Local Character › About · Last reviewed 2026-09-29
Local character AI, with nothing to install
Local Character is a character chat app whose AI runs on your own device, inside a browser tab. You talk to role-play characters the way you would on character.ai, but the replies, pictures, voices and speech recognition are all generated locally on your computer's GPU. There is no account, no install and no server that reads your chats.
What "local" means here
Most character AI sites send every message to a cloud model and store the conversation on their servers. Local character AI usually means the opposite: a model you run yourself, typically by installing a desktop program such as Ollama, llama.cpp or SillyTavern and downloading model files.
Local Character gives you the second without the setup. The browser downloads the model once, keeps it in its own storage, and runs it with WebGPU, the browser's direct access to your graphics card. Your messages are processed in the tab and written to the browser's own database, so they stay on the device you typed them on.
What it does
- Chat with characters - 55 ready-made characters on the Discover page, or create your own with a name, greeting, personality and voice.
- Replies by Google's Gemma 4 E2B, a 2-billion-parameter model, running on LiteRT-LM over WebGPU.
- Scene pictures by DreamShaper 8 (a Stable Diffusion 1.5 fine-tune), drawn on the device.
- Spoken replies by Kokoro-82M, with 28 English voices you can mix.
- Talk instead of type - turn the microphone on and just talk: Whisper transcribes you on the device, the character answers aloud, and it keeps listening until you turn the mic off.
- Swipes, edits and personas - regenerate a reply, edit any message, start a new chat from any point, and tell characters who you are.
- Export and import - save all characters and chats to a file and load them in another browser.
How to start
- Open local-character.skillsafe.ai in Chrome or Edge 137 or newer.
- Pick a character. The first time, the app asks before downloading the chat model (about 2.0 GB, once).
- Chat. Pictures, voices and speech input each ask for their own one-time download when you first use them.
Requirements
| Part | Model | Download (once) | Needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chat replies | Gemma 4 E2B | about 2.0 GB | Chrome or Edge 137+ with WebGPU |
| Pictures | DreamShaper 8 LCM | about 2.2 GB | WebGPU; a recent laptop or desktop GPU |
| Voice | Kokoro-82M | about 0.37 GB | WebGPU |
| Speech input | Whisper base | about 0.29 GB | WebGPU and a microphone |
All four together take about 4.9 GB of browser storage. Safari and Firefox cannot run the chat model yet, because it needs WebAssembly JSPI and relaxed SIMD; the app says so on the Discover page instead of failing later.
What it gives up
A 2B model that fits in a browser is much smaller than the cloud models big character sites use. It writes shorter, simpler replies, and in very long scenes it can lose track of earlier details. There is no community library of user-made characters, and no group chat. See local vs cloud character chat for the full comparison.
FAQ
What is local character AI?
Character AI whose model runs on your own device instead of a company's server. Your messages are processed locally, so the conversation is not sent to or stored by a chat service. Local Character does this inside a browser tab, with no install.
Is Local Character free?
Yes. Chatting, pictures, voices and speech input all run on your device and cost nothing. The only paid, optional feature is Auto-fill on the Create page, which drafts a character card on SkillSafe's servers and needs a SkillSafe sign-in and credits.
Do I need an account?
No. There is no sign-up. Characters and chats are kept in your browser's own storage.
Are my chats private?
Yes. Replies are generated in the tab and chats are stored only in this browser. Nothing you type in a chat is sent to a server. See the privacy page for the complete list of what the app does send.
Can you use character AI without internet?
Partly. The models download once and are kept in your browser, and every reply is then generated on your device, so the chat itself does not depend on a server. The page itself still loads from the web, so open it while you are online.
Which browsers work?
Chrome or Edge 137 or newer, on a computer with WebGPU. Safari and Firefox cannot run the chat model yet.
How big is the download?
The chat model is about 2.0 GB. Pictures (about 2.2 GB), voice (0.37 GB) and speech input (0.29 GB) are optional and download only when you first use them.
Can I make my own characters?
Yes. The Create page takes a name, tagline, greeting, a short description of who they are, their appearance, a category, a voice and a picture. Characters must be adults, and Auto-fill will not draft characters of real people.