Try Brave Leo
Overview
Brave Leo is the AI assistant built into the Brave browser, and it is the only entry in this category where privacy is the product rather than a compliance page. You do not create an account to use it. Conversations are not retained to train models by default. Requests are proxied so the model provider does not see your IP address. For anyone who has read the terms of service on the alternatives, that list is the whole pitch.
Functionally, Leo does the things you expect: summarise the page, answer questions about it, rewrite selected text, explain a block of code. It is a competent assistant rather than a spectacular one, and Brave has been deliberately unhurried about adding the agentic task execution that Comet and Chrome market heavily. If your yardstick is autonomous multi-step automation, Leo will disappoint you.
That restraint is defensible. An agent that clicks through pages on your behalf is, by construction, an agent with broad access to your session, and Brave's user base is the one least likely to want that trade. Leo is the assistant for people who want AI help without a new surveillance surface, and it is the best option in that specific bracket.
Key Features
No Account Required
Leo works out of the box with no sign-up, no email and no profile. The only AI browser assistant in this list where that is true.
No Chat Retention by Default
Conversations are not stored to train models. Brave proxies requests so the model provider does not see your IP address.
Page and Video Summarisation
Summarise articles, documents and video transcripts inline, without sending your identity along with the content.
Built on Brave's Shields
Runs inside a browser that blocks trackers and ads by default, so the AI layer is not undermined by the page around it.
Multiple Model Backends
Choose between hosted models, with Premium unlocking stronger frontier models and higher rate limits.
Bring Your Own Local Model
Leo can be pointed at a locally hosted model, so the conversation never leaves your machine at all — a genuinely rare capability.
Pros & Cons
Advantages
- The only serious AI browser assistant that needs no account
- Conversations are not retained for training by default
- Can be pointed at a local model for full data control
- Free tier is genuinely usable, not a teaser
- Sits inside a browser with real tracker and ad blocking
Disadvantages
- No meaningful agentic task execution — deliberately
- Assistant quality trails Comet and Gemini on hard research questions
- Premium at $14.99/month is close to full frontier chatbot pricing
- Smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations
Pricing Plans
| Plan | Price | Key Features |
|---|---|---|
| Leo | Free | Assistant, summarisation and rewriting with rate limits, no account |
| Leo Premium | $14.99 / month | Frontier model access, higher rate limits, priority |
Best Use Cases
Brave Leo Excels At:
- Privacy-conscious users and anyone handling sensitive material
- Journalists, researchers and security practitioners
- Teams that cannot let page content reach a model vendor unproxied
- Users who want to run a local model behind the browser assistant
May Not Be Ideal For:
- Anyone who wants agentic multi-step automation
- Users needing deep Workspace or Microsoft 365 integration
- Heavy research workflows where Comet's citations win
How It Compares
Brave Leo vs Perplexity Comet
Comet is the stronger researcher and has agent mode; Leo asks for nothing about you and retains nothing by default. The comparison is not really about features — it is about whether you are willing to send page content to a vendor to get better answers.
Brave Leo vs Gemini in Chrome
Diametrically opposed designs. Gemini maximises context by connecting everything Google knows about you; Leo minimises it. Both are competent. The choice is a policy decision, not a product comparison.
Final Verdict
Our Recommendation
Brave Leo will not win a feature bake-off and is not trying to. It is the assistant for people whose threat model makes the other options unusable, and in that bracket it has no real competition: no account, no retention by default, proxied requests, and the option to point it at a model running on your own hardware. The absence of agentic automation is a genuine limitation and, given what an agent needs access to, a defensible one. If you work with material that should not reach a vendor's logs, this is your AI browser. If you want the browser to do your shopping, it is not.