# Brave Leo

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-leo/

5 people recommended Brave Leo in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 12 months, in 5 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free AI assistant built into Brave, praised for privacy, local endpoint support and research use. Critics say it runs a weak, cheap model.

Summary written by Claude from 8 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Configurable, private AI assistant (2 comments in the sample): "Brave's "Leo" AI is configurable enough to specify local endpoints for processing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48052637)) "free and private AI assistant Leo" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49318738))
- Useful for historical research (2 comments in the sample): "geared specifically for historical research and led by historians" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46168747)) "I use Leo way more than I thought I would for this exact reason." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45946673))

## What people warn about

- Weak, low-quality underlying model (2 comments in the sample): "Leo is not even the LLM, its just a browser extension typically running a very weak/cheap model" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49264550)) "last i checked Brave's Leo was slop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49872041))

## Other AI assistants people recommend

- [Claude](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude/): 2879 recommend, 1155 mixed, 4039 criticize
- [Google Gemini](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gemini/): 1324 recommend, 483 mixed, 1879 criticize
- [ChatGPT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chatgpt/): 1283 recommend, 506 mixed, 2464 criticize
- [Grok](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grok/): 449 recommend, 176 mixed, 1100 criticize

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://brave.com/leo/)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Brave Leo", https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-leo/ (5 recommend, 2 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.