Sustainable Substitutes for Big Tech AI Chatbots

Alternatives to ChatGPT and others, highlighting open-source and ethical models that respect privacy.

Le Chat

An AI chatbot developed by Mistral AI, focusing on transparency and ethical AI development.

Le Chat publishes its core language models as open source. For example, Mistral Small 4 and Mistral Large 3 are released under open-source licenses, allowing for fine-tuning and deployment by the community.
Le Chat is developed by Mistral AI, a French company, ensuring compliance with GDPR and European privacy laws. Mistral has been criticised for not allowing easy opt-out possibilities to free tier users. It also uses US Tech for its infrastructure.
Mistral AI emphasises ethical AI development, with transparent policies and user-controlled data settings.
Le Chat offers hybrid deployment options, including on-premises and private cloud, giving users full control over their data.
No registration is required to use Le Chat. You can start a conversation directly on the web interface without an account.
Le Chat has a free tier. The main difference to the paid tiers are the usage limits on Flash Answers.
Website

Lumo

A privacy-friendly chatbot by Proton with zero access encryption.

No registration is required to use Lumo. You can start chatting immediately without logging in or creating an account.
Lumo is based in Switzerland and complies with GDPR, providing strong privacy protections.
Proton Lumo’s code is fully open source, allowing anyone to verify its privacy and security claims. However, the AI models used by Lumo are not explicitly stated as open source in the available information.
Lumo offers a free tier with basic features, and a Plus plan for advanced functionality.
Lumo does not log user conversations or share data with third parties, ensuring a private and secure AI experience.
Website

Duck.ai

An AI chatbot by DuckDuckGo, anonymising prompts to popular chatbot providers.

All interactions are anonymised, and chats are stored locally on the user’s device, not on DuckDuckGo’s servers. Users can delete chats instantly using the "Fire Button."
Duck.ai can be used anonymously with no log in required.
Duck.ai is free of charge. Subscription plans offer access to more advanced AI models.
Website

How to move away from Big Tech AI Chatbots

Here's a guide on how to easily get away from ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini and Grok.

If you want to preserve your chat history before deleting your account at ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini or Grok, export your existing chat history and import it into the new service. Most platforms allow users to export their chat history as a JSON, CSV or text file. This can typically be done through the platform’s settings or account management section, where you will find an option to download your data.

Check if the new service supports direct import of chat history. If it does, follow the platform’s instructions to upload your exported file. For the options currently listed above, you need to manually input key conversations or use third-party tools to convert and import your data. Le Chat allows file upload, which makes an import easy enough. Apart from that, you can ask the chosen chatbot for instructions.