The Geist Manifesto
$240 a year for a browser tab.
That's what ChatGPT costs. Claude is $200. Grok is $480. For what, exactly? A website you switch to a few times a day, type a question, and switch back.
We've been thinking about this for a while, and something doesn't add up.
The math no one talks about.
Here's what the AI companies don't advertise: most users never come close to using $20 worth of AI usage in a month.
The average user makes about 13 requests per day. Run that against actual API costs (what it really costs to process a query) and you'll find that most people are paying for capacity they'll never touch. The heavy users subsidize the light users, and everyone pays the same flat rate regardless of how much value they extract.
It's a pricing model borrowed from enterprise software, applied to a tool that millions of people now rely on daily. The result? Most users are quietly overpaying for access to something that's become essential to how they work.
We think there's a better way.
What we believe.
AI access should be priced fairly.
Not rounded up to a convenient number. Not padded with margins designed for enterprise procurement. If you use less, you should pay less. If you need more, you should be able to buy more. Cheaply, instantly, without upgrading to a "Pro" tier that bundles features you don't want.
$8 a month gets you everything Geist offers. If you're a power user who easily, top up for $4. No tiers. No decisions. No money left on the table.
You shouldn't be locked into one model.
GPT is great at some things. Claude is better at others. Gemini, Grok, Qwen. They all have strengths. The AI landscape is evolving fast, and betting everything on one provider is a losing strategy.
Geist gives you access to all of them from a single dropdown. Switch models mid-conversation. Use the right tool for each task. No separate subscriptions, no juggling tabs.
AI should live where you work.
The current paradigm asks you to leave your work, go to an AI, ask your question, then bring the answer back. That's friction. Friction breaks flow. And for people doing deep work (writing, researching, designing, analyzing) flow is everything.
We built Geist as a native Mac app that lives system-wide. Pressing Option + / from any app, any window, any context. The AI comes to you. You never leave what you're doing.
AI should see what you see.
Why are we still screenshotting, uploading, and explaining "the thing in the top right corner"? If you're looking at something and you want to ask about it, your AI should be able to see it too.
Geist can capture your full screen or just a region you select. No upload dance. No context lost in translation. You point, you ask, you get answers.
Your AI should adapt to you.
You're not one person. You're a writer in the morning, an analyst at noon, a creative director by evening. Why should your AI have one personality?
You can create your custom AI skills, switchable personas that change how Geist thinks and responds. A direct colleague for code reviews. A thoughtful editor for prose. A rigorous analyst for financials. Toggle between them as your work shifts.
Memory should be a choice, not a default.
Sometimes you want your AI to remember everything: your preferences, your projects, your past conversations. Sometimes you want a clean slate. Maybe you went down a rabbit hole. Maybe you're starting something new. Maybe you just want privacy.
Geist lets you toggle memory on or off. You control what carries forward and what gets left behind.
What we built.
Geist is the AI assistant we wanted to exist.
It's a native Mac app. Fast, lightweight, always one keystroke away. It has feature parity with ChatGPT, Claude, and the rest, plus capabilities none of them offer. It costs a fraction of what they charge. And it's built for people who actually depend on AI to get real work done, not just ask it trivia questions from their phones.
The name means "spirit" or "ghost". That's intentional. Geist is the presence that's always there, waiting to be summoned. Not a destination you visit, but a companion that travels with you across everything you do.
What comes next.
We're starting with Mac because that's where we live and work, and because we believe in doing one thing exceptionally well before doing many things adequately. But this is just the beginning.
We're committed to keeping Geist fairly priced, honestly built, and genuinely useful. No dark patterns. No artificial scarcity.
We think AI tools should make your work better without making your wallet lighter. We think they should meet you where you are, not ask you to come to them. And we think the companies that understand this will be the ones that matter in five years.
We're building for that future.
— The Geist Team
Ready to try a better way?