The Best Uncensored AI Chatbots in 2026: 7 Picks for Frank Answers, Privacy and Local Use

Updated November 3, 2026. Prices and policies checked on that date.

Ask ChatGPT or Claude about drug interactions, a dark plot twist, how a piece of malware works, or a blunt opinion on a touchy subject, and you'll often get a hedge, a lecture or a polite no. That's why people go looking for an uncensored AI chatbot: an assistant that treats you like an adult and answers the question you asked.

The catch is that "uncensored" is a marketing word. Some apps run models with refusals actually removed, some are mainstream models with a looser default, and some are mostly a privacy promise. The most private option, running a model on your own computer, takes real hardware.

We checked each option below against its own pricing page, terms and docs, plus recent reporting. One disclosure up front: Cleus is our product, and it's first on this list, so weigh that. Every other entry is judged on the same published facts.

This guide is about general-purpose assistants for questions, research, writing, fiction and code. If you want character roleplay and AI companions, read our best Character.AI alternatives guide instead.

Best uncensored AI: the short version

• Want a frank assistant with no setup? Cleus runs Smartest v3, an abliterated version of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, with web search, memory and a code runner. Free daily credits; Premium is $9.95 a month.
• Want privacy-first hosted chat? Venice AI keeps your chat history in your browser, not on its servers. Free is 10 text prompts a day; Pro is $18 a month.
• Want total privacy and no monthly bill? Run an open model locally with Ollama or LM Studio. Both are free, but small models that fit a laptop are noticeably weaker.
• Want a mainstream app that's looser than ChatGPT? Grok answers more directly on sensitive topics, but it isn't uncensored, and its image rules tightened in January 2026.
• Just want anonymity, not fewer refusals? Duck.ai strips your IP and doesn't store chats by default, but its models keep their normal filters.

Uncensored AI chatbots compared

1. Cleus: best uncensored ChatGPT alternative with no setup

Disclosure: this is us.

Cleus is an AI app with chat, images, video and voice. For general questions, its main model is Cleus Smartest v3, an abliterated version of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash. "Abliterated" means the model's refusal behaviour was removed by editing its weights, rather than by tricking it with prompts. Our explainer on what an abliterated model is covers how that works and what it costs in quality. Smartest v3 also reads images, and Cleus Fast v3 is there when you want quicker replies.

• What you get: a web search agent that answers with live sources, memory of facts you save, and a code runner for scripts and data. There's also Story Studio for long fiction, Imagine for images and video, and voice calls.
• Price: free plan with daily free credits, no card required. Premium is $9.95 a month (₹999 in India), cancel anytime. Images, video and voice use credits, from $10 pay as you go.
• What's allowed: frank answers on sensitive and adult topics without lectures. Like every hosted service, it still blocks illegal content.
• Privacy: chats are stored on our servers by default. Premium members can turn on end-to-end encrypted, zero-access chats.
• Catches: abliteration can cost a model some quality, especially on math. Smartest v3 is a strong mid-size model, not the biggest frontier model, so very hard reasoning tasks can still trip it up.

2. Venice AI: best for private hosted chat

Venice is one of the best-known services that sell themselves as private and uncensored. It runs a mix of open models, including its own Venice Uncensored 1.2, plus models it labels uncensored or abliterated.

• Price: Free gets 10 text prompts and 15 image prompts a day on base models. Pro is $18 a month with unlimited text and 1,000 images a day. Pro Plus ($68) and Max ($200) add credits for video, music and premium models.
• Privacy: Venice says your conversation history stays on your device and is never stored on its servers. Requests pass through its proxy. "Private" models run on Venice-controlled GPUs or zero-retention partners, and some run end-to-end encrypted inside secure hardware enclaves.
• What's allowed: its terms (updated June 8, 2026) ban illegal use, child exploitation, and using anyone's name, voice or likeness without consent. Under-18s must not switch off the mature content filter. The minimum age is 13.
• Catches: the free tier is tiny. Some models in its list, such as Claude, GPT and Gemini, are "anonymized" rather than private: Venice hides your identity, but says you should assume the provider stores your content. Those models also keep their own refusals. And because history lives in your browser, you lose it on a new device unless you use Pro's encrypted backup.

3. Ollama and LM Studio: best uncensored AI that runs locally

If you don't want anyone else to see your chats, run the model yourself. Two free apps make this easy:

• Ollama is open source and works from the command line or with a chat front end. Its FAQ says: "We don't see your prompts or data when you run locally." It now also offers cloud models, which you can switch off with the OLLAMA_NO_CLOUD=1 setting.
• LM Studio is a desktop app with a chat window and a model browser. It has been free for home and work use since July 8, 2025. On a Mac it needs Apple Silicon and macOS 14 or later. It recommends 16 GB or more of RAM, plus at least 4 GB of graphics memory on Windows.

Which models? Popular picks include Dolphin 3.0 (built on Llama 3.1 8B, a 4.9 GB download, which says "you decide the alignment") and Nous Research's Hermes family. Hermes 3 runs from an 8B model (4.7 GB) up to 405B (229 GB), and Hermes 4, released as open weights in August 2025, comes in 70B and 405B. There are also community "abliterated" versions of newer open models.

• Price: free. You pay in hardware and electricity.
• What's allowed: whatever the model will do. No company sits between you and it.
• Catches: a model that fits a laptop is far weaker than a hosted frontier-size model. Running something like the full DeepSeek V4.1 Flash takes hundreds of gigabytes of GPU memory; our guide to using DeepSeek V4.1 Flash without restrictions runs the numbers. You also get no web search unless you add it. And uncensored weights are shared on hubs with little oversight, so stick to well-known uploaders.

4. Grok: looser than ChatGPT, but not uncensored

Grok, from Elon Musk's xAI, has a reputation for saying what other chatbots won't. A September 2026 comparison by Tech Insider found it the most willing of Grok, ChatGPT and Claude to answer directly on legal but sensitive topics. It also pulls in live posts from X.

• Price: there's a free tier with limits. Reports say xAI moved new customers to a new plan structure called The X Subscription in mid-October 2026. We couldn't confirm current prices from an xAI page, so we don't list one.
• What's allowed: hard blocks remain. "Spicy Mode" is a setting in Grok Imagine, its image and video tool, not a text mode. It needs a paid plan and an age check. Minors, non-consent and sexualised images of real people stay blocked.
• Recent changes: after a deepfake backlash, xAI limited Grok image generation on X to paid users on January 9, 2026. On January 15, X said Grok would no longer put real people in revealing clothing where that's illegal, and it geoblocked the feature in those places. Indonesia and Malaysia temporarily banned Grok that month.
• Catches: your chats live on xAI's servers and are tied to your account. And "less filtered than ChatGPT" is a much lower bar than uncensored.

5. FreedomGPT: best for many models on one balance

FreedomGPT is a web app, with iPhone and Android apps, that gives you a long list of models on one credit balance, including what it calls "uncensored AI options" for writing, roleplay and research.

• Price: free with no account needed, and 100 bonus credits when you sign up. Pro is $20 a month with 2,200 credits for premium models and creative tools. Extra credits are sold one time.
• What's allowed: its own page says model and service rules still apply, even on the uncensored options.
• Privacy: refreshingly honest. Its FAQ says prompts are processed by the service and the relevant model providers. It warns you not to assume anonymity or zero retention. Local use is a separate setup.
• Catches: credits run out quickly on premium models, and it makes no strong privacy promises.

6. HuggingChat: best for trying lots of open models

HuggingChat is Hugging Face's free chat app. Its Omni router picks a model for each message, or you can choose from its list of 137 open models yourself.

• Price: free users spend a small monthly inference credit. Hugging Face PRO costs $9 a month and includes $2 of inference credits a month. That's a shared pool, not a $9 chat balance.
• What's allowed: it depends entirely on the model you pick. Most are standard instruction-tuned models that keep their normal refusals.
• Catches: it's a good place to test open models before running one locally, but it isn't uncensored by design. Requests go to third-party inference providers, which you can limit in settings.

7. Duck.ai: best for anonymous chat (not for fewer refusals)

DuckDuckGo's Duck.ai is on this list for privacy, not freedom. Its free models include Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Mistral Small 4, gpt-oss-120b and Gemma 4 31B. They all keep their usual safety training.

• Price: free with daily limits. In March 2026, DuckDuckGo listed Plus at $9.99 a month and Pro at $19.99, both bundled with its VPN and privacy tools, plus stronger models.
• Privacy: no account needed. DuckDuckGo removes your IP address before prompts reach the model provider, and doesn't store chats by default. Providers agree to delete prompts right after replying and not to train on them. The exceptions: Anthropic may retain chats when required by law or to fight abuse, and some providers cache prompts in memory for up to an hour.
• Catches: expect the same refusals you'd get from the original models.

What about ChatGPT, Claude and Mistral Le Chat?

None of the big assistants are uncensored. OpenAI announced an adult mode for verified adults in December 2025, then delayed it in March 2026 with no new date. We found no launch as of November 3. Claude has no adult mode and is generally the most cautious of the big three.

Mistral's Le Chat is a cheaper mainstream option, with Pro at $14.99 a month. But its usage policy, effective June 11, 2026, bans content that glorifies violence or gives self-harm instructions, among other things. It's a solid assistant, not an unfiltered one.

Jailbreak prompts aren't a real fix either. They break with each model update, and apps filter answers after the fact. Our piece on why DeepSeek jailbreak prompts stop working explains why.

What "uncensored AI" means, and what it doesn't

"AI with no filter" sounds absolute. In practice it means something narrower:

• It means fewer refusals and no lectures. An uncensored model answers frank questions about health, drugs, sex, security, crime fiction and politics. It doesn't tack on warnings or tell you to "consult a professional" every time.
• It doesn't mean illegal content. Every hosted service on this list bans child sexual abuse material and other illegal use, whatever the model would do on its own. Rules on real people's likeness are tightening fast, as Grok's January changes show.
• Hosted vs local is the real dividing line. With a hosted app, a company runs the model and sets the rules. Locally, there's no company in the loop, but also no web search, no memory and far less raw capability unless you have serious hardware.
• Uncensored is not the same as private. Ask who can read your chats. Some services store them on their servers. Venice keeps history in your browser. Duck.ai doesn't store chats by default. Cleus Premium offers zero-access encryption. Local models never send anything.
• Leaks and retention happen. In January 2025, Wiz found an open DeepSeek database with over a million log lines, including chat history and API keys. And a court order in the New York Times lawsuit forced OpenAI to preserve ChatGPT output data. Whatever you use, don't paste in passwords, ID numbers or anything you couldn't stand to see leaked.

How to choose an uncensored AI chatbot

Start with what you're actually trying to do:

1. You want strong answers today, with sources. Use a hosted app with an uncensored model and a search agent, such as Cleus or Venice. Try the free tier on the questions that get refused elsewhere.
2. Privacy matters more than power. Run a local model with Ollama or LM Studio, and use it offline.
3. You mostly want to stay anonymous. Duck.ai is free and doesn't need an account, but expect normal refusals.
4. You want to experiment. Try open models on HuggingChat first, then download the one you like.
5. You write fiction or roleplay with characters. That's a different set of apps; see our Character.AI alternatives guide.

Uncensored AI chatbot FAQ

What is the best uncensored AI chatbot in 2026?

It depends on what you need. For a hosted assistant with refusals removed, web search and memory, Cleus (our app) and Venice AI are the main picks. For total privacy, run Dolphin or Hermes locally with Ollama or LM Studio. Grok is looser than ChatGPT but not uncensored, and Duck.ai is private but filtered.

Is there a free uncensored AI?

Yes. Ollama and LM Studio are free, and the models they run are free to download, so local AI costs nothing beyond your hardware. Among hosted apps, Cleus gives daily free credits with no card, and Venice's free plan allows 10 text prompts a day. FreedomGPT has a free tier with bonus credits, and HuggingChat gives a small monthly credit.

Is there an uncensored ChatGPT alternative?

There's no uncensored ChatGPT, and OpenAI's adult mode was delayed in March 2026 with no new date. The closest alternatives are apps that run open models with refusals removed, such as Cleus Smartest v3 (an abliterated DeepSeek V4.1 Flash) and Venice's uncensored models. You can also run an open model locally.

Can I run an uncensored AI locally?

Yes. Install Ollama or LM Studio, then download a model such as Dolphin 3.0 (a 4.9 GB download) or Hermes 3 8B (4.7 GB). LM Studio recommends 16 GB of RAM, and Macs need Apple Silicon. Small local models are much weaker than hosted ones, but nothing you type leaves your computer.

Is it legal to use an uncensored AI chatbot?

Using one is generally legal; what you do with it is what matters. Every hosted service on this list still bans illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and non-consensual images of real people. Some countries restrict adult content or AI image tools more tightly, which is why Grok geoblocks certain features. Check your local laws.

Do uncensored AI chatbots keep my chats?

Some do. Hosted apps usually store chats on their servers unless they say otherwise. Venice keeps history in your browser, Duck.ai doesn't store chats by default, and Cleus Premium offers end-to-end encrypted, zero-access chats. Local models with Ollama or LM Studio keep everything on your machine. Read the privacy page before sharing anything sensitive.

Does Grok have an uncensored mode?

Not for text. Grok's text answers are looser than ChatGPT's on sensitive topics, but hard limits remain. Its "Spicy Mode" is an image and video setting in Grok Imagine. It needs a paid plan and an age check, and it still blocks minors, non-consent and sexualised images of real people.

What is an abliterated model?

It's an open-weight model whose refusal behaviour was removed by editing its weights, based on research showing refusal is mostly one internal direction. It keeps its knowledge but can lose some quality, especially in math. Cleus Smartest v3 is an abliterated version of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash.

Cleus is an uncensored AI for chat, research, stories, images and video. Ask it any of these questions and it will answer from the latest sources.

Sources

• Cleus: Smartest v3 in chat, Story Studio, Imagine
• Venice AI: pricing, privacy, terms of service, text models
• Ollama: FAQ, Dolphin 3.0, Hermes 3, GitHub
• LM Studio: system requirements, free for use at work
• Nous Research: Hermes 4 announcement, Hermes 4 technical report
• Grok vs ChatGPT vs Claude content filters 2026 (Tech Insider, September 2, 2026)
• After backlash, X restricts Grok from generating sexualized images of real people (SiliconANGLE, January 15, 2026); Musk suspends Grok image tool for most users (Fortune, January 9, 2026); Grok limits image generation on X to paid users (RNZ, via Reuters)
• Grok pricing 2026 (Krater, read October 3, 2026); Grok X Subscription change (UsagePricing)
• FreedomGPT: home and pricing
• Hugging Face: HuggingChat, pricing, HuggingChat Omni announcement
• DuckDuckGo: Duck.ai privacy, Pro subscription
• Mistral: pricing, usage policy
• ChatGPT adult mode delayed again (TechRadar); OpenAI pushes back adult mode (Engadget)
• Wiz Research uncovers exposed DeepSeek database (Wiz, January 29, 2025); AI chat logs (Proton)