The best ChatGPT alternatives were previously inaccessible to those who can't code. But recently, at Side School, we discovered Jan.ai.

Jan is an app with a simple interface, like ChatGPT, and is available for free on Mac, Windows, and Linux.

Like ChatGPT, Jan.ai is a "shell" that communicates with LLMs (Large Language Models). The power of Jan lies in the LLM it's connected to. And that's where Llama comes in.

Llama 3, the new LLM released in April 2024 by Meta, breaks all records, surpassing even paid models like GPT-4. Just like ChatGPT, this new model is open-source, meaning its code is accessible to everyone for free.

At its launch, developers were thrilled, but those who couldn't code found themselves once again unable to benefit from a better model than GPT-3.5 for free.

This is when Groq offers an API version of Llama 3 and, using its own advanced computer architecture, provides nearly instant responses. You can try Groq yourself for free to get an idea.

By connecting Groq to Jan.ai, we have access to an excellent alternative to ChatGPT. Groq offers 100 free chats per day.

No more good reasons to use ChatGPT-3.5: the trio Jan + Llama 3 + Groq dominates. Here's how to get started.

Tutorial

1. Download Jan.

2. Sign up on Groq.

3. Create an API key on Groq. You can name it "Jan".

4. Copy-paste this API key into Jan in the "Groq Inference Engine" settings > API Key

5. Select the Llama 3 70B model once in a chat (on the tab to the right).

6. You are ready!

Another great advantage of Jan: the ability to download all open-source models to keep your chats private and offline. The only real downside to downloading models is they take up 20+ GB of space and can be slow on low-performance computers.

If you're looking for an alternative to Jan.ai, there's also Msty. Msty offers a library of prompts within the interface that's quite handy. Msty is also available for free on Mac, Windows, and Linux.