Chrome built-in AI model
Ranked 8 of 11 small language models by recommenders
Runs AI on your own device inside Chrome, so queries stay local and web apps can use it. Critics say its 4 GB footprint was installed without consent.
Runs AI on your own device inside Chrome, so queries stay local and web apps can use it. Critics say its 4 GB footprint was installed without consent.
28 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 39%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Useful for web developers
“It's actually really useful for web devs to have access to a local model.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “I like that this is enabling the web platform to remain competitive.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “that's actually a decent use case for Chrome's new local model”
Comment from 8 May 2026 in “OpenClaw Had a Rough Week” Keeps data on your device
“the whole point of this model is to run inference on your own device rather than sending queries to the cloud”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “an offline version of coding enabled wikipedia that they get literally 0 data analytics from”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “Google Chrome Installed a 4GB AI Model on Your PC” Enables local AI in web apps
“I for one run a small Scripture-study web app that makes use of this on Chrome browsers when available”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “I like that this is enabling the web platform to remain competitive.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Uses about 4 GB of storage
“But the built in AI model in Chrome is 4GB of RAM, 4GB of disk space, and is still only used in a couple places”
Comment from 16 Sep 2026 in “Mistral X Mozilla: Private, Multilingual AI Browsing” “the recent post about Chrome's on-device model using up 4gb of storage, which frustrated a lot of people”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Local AI needs to be the norm” “growing Chrome from roughly 200MB to over 4GB”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Turn off and restrict access to Apple Intelligence features on Mac” - Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Chrome's AI features may be hogging 4GB of your computer storage”
Slow and lower quality output
“The propsosed apis do work for this purpose, albeit more slowly and lower quality”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “on every measure except for privacy it was worse than a free tier server hosted LLM”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “It's not a very good small model to be honest.”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” - Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “Mozilla's Opposition to Chrome's Prompt API”
Installed without user consent
“Google should be asking for consent and web developers should not be assuming that this is the future of browsers”
Comment from 5 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “it really, really needed a permissions dialog and a proper anti-fingerprinting model”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “Google Chrome Installed a 4GB AI Model on Your PC” Privacy claims questioned
“Knowing Google, the local model probably means even more data are sent to Google.”
Comment from 6 May 2026 in “Google Chrome silently installs a 4 GB AI model on your device without consent” “You pay 4GB for the illusion of privacy.”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Chrome's AI features may be hogging 4GB of your computer storage”
Other small language models people recommend
The four most recommended other small language models, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku | 218 | 134 | 62% | 13 | 4 mo4 owners | — |
| OpenAI Luna | 218 | 56 | 80% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Apple Foundation Models | 45 | 35 | 56% | 11 | 1 yr4 owners | — |
| Ministral | 18 | 6 | 75% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Chrome built-in AI modelThis page | 11 | 17 | 39% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
28 of the 29 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“growing Chrome from roughly 200MB to over 4GB”
“But the built in AI model in Chrome is 4GB of RAM, 4GB of disk space, and is still only used in a couple places”
“I hardly know which layer I'm talking to.”
“the latest version only displays icons alphabetically. No re-ordering anymore.”
“It's a cool new feature with lots of potential and almost no downsides”
“it really, really needed a permissions dialog and a proper anti-fingerprinting model”
“an offline version of coding enabled wikipedia that they get literally 0 data analytics from”
“the recent post about Chrome's on-device model using up 4gb of storage, which frustrated a lot of people”
“chrome comes with one built-in these days that is ultra-fast”
“You pay 4GB for the illusion of privacy.”
“that's actually a decent use case for Chrome's new local model”
“AI is a primitive of modern software, just be thankful chrome ships this locally”
“I struggle to see how most people can make a good informed choice”
“Knowing Google, the local model probably means even more data are sent to Google.”
“I for one run a small Scripture-study web app that makes use of this on Chrome browsers when available”
“the whole point of this model is to run inference on your own device rather than sending queries to the cloud”
“The propsosed apis do work for this purpose, albeit more slowly and lower quality”
“Google should be asking for consent and web developers should not be assuming that this is the future of browsers”
“isn't a bet I'd be willing to place much money on”
“It's actually really useful for web devs to have access to a local model.”
“I’ve deleted it many times in the last year.”
“I don't want this Google crap on my computer.”
“on every measure except for privacy it was worse than a free tier server hosted LLM”
“It's not a very good small model to be honest.”
“I like that this is enabling the web platform to remain competitive.”
“Except these weights are barely used.”
“I feel this is great in combination with an agent”
“The model is pretty slow on my M4 Pro mac.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.