According to AlphaMoat, as of 2026-09, the Chrome extension Cognito has 66 users (+8.2% MoM), rated 5 (1 reviews) — ranked #4,930 of 9,324 AI browser extensions, and #1,207 of 2,418 in General AI.
Free AI sidebar using Chrome’s built-in local AI. Chat with any page, summarize, translate — private, no account. Ollama & BYO key. Cognito — the AI sidebar that uses the local AI already built into your browser
Chrome now ships with an on-device AI model (Gemini Nano). Cognito turns it into a full assistant: chat with any page, summarize articles, rewrite text, and translate — free, no account, no API key, and your data never leaves your machine.
Machine can't run the local model? Cognito detects that automatically and falls back to the free Cognito Cloud tier, so it works on any computer.
WAYS TO RUN AI — your choice, switchable anytime:
WHAT YOU CAN DO 🗨️ Chat with any page — the AI reads the page for you; streaming, multi-turn. 📄 One-click summaries — articles, posts, video transcripts, plus an interactive mind-map view. 📝 Writing tools — select text anywhere to rewrite, proofread, simplify, or translate. 🔍 AI Highlights — instantly surface the key sentences on a page. 🌐 Translation — selected text or whole pages, side-by-side bilingual view. 🛡️ Privacy Shield — detect and mask names, emails, phone numbers, and financial data before they leave your screen. 🖱️ Right-click menu — summarize, explain, or translate any selection.
WHY PEOPLE PICK COGNITO ✅ Private by default — on-device AI or local Ollama means zero data leakage. ✅ Free to use — built-in AI and the Cloud free tier cost nothing. ✅ Your models, your choice — switch providers per task.
GETTING STARTED 1. Install and click the Cognito icon to open the sidebar. 2. Pick how to run AI — Cognito recommends the best option for your machine. 3. Ask anything about the page you're on.
ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Gemini, Claude, Grok all in one AI sidebar, for AI search, read, and write.
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+ CompareData month: 2026-09 · User counts and ratings come from public Chrome Web Store data, aggregated monthly. See methodology.