Comparison
Spot vs Anthropic and OpenAI.
Spot does not run on Anthropic or OpenAI. Spot runs open source AI locally on a device you own — with on-device speech and vision alongside it.
Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (ChatGPT) are excellent cloud assistants — but they're a different shape of product. This page explains the difference.
Token-cost calculator
Pay once, or pay every prompt — forever.
Frontier-model pricing is climbing, not dropping. Anthropic's flagship rose from $15 / $75 to $25 / $125 per million input / output tokens between 2024 and 2026 — and the next model up will cost more, not less. Spot is a single, one-time purchase that runs your AI on your network. Move the slider to see how it adds up over five years.
Cloud model
| Cloud spendcumulative, metered per-token | $18,040 |
| Less: Spot deviceone-time hardware purchase | ($4,500) |
| Net 5-year savings | $13,540 |
| Breakeven | Month 21 · ~1.8 yrs |
Pricing pulled from current published list rates per million input / output tokens. Token mix assumed 70% input / 30% output. Cloud spend compounds at 1.5% / month to model the churn of teams moving to newer top-end models over a multi-year horizon.
Different philosophies
Three takes on what an AI assistant should be.
BrainFrame · Spot
"You should own your AI - completely."
- Runs open source AI on a device you own.
- Speech, vision, and search all happen on the device.
- Cloud is transport, not the brain.
- Predictable pricing per device + subscription.
- Designed for shared homes and small offices.
Anthropic (Claude)
"AGI will replace your job - and we will build it."
- Extremely difficult tasks can be solved with long-context reasoning.
- Focused on building models that can code
- Per-token API pricing and consumer subscription tiers.
- Seeks regulatory control from Governments to maintain 'safety'
- AGI - a superintelligence that will replace most jobs and industries
OpenAI (ChatGPT)
"Whatever it takes to become profitable."
- ChatGPT consumer + Enterprise + a developer API.
- Multimodal stack — voice, image, code.
- An Inference engine that charges users for tokens
- Per-token API pricing and subscription tiers.
- Focused on centralized control of AI systems
Feature matrix
Side-by-side comparison.
A high-level overview of where each product sits today. Coverage and policies in cloud assistants change quickly — treat this as a point-in-time snapshot.
| Capability | Spot | Anthropic | OpenAI |
|---|---|---|---|
Runs on hardware you own Inference happens on a device on your network, not in a vendor data center. | YesAll Spot tiers ship with on-device LLM, STT, TTS, and vision. | No | No |
Works offline Core chat, voice, and automations continue to work when the internet is down. | Yes | No | No |
Sees your local files & calendars Direct, permissioned access to documents, photos, and calendar without uploading them. | Yes | PartialLimited to uploaded artifacts and Projects. | PartialVia cloud connectors and uploads. |
Controls IoT / smart home Direct integration with smart-home hubs, cameras, locks, and the rest of your home. | Yes | No | No |
Predictable pricing Pay once for the device and subscription; no per-token billing for primary use. | Yes | PartialSubscription tiers + API metered usage. | PartialSubscription tiers + API metered usage. |
Multimodal — vision Sees images and live cameras and can describe or react to them. | YesLocal vision + on-device cameras. | Yes | Yes |
Multimodal — voice Wake-word + push-to-talk with low-latency speech in/out. | YesWake word, voice activity detection, and TTS — all local. | PartialVoice mode in iOS/Android apps. | YesAdvanced Voice Mode (cloud). |
Tool use / agentic actions Goal-directed agent that can call tools to act, not just answer. | YesBuilt-in tools, automations, and alerts. | Yes | Yes |
Custom skills Add your own tools, scripts, or integrations. | Yes | PartialSkills (where available). | PartialCustom GPTs and Actions. |
Audit trail of what the agent did A timeline of actions and tool calls visible to the device owner. | Yes | Partial | Partial |
Family / multi-user support Shared device with separate identities and permissions. | YesDesigned for shared homes / small offices from day one. | No | No |
Data leaves your network for inference Whether prompts, files, and tool outputs traverse the public internet. | NoLocal by default. | Yes | Yes |
When to use which
Honest guidance — pick the right tool.
When to use Spot
The default for everyday work.
- One assistant for files, calendars, voice, smart home, and automations.
- Data stays on your network by default.
- Predictable per-device pricing — no per-token billing.
- Learns your preferences over time, on the device.
When to use Claude / OpenAI
The exceptions, not the everyday.
- Enterprise-grade, customer-facing systems.
- Large-scale video editing / generation.
For those rare tasks, see the roadmap — an optional, opt-in bridge is on the way so Spot can hand off the hardest jobs while keeping everyday work local.
Where the data lives
A picture of the difference.
Next
Keep going.
See what Spot can do
Read the full feature list.
Get the apps
Visit Downloads for iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux.