You have a laptop on a train with no signal and want to draft an email with a language model. Jan is built for that case: it runs models such as Mistral or Llama2 locally on your Windows PC, with no connection needed. Version 0.8.8 was released on October 28, 2026.
Free, open source, and no price tag
Jan is free. It is released under the AGPL-3.0 licence.
The developer is Jan, with a site at jan.ai. Remote services such as OpenAI's GPT-4 or Groq are separate products with their own pricing.
Local models first, remote APIs as an option
The main idea is to turn your computer into an AI machine. You can run models like Mistral or Llama2 offline, or link Jan to remote APIs when you prefer a hosted model.
It is tagged for large language models, llama and mistral. The installer is 545.2 MB.
Version 0.8.8 is a security release
The update follows v0.8.7 and includes llama.cpp 0.7.0. It adds Trusted Hosts for the local API server, so a web page can call it only if its origin is trusted. SDKs, scripts and curl keep working as before.
Links in chat now open in your system browser, and file paths are checked before Jan reads or writes them. The developers recommend updating, and your data and settings carry over.
What's new in 0.8.8
Jan v0.8.8 is a security update with llama.cpp 0.7.0 and Trusted Hosts for the local API. Links in chat now always open in your system browser.
Jan pros and cons
Pros
- Free, with an AGPL-3.0 licence
- Runs Mistral or Llama2 locally and offline
- Can connect to remote APIs like GPT-4 or Groq
- Local API server checks browser origins, with a Trusted Hosts list
- Server-side tool execution stays opt-in
Cons
- Large download at 545.2 MB
- Remote API costs are separate
- Hosted models such as GPT-4 and Groq are separate paid services
Is Jan safe?
Jan is published by Jan under the AGPL-3.0 licence, and the Windows installer is served from the project's official github.com release source. Version 0.8.8 is a security update: links in chat now open in your system browser, the local API server only accepts browser requests from trusted origins, and file paths are checked before Jan reads or writes them. If you expose the local API to a web page, review the Trusted Hosts setting and keep the app updated.
How to install Jan
- Press the download button to get the official file.
- Run the installer you saved and confirm the Windows security prompt if the publisher matches.
- Follow the setup steps, then start Jan from the Start menu.
