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Paywall Dodgers

AI chat

A chat window and a local model runner in place of ChatGPT Pro.

Badge key
  • Fully free / open source. A standard open-source license.
  • Free tier. The product has a free plan.
  • Free app, paid API. The app is free to install. Making something still costs money.
  • Unofficial: use at your own risk. Someone else built this. It can break. Back up your files.
  • Early. Not a finished replacement.
  • Not yet tested by us. Listed from the project page. Not a hands-on test.
  • Tested by us. We ran it on our own machine. The card has the result.

Local chat

Open WebUI is the chat window. Ollama is one way to run the model on your machine.

What it costs

Free alternatives that best fit

Chat window: Open WebUILocal model: Ollama

Open WebUI

  • Not yet tested by us

Open WebUI is a chat window you host yourself, the closest free stand-in for the ChatGPT screen. You still need a model, and a large local model wants a decent graphics card. The license keeps the Open WebUI name and logo, with a narrow exception for deployments of 50 or fewer people in any 30 days.

Replaces
ChatGPT Pro
Price
Free
License
Custom licenseKeeps the Open WebUI name and logo, except for deployments of 50 or fewer people in a rolling 30 days, or with written permission.
Hardware
A computer you host, plus a model
Maintained
Updated October 16, 2026.

Repository

Ollama

  • Fully free / open source
  • Not yet tested by us

Ollama runs the model behind a chat window such as Open WebUI, for people who want the model on their own machine. A laptop can run a small model. ChatGPT's hosted tools stay on ChatGPT, and each model has its own license.

Replaces
ChatGPT Pro
Price
Free
License
MIT
Hardware
A laptop for a small model, or a graphics card for a large one
Maintained
Updated October 16, 2026.

Limits

  • Ollama itself is MIT. Each model you download has its own license.

Repository