A desktop voice companion that still answers with the internet physically cut. Free.
Cut the connection and it still answers what you type — on a local model, spoken back in a local voice, your conversations and memory staying on the machine. Pick a cloud model instead and your prompt goes to that provider, same as any tool here; the difference is you can shut that off and verify it. One exception on Windows: the microphone uses your system’s speech service, so hands-free voice input needs a connection. A normal sign-up to get started, and then it’s yours.
Nothing else in this comparison does all three: a companion that answers out loud, an enforced, verifiable air-gap, and no subscription.
Three things we’ll tell you before you scroll
A comparison page that only flatters itself isn’t worth reading, so here’s where helloim.ai comes second:
We’re source-available, not open source. Read the code on GitHub — it ships under MIT + Commons Clause, a source-available licence, not an OSI-approved one. Jan, GPT4All and AnythingLLM are genuinely more open, and we’d rather point that out than blur it.
We require an account. A normal sign-up, upfront. Zoey OS requires one too — but the open local tools below don’t, and if that’s your line, they’re the right call.
We’re Windows-only today. Everyone here except Zoey also ships macOS and Linux.
If none of that is a dealbreaker, the rest of this page is why people choose us anyway.
How helloim.ai compares
There’s one axis that matters here: a desktop AI you actually talk to, that can keep your data on your own machine. We put ourselves next to the product people name against us — Zoey OS — and the four local-first apps the same buyer cross-shops. Every cell below is either sourced or marked Unverified. An empty cell is a real answer; a wrong claim about someone else’s product isn’t.
The others go offline when you choose a local model. helloim.ai enforces it — a network block you can verify, not a setting you have to trust. The one row nobody else in the set can tick.
Zoey shares this shape; the local-first tools are chat windows and model runners, not something you speak to and it speaks back.
The app is free — the whole thing runs at $0 on your own hardware. Zoey OS has a limited free Explorer tier, but the plans that do the real work run a reported $90–$170/mo, and even bring-your-own-inference is $109/mo. Those figures are what third-party sources reported in September 2026 — Zoey’s pricing page is geo-restricted from us, so we won’t state a price as fact we couldn’t reach.
On the default path, whichever cloud model you pick receives your prompt — same as everyone here. Switch on air-gapped mode and cloud model calls and connectors are refused; a local model answers and speaks back on your machine. The one exception is the microphone — on Windows it uses your system’s speech service, so when you’re fully cut, you type.
Point it at Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter or a local Ollama model, and switch in one click. Zoey’s bring-your-own-inference tier still runs through their platform at a reported $109/mo.
Public to read on GitHub under MIT + Commons Clause — source-available, not OSI open source. Three of the tools here are more open than we are.
A normal sign-up — just a login to get you into the app. It never touches your conversations, memory or persona; those stay on your machine. If a no-account tool matters more to you, the open local apps are the right pick.
Windows today. macOS and Linux aren’t here yet.
No cell above carries a measured resource number — none of these products is independently benchmarked here, so footprint is stated as design philosophy, never as a figure.
This might not be for you.
Want fully open-source, no-account, cross-platform local AI tooling? Jan and AnythingLLM are excellent, and we’d send you straight to them. helloim.ai is for people who want a voice companion that keeps answering with the internet physically cut, for free — and don’t mind a normal sign-up to get it. If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
The whole pitch is one thing you can test yourself: cut the connection, and it still answers.
Free app. A quick sign-up, then it runs on your machine — connected, or with the internet cut.
How we sourced this — as of 23 September 2026
helloim.ai’s column is verified against our own code and pricing docs. Competitor cells are drawn from each product’s own site and documentation; we link the source for every claim. Zoey OS pricing is geo-restricted from our location, so those figures (marked †) are what third-party sources reported in September 2026, not prices we confirmed directly. Any cell we could not confirm from a primary source is marked Unverified rather than guessed. Prices and features change — if you spot something out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.
- Zoey OS — zoeyos.com
- Jan — jan.ai
- GPT4All — nomic.ai/gpt4all
- LM Studio — lmstudio.ai
- AnythingLLM — anythingllm.com