensored." It runs open models on its own GPUs or partners' and relays requests to frontier models, and it sets a privacy mode for each model:

  • Anonymous: Venice hides who you are from the provider, but says to "assume the provider is storing your content." GPT, Claude, and Gemini run in this mode.
  • Private (the default): no prompt or response is stored, enforced by contract. Grok runs in this mode, along with many other models.
  • TEE and E2EE, on Pro: processing in sealed server hardware, and in E2EE, encryption from your device into that hardware. E2EE chats have no web search or memory.

Your chat history stays on your device, and Venice says it never stores it on its servers. Plans are Free, Pro, Pro Plus, and Max. The free plan gives you 10 text and 15 image prompts a day; Pro gives unlimited text, 1,000 images a day, and monthly credits for video, music, and frontier models, plus "No Filter AI Characters." (Venice privacy; Venice features)

Venice AI alternatives at a glance

In alphabetical order, with what each company says about its own product:

  • Bearly puts Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, and more in one app. With ZDR mode on, every chat model you can pick runs with zero data retention, and end-to-end encrypted chats are stored only as locked copies we can't read. Bearly isn't sold as an uncensored AI. We make it, so weigh this entry with that in mind.
  • Brave Leo is built into the Brave browser. Brave doesn't keep conversations for model training and saves your history on your device. (Brave)
  • Confer encrypts chats on your device and processes them inside sealed server hardware that your device verifies. (Confer)
  • Duck.ai works without an account. DuckDuckGo removes identifying details before your message reaches the AI provider, and its providers agree to delete chats after replying and never train on them, with a few exceptions DuckDuckGo lists. (DuckDuckGo)
  • Kagi Assistant comes with a Kagi subscription. Kagi doesn't pass your account to the AI provider, doesn't train on your chats, and deletes threads after 24 hours of inactivity by default. (Kagi)
  • Local apps such as LM Studio, Ollama, and Jan run open models on your own computer. LM Studio says nothing you type in a chat leaves your device. (LM Studio)
  • Lumo is Proton's assistant. Saved chats use zero-access encryption, and Proton says it never uses your data to train AI models. (Proton)
  • Maple encrypts chats on your device and processes them inside sealed server hardware, with published code and a way to check what the servers run. (Maple)

Venice AI alternatives compared

What each company's own pages said on November 11, 2026, except the rows noted under the table. Plans and models change often; check the vendor's pages before you buy.

App Models How it protects your chats Images Plans
Venice Open models; GPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok through its privacy modes A privacy mode per model; history on your device Yes; video with credits on paid plans Free, Pro, Pro Plus, Max
Bearly Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, and more ZDR mode; end-to-end encrypted chats; no training Yes, and video Free, Pro, Analyst, Research
Brave Leo Claude, Llama, Mixtral, or your own model Not kept for training; history on your device Not checked Free, Leo Premium
Confer Open models Encrypted on your device; processed in sealed hardware Not checked Not checked
Duck.ai Claude, GPT, Mistral, and open models; Claude Sonnet and Opus need a paid plan No account; identifying details removed; providers agree to delete chats Yes, with a daily limit Free, Plus, Pro
Kagi Assistant Models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, and others Account not passed to providers; no training Not checked Kagi plans; premium models on Ultimate
Local apps Open models you download Runs on your computer Depends on the app Jan is free and open source
Lumo Proton-hosted open models such as Qwen, GLM, and Apertus Zero-access encrypted history; no training Yes Lumo Free, Lumo Plus
Maple Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek, GPT-OSS, Gemma, Llama Encrypted on your device; processed in sealed hardware Not checked Not checked

The Confer, Maple, Lumo models, and local-app rows were checked on October 14, 2026, for our private AI comparison. "Not checked" means we didn't verify it, not that the app lacks it.

What to check when you compare

Every app here still sends your message to a model that reads it to answer. What differs is everything around that:

  1. Does the app or its AI provider train on your chats? Brave, Kagi, Proton, and Bearly say they don't; DuckDuckGo's providers agree not to, with exceptions it lists.
  2. Who keeps a copy, and for how long? In Venice's Anonymous mode, the provider may keep your content. Kagi lists 30 days of retention at OpenAI and Anthropic for its Assistant. (Kagi) In Bearly's ZDR mode, the provider running the model doesn't keep your prompt or the answer once it has finished processing them.
  3. Who can read your saved chats? Venice, Brave Leo, and local apps keep history on your device. Lumo's saved chats use zero-access encryption, and Bearly's end-to-end encrypted chats are stored only as locked copies we can't read.
  4. Does your prompt leave your computer? Only local apps keep it there. Confer, Maple, and Venice's E2EE mode encrypt it until it reaches sealed server hardware. Proton's servers still decrypt each Lumo prompt to answer it. (Proton)

Use Bearly with zero data retention

Bearly gives you Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, and more in one app. With ZDR mode on, every chat model you can pick runs with zero data retention. That means the provider running the model doesn't keep your prompt or the answer once it has finished processing them. Our AI proxy doesn't store your prompts or the answers either. Bearly doesn't train AI models on your chats, has no ads, and doesn't sell your data.

To turn it on:

  1. In Bearly, open your account menu at the bottom of the sidebar and choose App Settings.
  2. Select Privacy & Security.
  3. Turn on Zero Data Retention only.
  4. Start a chat and choose a model from the model picker.

With the setting on, the picker shows only zero-retention models, and automatic fallbacks stay on them too. Each model carries a ZDR badge. The setting belongs to your account, so it follows you to your other devices. (Bearly docs: zero data retention)

What it covers: the models that write chat replies. Web search, image generation, voice, and memory run separately. Web search sends the provider your query, never your name, account, or IP address. Your chats are still saved in your Bearly history so you can come back to them. In the same pane, select Set up end-to-end encryption, and new chats are encrypted on your devices; we store and sync only the locked copies, which we can't read: not the messages, the titles, or the files.

Questions people ask

Is there a free alternative to Venice AI?

Yes. Duck.ai works free without an account, Brave Leo and Lumo have free plans, and Jan is free and open source. Bearly has a free plan too; sign up with a personal email address, and no credit card is needed.

Is Venice AI really private?

It depends on the mode. Venice keeps your chat history on your device. In its default Private mode, no prompt or response is stored, enforced by contract. In Anonymous mode, which carries GPT, Claude, and Gemini, Venice says to assume the provider stores your content. Its TEE and end-to-end encrypted modes need Pro.

Which private AI apps offer GPT and Claude?

Bearly offers Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok, and with ZDR mode on, every chat model you can pick runs with zero data retention. Kagi Assistant offers models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI, and Duck.ai offers Claude and GPT models. Venice carries GPT and Claude in its Anonymous mode.

Is Bearly uncensored like Venice?

No. Bearly isn't sold as an uncensored AI. It runs models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, and other labs, and puts its privacy work into ZDR mode, end-to-end encrypted chats, and not training on your chats.

What is the most private alternative to Venice AI?

Local apps such as LM Studio keep your prompt on your computer. Among apps that use cloud models, Bearly combines ZDR mode with end-to-end encrypted chats we can't read, across Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Grok. Each message still goes to the model you pick, which reads it to answer.

Related

Sources

Checked November 11, 2026, unless noted.

Try ZDR mode on your next question.

Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok, and more in one app. Turn on Zero Data Retention only in Settings, then pick a model.

How privacy works in Bearly

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