Felo
Tokyo AI search engine answering across 25+ languages, sources cited.
Overview
Felo is a multilingual AI-powered answer engine built by Tokyo-based Sparticle Inc. and its AI-focused subsidiary Felo Inc. Its headline feature is cross-language search: users query in any of 25+ languages and receive AI-synthesised answers drawn from sources across Japanese, Chinese, English, Korean, and other language webs simultaneously — eliminating the manual translation step that limits most search tools. Beyond search, Felo bundles mind-map generation, academic paper retrieval, AI-slide creation (AiPPT), topic collections, document summarisation, and a growing agent layer (Felo LiveDoc, Felo SuperAgent), making it a hybrid research-and-creation workspace.
Launched publicly in September 2024 and ranked #1 on Product Hunt on launch day, Felo has built an audience predominantly across Japan, East Asia, and APAC multilingual knowledge-worker segments. The platform operates on a freemium credit model (revised July 2025): free users receive 200 daily credits; Pro subscribers ($14.99/month or ¥2,099/month) get 15,000 credits per cycle plus 300 daily Pro searches and access to frontier models including OpenAI o1 and Claude 3.5 Sonnet. An Open Platform API (openapi.felo.ai) exposes Chat, SuperAgent, PPT generation, X/Twitter search, LiveDoc, Web Extract, and YouTube subtitling endpoints — many available free during the current limited-time period. Server infrastructure is hosted in ISO 27001-certified data centres in Japan, with GDPR compliance documented.
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 These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 11 Jul 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete.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.
Use cases
What you can produce with Felo
- A cited AI answer synthesising sources from multiple languages in response to a single-language query
- An auto-generated mind map visualising connections between concepts found across search results
- An AI-produced slide deck (AiPPT) based on a research topic or search query
- A curated Topic Collection grouping saved searches and AI summaries for ongoing research projects
- Translated summaries of academic papers sourced from non-English databases
- A structured knowledge base (LiveDoc) built from uploaded documents and linked searches, queryable via AI agent
ASEAN Perspective
Felo in Southeast Asia
Felo's strongest ASEAN differentiator is its native multilingual search engine architecture: it supports Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, and other Southeast Asian languages alongside the dominant East Asian and European languages, making it genuinely useful for regional researchers and cross-border business intelligence rather than requiring users to switch to English for quality results. Data residency in ISO 27001-certified Japanese data centres — rather than US-based cloud infrastructure — is a practical compliance advantage for Singapore, Indonesia, and Philippines organisations operating under PDPA, PDP Law, and similar ASEAN data-protection regimes. The platform's pricing in JPY as well as USD, and its Product Hunt traction from APAC-origin developers, reflect a product built for the region. However, Felo does not yet publish a Singapore or ASEAN-specific data-processing addendum, so enterprise procurement teams should verify sub-processor disclosures before onboarding sensitive workloads.
Felo carved out a real niche: an AI answer engine built for cross-language research rather than a translation bolt-on. Query in Japanese and get synthesis pulled from Chinese, Korean, and English sources in one pass — a genuine edge for APAC researchers who'd otherwise juggle three separate search tools. Infrastructure sits in ISO 27001-certified Japanese data centers, which matters to enterprise buyers wary of US-hosted alternatives.
Scale is the honest weak point. Estimates of Felo's monthly active users range from roughly 270,000 to several million depending on the source — nobody, including Felo, has published a hard number — a rounding error next to Perplexity's tens of millions. The Pro plan ($14.99/month, 300 searches a day) is reasonably priced, but reviewers flag repetition and occasional hallucination on niche topics.
What people say
$14.99 a month buys unlimited Pro searches on Felo, undercutting Perplexity Pro by about a quarter — and for researchers who need results pulled simultaneously from Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and English sources, that's the whole pitch. Felo doesn't translate then search; it searches natively across language webs and stitches the answer together with citations attached, which is the one thing it does that most Western answer engines still fake with a translation layer bolted on afterward.
The mind-map output is the feature people actually talk about — a visual breakdown of how the retrieved concepts connect, rather than a wall of prose. Academic paper retrieval and document summarization round out what's really a research workspace wearing a search engine's UI. Free users get 200 daily credits, enough for light use; heavier researchers hit the ceiling fast and need the Pro tier.
Where it struggles: reported monthly active user counts vary wildly across third-party sources, from roughly 270,000 to several million, which suggests Felo hasn't published a clean number of its own. The platform also has next to no footprint on G2 or Capterra, so there's little independent volume behind whatever star ratings do exist. Forum users describe it as fast and generally accurate, with the caveat that specialized or fast-moving topics can produce outdated or repetitive answers — the same failure mode every AI search tool has, just less polished here than at Perplexity's scale. Best fit: multilingual researchers and APAC teams who need one query to span several language webs at once, not a general-purpose Google replacement.
Summary of public user & expert reviews, compiled by RECATOOLS.
Notable facts
- Felo ranked #1 on Product Hunt on its public launch day in September 2024.
- The platform switched from a feature-specific quota system to a unified credit model in July 2025, letting users mix search, slides, research, and AI agents from a single credit pool.
- Felo's servers are hosted in ISO 27001-certified data centres in Japan — an uncommon data-residency posture for a consumer AI search product.
- The CEO of parent company Sparticle Inc., Jeffery Jin, previously worked at Xiaomi and Microsoft before founding the Tokyo startup.
Frequently asked questions
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Felo's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Felo 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 Felo directly →
Spotted something out of date? Suggest an update →
Alternatives to Felo
More in Research & Data
