Review · Business & work
Brave Leo review
The privacy-first AI assistant built into the Brave browser that chats with any tab, reads PDFs and Google Docs, and supports your own models.
By the DBotMaker research desk · Updated November 9, 2026
- Capabilities (40%)
- 7.6
- Ease of setup (30%)
- 9.2
- Value (30%)
- 8.9
Brave Leo is the privacy pick. It lives in the Brave browser on macOS, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS, and the free version needs no account at all. Leo can summarize any tab, translate, analyze PDFs, Google Docs and Sheets, organize tabs by topic and ground answers in Brave Search. Bring Your Own Model lets you point it at a local or remote model of your choice. Brave states that Leo does not retain or share chats or use them for training, and that Premium accounts are unlinkable to Leo usage. Leo AI premium costs $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year with a 7-day trial and adds higher limits and more models. The reason it sits mid-table is the angle of this list: Brave's Leo page describes reading and answering, not an agent that clicks through sites or fills forms. If you mainly want page-aware answers with strong privacy, it is hard to beat for free.
Who it is for
Privacy-minded users who want page summaries and answers without an account, and who do not need the AI to click for them.
Price
Free to use; Leo AI premium $14.99 per month or $149.99 per year, 7-day free trial.
Leo AI premium $14.99 /month
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 9, 2026.
Key features
- Chat with any tab to summarize, translate or analyze text
- Analyzes PDFs, Google Docs and Google Sheets
- Bring Your Own Model for local or remote models
- Brave Search grounding for up-to-date answers
- Tab organization, temporary chats and local chat history
Strengths and weaknesses
- Strength: No account needed for the free version
- Strength: Brave says chats are not retained or used for training
- Strength: Available on desktop including Linux and on Android and iOS
- Weakness: Brave's Leo page documents no agent that clicks or fills forms
- Weakness: Free use may be limited at busy times
- Weakness: Premium costs more than Dia's or Sigma's entry plans
Key facts
- Free plan: Yes, no account required
- Premium: $14.99 a month or $149.99 a year
- Trial: 7 days on Premium
- Models: Models from Mixtral, Anthropic's Claude and Meta's Llama, plus BYOM
- Platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux, Android, iOS
Where it ranks
Brave Leo is No. 6 in our Best AI Browsers verdict.
Alternatives we scored
Visit brave.com · Questions or corrections: editorial@dbotmaker.io