Brave Leo
AI assistant built into the Brave browser
Overview
Brave Leo is the AI assistant built into the Brave browser, answering questions and summarizing pages and videos directly in the sidebar without leaving the tab. The free tier now includes Llama 3.1, Claude Haiku, Qwen 3 and a local "Brave Ocelot" summarizer model; Leo Premium unlocks Claude Sonnet/Opus, Kimi and DeepSeek. Models are served via AWS Bedrock with zero data retention rather than raw provider APIs, a meaningful privacy upgrade. No public developer API.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 11 Jul 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
- Llama 3.1 8B, Claude Haiku, Qwen 3 14B, GLM 4.7 Flash
- Local Ocelot page summariser
- BYOM: connect your own local or remote models
- Standard rate limits
- Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Opus 4.6
- Kimi K2.5 and DeepSeek v3.2
- Higher rate limits and priority access
- Faster responses
Use cases
ASEAN Perspective
Brave Leo in Southeast Asia
ASEAN-region availability and pricing notes coming soon. Drop the editorial team a note via /contact/ if you can supply local context (Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia/Thailand/Vietnam).
Leo has the best-designed privacy story in mainstream browser AI: no account, no chat retention, third-party models proxied through AWS Bedrock with zero data retention, and — since April 2026 — a local Ocelot model that summarises pages on your own hardware. The free tier (Llama 3.1 8B, Claude Haiku, Qwen 3 14B, GLM 4.7 Flash) is genuinely useful; Premium at US$14.99/month adds Claude Sonnet 4.6/Opus 4.6, Kimi K2.5 and DeepSeek v3.2 for less than ChatGPT Plus. The catch is depth. Leo is a browser feature, not a platform: users report it reading only part of very long pages, YouTube handling is patchy, and there's no public API, agents or file tooling. Right for privacy-conscious Brave users wanting in-context help; power users need a fuller assistant. Free and unrestricted across ASEAN.
What people say
At US$14.99 a month (or $150 a year, covering five devices), Leo Premium undercuts ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro by a quarter — and it's the only mainstream browser assistant you can use without creating an account. The free tier ships Llama 3.1 8B, Claude Haiku, Qwen 3 14B and GLM 4.7 Flash; Premium unlocks Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Opus 4.6, Kimi K2.5 and DeepSeek v3.2, plus higher rate limits so you're not told to try again later at peak hours.
The privacy engineering is the real differentiator. Chats aren't retained or used for training, third-party models are proxied through AWS Bedrock under zero-data-retention terms rather than hitting provider APIs directly, and the April 2026 stable release added Ocelot, a local summarisation model that runs inference on your own hardware. There's also BYOM — point Leo at a local Ollama model or any API endpoint you already pay for.
Day-to-day quality is where users grumble. Community threads report Leo reading only about 70% of long pages, a recurring "this page was too long for Leo" error on exactly the documents that need summarising, and weak YouTube handling. A Brave Community thread bluntly titled "Leo AI sucks now" captures the mood after recent model shuffles. Like every browser AI, it's a convenience layer, not something to trust for consequential research.
For Brave users who want private, in-context summaries and Q&A, Leo is the easiest yes in the category. If you need agents, file uploads or a developer API, it isn't that — and doesn't pretend to be.
Summary of public user & expert reviews, compiled by RECATOOLS.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Brave Leo's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Brave Leo unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
For the latest details, please refer to Brave Leo directly →
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