Questions and answers

Yes. The web version, the desktop app, the account and GlirOS's own tools are free, with no ads and no tracking. Cloud models you add with your own API key are billed to you by that company.

No. You only need one to link your own PCs and open them from a browser, to share a tool's result as a link, to use the community, and to sell a tool. See Your GlirOS account.

On your own device only: in the browser's storage for the web version, and on your PC for the desktop app. We never receive them. Clearing the site's data in the browser deletes the web version's chats.

The desktop app works offline once its models are downloaded; web search, cloud models and tools that use the internet wait until you are online. The web version needs the internet to load and to download its model the first time; after that the GlirOS Helper answers on your device. See Security: offline, offline chats and incognito.

The GlirOS Helper and bigger models that run on your device, and cloud models (Google Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, or any OpenAI-compatible service) with your own API key. See Cloud models with your own API key.

On What's new: every release, newest first, for the desktop app, the web version and the tools, with a feed you can follow. The desktop app shows the same notes under Settings > About.

Yes. From GlirOS 0.1.0 the bell in the top bar collects what finished, what needs you and what failed: long answers, plans, downloads, media jobs, timers and tools. The desktop app can tell you from the tray icon, and the web version can show a browser notification once you allow it. You choose what and when in Settings > Notifications. See How notifications work.

In the desktop app (0.1.2 or newer), switch on Export chat in Settings > Chat history. Each chat's ⋯ menu then has Export chat, which saves the chat as a file you can send us when something goes wrong. Keys and passwords are left out.

From the provider's own key page: Google Gemini (guide), OpenAI (guide), Anthropic (guide), OpenRouter, Groq or Mistral. You can also ask in any chat ("how do I get an API key for Gemini?"), and GlirOS answers with the same links. Paste the key in Settings > Cloud models, never in a chat. See Getting an API key.

Yes, from GlirOS 0.1.6. Export your data in ChatGPT (Settings > Data controls > Export data), then in GlirOS open Settings > Chat history > Import from ChatGPT and choose the zip. It's read on your device only. See Moving from ChatGPT to GlirOS.

Settings > Backup makes one encrypted file with a password you choose: in the desktop app (0.1.6 or newer) and in the web version (0.1.8 or newer, encrypted in your browser before it's saved). Keep it on another drive, a USB stick or a synced folder, and keep the password safe: GlirOS doesn't keep it. API keys and licence keys are never in a backup. See Keep your chats safe: back up GlirOS.

Under each answer, "How this answer was made" shows its steps, the model, the time and tokens, and what left your device. A chat's ⋯ menu has What left this device: everything the chat sent to a cloud company, a search service, a connector or a tool's sites, with to whom and what kind, never the words. See How GlirOS checks an answer.

Yes, the web version, from GlirOS 0.1.10: it installs as an app on a phone, a tablet or a PC, with its own window and icon, and there is nothing to download from a store. Open it in the browser, then Settings > About > Install as an app; it shows an Install button or says how in your browser. Your chats stay in that browser.

Yes. The model then runs on the processor: it works, only slower, so GlirOS recommends a small model. After the first answer it tells you how long it took to start and how fast it wrote, and a smaller model (Settings > Models) answers faster. While a model downloads you can chat with a cloud model; your messages then go to that company.

Yes, from GlirOS 0.1.12. Add the PDF with the paperclip and ask, for example "translate this into English": it comes back as a PDF with the same pages, pictures and colours, and the text inside pictures and on scanned pages is read on your device. Get it as text instead gives Markdown. Hand lettering and unsure readings are left as they were. With a cloud model GlirOS asks first, since the whole file goes to that company. Translate only what you have the right to translate.

Settings > Models names the graphics the browser gave GlirOS. Graphics built into the processor have no memory of their own, so the model shares the PC's ordinary memory: GlirOS warns, asks before loading, and recommends GlirOS Helper (Lite). On a laptop with two graphics cards, open Windows Settings > System > Display > Graphics, pick your browser, choose High performance and start the browser again. The Helper (GPU) then gets the graphics card.

Yes, with remote access. For now it works without GlirOS Plus; you get notice before that changes. On the phone, open app.gliros.com, sign in and add it to the home screen: in Chrome on Android, Install app (or Add to Home screen) in the menu (install from Chrome: Google Play Protect may block an app installed from another browser, such as Samsung Internet); on an iPhone, Safari's Share button > Add to Home Screen. The GlirOS PC icon then opens your PCs: pick one and use GlirOS as you do on the PC. It is a remote screen: the AI runs on your PC, not on the phone, so the PC must be on and awake, with GlirOS running. Nothing is bought in the app, and there is nothing to get from an app store.

A model writes what is likely to come next, not what has been checked. So it can be wrong and still sound sure, its knowledge ends at a date, and small models get more wrong than big ones. How AI works, and why it makes mistakes explains it with examples and sources. Check facts that matter, and for health, law and money ask a professional before you act on an answer.

Yes, in the desktop app, where MCP servers are called connectors (Settings > Connectors). A connector is either a service on the internet, added with its address and key or with a sign-in on the service’s own page where it asks for one (tried with Notion), or a program on your PC. Its tools can then be used in the projects that list it, or in ordinary chats when you add it to your personal set.

• GlirOS asks before a connector call that changes or sends something, and the activity log says where each call went.
• A small model gets only a few connector tools at a time (the ones your message points to), so it isn't confused; GlirOS says which ones are paused.
• Keys stay in Windows Credential Manager and are never given to the model.
• Connectors aren't used in offline or incognito chats, and they can't be added or changed through remote access.

Connectors aren’t in the web version. See Connectors (MCP) in the guide.

Yes. In the desktop app, a project's menu (the three dots) > Research… takes your question, makes a plan you can change, then reads the web and the project's own documents in the background, checks its draft against the sources and writes a report with numbered sources, kept in the project. See Research.

For a quicker answer:

• Web search: GlirOS searches the web when a question needs fresh facts, and the answer links its sources as [1], [2] (Web search and live information).
• Thorough answer: for health, law, money, immigration or safety, GlirOS looks at official sources first (Thorough answers).

In the desktop app GlirOS tells you when a tool has a newer version, and you choose when to update:

• Settings > Tools marks the tool Update available, with Update to v… on its row and Update all above the list.
• The bell says so once for each new version.
• In a chat, the answer may mention it once when you use the tool.

GlirOS looks at the tool catalogue on tools.gliros.com after start-up and once a day (Look for new tools by itself; nothing from your chats is sent). Nothing updates by itself.

• What stays: your settings, the tool's saved data and a paid tool's licence.
• Built-in tools also get new versions with a GlirOS update; Back to the built-in version undoes a catalogue update.
• Your own tools (the ToolMaker, or added from a file) never change by themselves.
• The web version takes its tools from gliros.com, so they are always the newest.

See Keeping tools up to date.

Without a key GlirOS uses DuckDuckGo, a free results page made for people. After many searches in a row (Research makes many) it can be slow or stop and ask for a check GlirOS can't answer. Your own Brave Search or Tavily key, in Settings > Web search, gives steadier searches. Your search questions then go to Brave or Tavily under your key. Brave asks for a credit card at sign-up and gives some free credit every month. What it changes, costs and sends: Better web search with your own key.

Yes, in the desktop app, marked Advanced: they are tools you set up and run yourself, and GlirOS works fully without them. GlirOS doesn't include, install or run either. It exports a clip's frames for you to run Corridor Key on, and sends searches straight from your PC to your own SearXNG server. What you need and how: Advanced: tools you run yourself.

Windows 11, or Windows 10 version 2004 or later, on a 64-bit Intel or AMD PC (x64); a PC with an ARM processor can use the web version. Beyond that there is no hard minimum: GlirOS fits the model to your PC. 16 GB of memory is recommended, and with less GlirOS picks a smaller model. The models take the disk space: keep about 5 GB free for a small one, and 20 GB or more for larger ones. What your PC and browser need has the whole list, and which model GlirOS suggests for your graphics card. No graphics card? See A PC without a graphics card.

Our advice, not a measurement: the latest stable driver from the graphics maker (NVIDIA, AMD or Intel), installed before the first model download, then a restart. GlirOS uses the graphics card through Vulkan, so an up-to-date driver gives it the best chance of using the card. Don't use a beta, a driver-download site or a tool that scans for drivers; Windows Update's drivers are often older. Settings > Models says Runs fast on your graphics card for a model that fits. Making videos with an NVIDIA card's own encoder needs driver 610 or newer.

A current Chrome or Edge on a computer works best: the web version's models run on the graphics card through WebGPU. Without WebGPU those models can't run, but GlirOS Helper (Lite) runs on the processor in every modern browser, more slowly, and a cloud model works with your own API key. Remote access to your PC needs Chrome 137, Safari 17 or Firefox 129, or newer. What your PC and browser need can check this browser for you, without sending anything. On a phone, see GlirOS on an Android phone.

The seller named with the tool. GlirOS doesn't sell paid tools and doesn't take the payment; the seller does, through their own payment provider (Paddle, Stripe or PayPal), and sends you the receipt. When a payment company sells the tool for its maker as merchant of record, GlirOS says so: "Sold by … through Paddle", and that company takes the payment and sends the receipt. See Paid tools.

On the seller's page: the Manage button next to the tool in GlirOS takes you there. Cancelling is always as easy as subscribing. What you have paid for keeps working until the end of the paid month.

When its maker stops selling it through GlirOS, the tool leaves the catalogue and Buy goes away in GlirOS (from GlirOS 0.1.9). A licence you already have keeps working until it ends, and Manage still takes you to the seller.

Ask the seller. As a consumer in Norway or the EEA you normally have a 14-day right of withdrawal. Sellers that use the GlirOS licence kit give a full refund within 14 days the first time you subscribe to a tool, and a refund for the unused days after that, unless their terms say otherwise.

The seller sends it by e-mail, and it is usually on the seller's page as well. Your payment provider (for example PayPal) may also show the payment in your account there.

The tool's paid part stops until you subscribe. Sellers that use the GlirOS licence kit e-mail you three days before, so it doesn't come as a surprise. Nothing else is affected.

Yes, for up to 7 days after its licence was last refreshed. After that GlirOS asks you to connect to the internet so it can confirm the licence. Your files and chats are never affected.

Enter the same licence key in GlirOS on the new PC. If the licence is already used on as many installs as it allows, free one on the seller's page first.

The seller first; their contact address is shown with the tool. If they don't answer, or you think the tool breaks the rules, contact us and we can remove it from the catalogue.

Nothing of the sales. A seller pays GlirOS a monthly fee for the tool's listing in the catalogue, which depends on the tool's price. Paddle takes that payment as the seller and adds VAT where due. See Selling a tool.

On home.gliros.com > Subscriptions, choose Cancel. The listing runs to the end of the paid month, and nothing more is charged. Payment and receipts, on the same page, changes the card and has Paddle's invoices.

On home.gliros.com open Devices > Link a new device, and enter the code in the desktop app within 10 minutes. See Your GlirOS account.

home.gliros.com > My data: download everything as a file, or delete your account at once. Community posts stay, anonymised as "Deleted user". That covers your account. What is on your PC is deleted there: in the desktop app, Settings > Security > Delete my data; see Uninstalling GlirOS and deleting your data.

Use Forgot the password? on the sign-in page of app.gliros.com. We send a link that works once, for one hour.

Messages about your account, security and purchases always come. Newsletter, Solution updates and Tips and information come only if you said yes, at sign-up or on home.gliros.com > E-mail. Each of those e-mails has links at the bottom to stop it with one click.

They are cancelled at Paddle first, so nothing is charged afterwards. If that can't be done just then, the account isn't deleted, and you can try again in a few minutes.

The community is for members, so posts aren't public on the web. Sign in with your GlirOS account (or create one) to read and post.

Use Report on the post or on the shared link. For anything else, contact us. We look at every report.

Each file is checked once when it is listed, as a GlirOS tool, but community tools are not reviewed by GlirOS. The install link carries the file's fingerprint, so GlirOS refuses a file that changed after it was checked, and a tool is off until you switch it on. See Community tools.

Copy the install link from the tool's page on community.gliros.com, then in GlirOS (0.0.88 or newer) open Settings > Tools > Advanced > Add from a link and paste it. GlirOS shows where the tool comes from and asks before it adds anything.

Because it would protect less than it seems. GlirOS keeps your chats and files in your own Windows user folder (the web version in your browser profile). A password inside the app would only lock its window: anyone signed in to your Windows account could still open the files themselves.

The lock that counts is your Windows sign-in, which protects your whole user folder, and Windows' device encryption (BitLocker) protects the disk if the PC is lost or stolen. If other people use the PC, give each of them their own Windows account.

Inside GlirOS you then choose how much is kept and what may leave:

• incognito chats are never kept: leaving one deletes its messages, files and log;
• offline chats and Block all network traffic keep everything on the device;
• API keys are kept in Windows Credential Manager, never in a file, and never given to the AI model;
• backups are encrypted with a password that GlirOS doesn't keep.

See Security: offline, offline chats and incognito and Keeping keys safe.

Because they are never on our servers, so there is nothing to sync from. Each copy of GlirOS keeps its own chats: the desktop app on its PC, the web version in its browser.

To use the same chats somewhere else:

• reach the PC itself from a phone or another computer with remote access: you use the chats where they are;
• move them with a backup: back up on one device and restore on the other (a web backup restores into the web version, a desktop backup into the desktop app).

Because the AI, your chats and your files are on the PC. The phone or the other browser is only a screen and keyboard for it, through an end-to-end encrypted connection, so the PC must be on and awake, with GlirOS running. The same goes for using your PC's model from the web version (My PC).

Nothing waits on our servers while the PC is off: no copy of your chats, and no queue of messages. See Remote access.

Asking first is how "nothing leaves your device unless you know" works in practice. GlirOS asks:

• before your messages go to a cloud model, and it names the company;
• before a connector changes or sends something (Allow once or Always allow; in Settings > Connectors the same choice is each tool's Allow without asking switch). Something that deletes is asked every time;
• every time a connector would change something after the same message has read a web page, a document or another outside text, because such text can hide instructions meant for the AI;
• before a plan that will send things starts: one card shows what goes where.

Afterwards, "What left this device" in the chat's menu lists what was sent, to whom and when, never your words. See How GlirOS checks an answer.