Kernl vs Jan

Jan is a free, open-source desktop app for chatting with models, either running on your own machine or through your account with ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. You can read every line of its source. Kernl does a different job. It is a desktop app that uses a model to do things on your computer.

Side by side

What Jan and Kernl each do, capability by capability.
	Jan	Kernl
Runs open models on your machine	Yes	Yes
Chat with a model	Yes	Yes
Which models it can use	Local models, or your own cloud key	Local models, or your own cloud key
Source code you can read	Yes	No. The free version has no time limit
Edits your files, runs commands, drives your browser	Through tools you connect	Built in
Asks your approval before a tool runs	Yes, per tool call	Yes, sorted by what the action could do

Which one to reach for

Use Jan when

You want a clean chat app and it matters to you that you can read and change the source.

Use Kernl when

You want an app that acts on your computer: it edits files, runs commands, and asks before anything risky.

Every Jan row above describes what Jan says about itself, read on 6 August 2026 on the Jan desktop docs, its page on adding your own key, its page on connecting extra tools. If something here is out of date, email hello@getkernl.ai and we will correct it.

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