On Your Mac, On Your PC, In Your Browser: The Best Free Applications To Boost Your Computer With ChatGPT

You love ChatGPT, but instead of just using it in one of your browser tabs, why not use a dedicated app that lets you keep it open just a click away? Since the release of OpenAI’s chatbot late last year, many developers have wondered if they can use the tool in a standalone application. And in just a few months, many applications powered by ChatGPT have emerged.

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If not all are equal, some of them make the chatbot easier to use than opening it in a tab of your web browser. We’ve tried several to keep only the best. In the following lines you will find the best free tools to boost your computer with ChatGPT.

ChatGPT desktop application

Here is probably the easiest application to use ChatGPT in a standalone application on your computer. ChatGPT Desktop Application, as the name suggests, is an application for accessing ChatGPT on a computer. Its main strength is that it is available on Windows, macOS and Linux.

This application is free and open source (its code is available on Github) and just encapsulates the original wep app but integrates new features. Because behind the apparent resemblance to the original web version of ChatGPT, the ChatGPT desktop application hides many advanced features. For example, you can sync the application with the Github Awesome ChatGPT Prompts repository, which contains a collection of sample “prompts”. They allow ChatGPT to be pushed to its limits. You just need to use the / character to see the suggestions on the screen.

The application also integrates buttons under the responses generated by the chatbot so you can export them to Markdown, PNG or PDF document. You can even make ChatGPT speak with one of the synthetic voices that the application uses and that you can configure in the “Control Center”, understand the tool’s configuration window. And if you’re using macOS’s utility, you can quickly open a small ChatGPT window by clicking its icon in your Mac’s menu bar.

Download the ChatGPT desktop applications

MacGPT

If you use a Mac on a daily basis, you will no doubt appreciate querying ChatGPT with the MacGPT application. Jordi Bruin, its developer, offers it for download on his site without a fixed price. You can therefore choose to support his work by paying a contribution to download the tool, but this is not an obligation. The developer’s work is still worth the detour. Because as simple as it is, the application integrates perfectly into macOS.

You can use it within a standalone window, but also, and most importantly, through the macOS menu bar. With a simple click on the MacGPT icon, you can open a conversation window with the chatbot. In order to work, the tool, which can also be used from an independent window, actually displays the encapsulated web version of ChatGPT. Therefore, on first use, you will see a ChatGPT login page similar to what you get when you access the chatbot from your web browser.

Download MacGPT

Merlin

Like the wizard, Merlin’s operation appears to be magical. Because with this extension for Google Chrome, you can use ChatGPT to generate answers for yourself in any situation. However, in order to access Merlin’s services, you need To on the dedicated platform. The service is free to use but has a daily limit. In this way, you can use around thirty inquiries a day without having to loosen your wallet.

Once that detail is sorted out, all you have to do is open the extension in Chrome and log into your Merlin account to have the chatbot generate replies for you. To do this, you must first select the text to which you want to reply. Then, when you right-click to access the context menu, simply select the Give Merlin context option to tell the chatbot the message you want to reply to. Merlin can rely on these elements to contextualize the answer to the question you are about to ask him.

Once the response is generated, the extension lets you copy its content to the clipboard so you can paste it where you need it.

Download Merlin for Google Chrome

ChassistantGPT

Looking for a way to query ChatGPT without typing a keyboard prompt? ChassistantGPT may be of great interest to you. Thanks to this Google Chrome extension, you can actually question the OpenAI chatbot by speaking directly to it aloud. However, ChassistantGPT requires a few prerequisites for this. First, you must already be logged into ChatGPT in Chrome. Next you need to configure the extension. After clicking the latter’s button, a new tab will open on the extension’s configuration page. This tab needs to stay open all the time in the background for the extension to work properly. By default, the magic word to trigger ChassistantGPT is “Hey Girl”.

While it’s theoretically possible to customize this trigger phrase, in practice we couldn’t get another wake phrase into the set. Luckily, it’s possible to talk to him by activating him with the Ctrl + Shift + E keyboard shortcut. Also, ChassistantGPT is configured by default to speak in English using a Google voice. You must therefore select a French voice from the associated drop-down menu. However, we advise you to choose only the French voice of Google. This is undoubtedly the best of all the voices available.

If the idea of ChassistantGPT is pretty good, youth still seems to be playing a trick on it and the extension is not free from bugs that block the generation of full answers.

Download ChassistantGPT

WebChatGPT

Unlike the version that Microsoft integrated with Bing, the original version of ChatGPT cannot access the internet. Unless you install WebChatGPT in your web browser. This extension, available in Chrome and Firefox, has only one purpose: to connect ChatGPT to the web.

To do this, the module adds a toolbar right below the input field of your command prompt. If you don’t like the ChatGPT answer, you can use it to enable access to the web so that the chatbot searches the web for answer items. ChatGPT will then not only rely on your request, to which additional instructions will be added. WebChatGPT therefore first searches the web for information about your request and asks the chatbot to rely on a selection of results in order to generate an “intelligible” response to the original request. In addition, the module ensures that the response received provides the references ChatGPT relied on for the response.

By default, WebChatGPT uses three sources to feed chatbot responses. However, it is possible to refine the settings. You can increase the number of sources to use, filter sources by age, or even restrict web access to a specific country. And it is clear that the result is extremely effective. With this extension, ChatGPT offers results close to those of Microsoft with its conversational mode in Bing.

Download WebChatGPT for Chrome or Firefox

ChatGPT for Google

If you’ve been using ChatGPT for a few months, you may have been looking for a way to use it alongside the queries you usually get from Google. This is exactly what the ChatGPT extension for Google offers. Available for Chrome and Firefox, this free extension is simple but very effective. It allows you to query ChatGPT at the same time when you send a request to Google.

Of course, to use it you need to connect your ChatGPT account when you launch the extension for the first time. Then when you run a query in Google, the extension will also send that query to Chat GPT. The response generated by the chatbot is then automatically displayed on the Google results page in a special block to the right of the window.

Download ChatGPT for Google

ChatGPT Author

Similar to Merlin, ChatGPT Writer proposes to answer your messages or emails for you. With this free extension, currently only available for Google Chrome, you can challenge ChatGPT at any time to generate replies to the messages you receive. The module works with any website but benefits from a perfect integration with Gmail. Again, before you can use the extension, you need to make sure you connect your ChatGPT account in the browser so ChatGPT Writer can use it.

The following is trivial. By clicking the ChatGPT Writer button, you can open the extension window where you can specify the context (e.g. directly copy and paste the message you want to reply to) before writing your prompt. A click on the Generate button will then allow you to ask ChatGPT to generate a response taking into account the contextual elements and the details you have provided. You just need to copy the content of the created message and then paste it into your message before sending it as a reply. And if you’re using it with Gmail, however, a simple click on Insert Generated Response is all it takes to include the response in your reply email.

Download ChatGPT Writer