# Brave Leo

7 Hacker News commenters recommended Brave Leo and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

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

## Why people recommend it

- Configurable, private AI assistant (2 comments): "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): "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): "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))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Claude](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude.md): 5175 recommend
- [Google Gemini](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gemini.md): 2195 recommend
- [ChatGPT](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chatgpt.md): 2186 recommend
- [Grok](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grok.md): 727 recommend
- [Microsoft Copilot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-copilot.md): 139 recommend

## Where to get it

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

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Brave Leo", https://hackerapproved.com/p/brave-leo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).