The honest difference
ChatGPT is subscription, single-vendor, cloud. oll.am is the opposite by design: pay once for the app, no subscription, and any AI model — you pick where it runs. Both are legitimate; here’s the contrast so you can pick what fits.
| ChatGPT | oll.am | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Subscription (~$20/mo Plus) | Pay once for the app — no subscription |
| Models | OpenAI models only | Any model — Groq (default) & Claude in the cloud, or an open-weight model self-hosted |
| Where it runs | OpenAI cloud | Vendor cloud (Groq, default) · our own hosted box · your own device (roadmap) |
| Data | Per OpenAI policy/settings | Cloud = sent to the model vendor · self-hosted/on-device = not sent to a third-party model |
| Cost of a model call | Bundled in the subscription | Cloud is metered (credit-covered); self-hosted has no per-call bill |
| Origin | — | Independent, built in public |
Built in public from Zürich · we show our real numbers on the build log. Comparison reflects each product’s public model as of 2026-06; check ChatGPT’s site for current pricing. oll.am’s writing tool (humaniz.me) is an honest writing-improvement tool, never a detector-bypass.