What is Tesseract (tesseract.dev)?
Tesseract, made by Eightcell Labs in New York and unrelated to the Tesseract OCR engine, is a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux, with a web version and an iPhone app. It installs and runs coding agents on your computer under your own accounts: Claude Code with a Claude plan, OpenAI Codex with ChatGPT, plus Gemini CLI, Antigravity CLI, OpenCode, Cursor, Qwen Code, Kimi Code and others, 14 in all. Each conversation can use a different agent, so several work at once, next to a code editor, terminal, live preview and browser.
Around that it has grown into a general agent: 33 guided makers for presentations, websites, logos, videos and documents, a shortcut that opens it over any app with a screenshot, control of your mouse and keyboard, and a mail and calendar assistant. The app is free and closed source; it shows ads unless you hold a paid balance, with top-ups from $10. Version 0.12.5 shipped on 12 November 2026.
How much does Tesseract (tesseract.dev) cost?
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Bring your own AI | Free | Runs agents on your own subscription or API key; sponsored messages shown |
| Top-up | From $10 | Pay-as-you-go balance for Tesseract's hosted models; no ads while you hold a balance |
Free with your own Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini account, ad-supported; a free AI allowance that refills; pay-as-you-go top-ups from $10, which remove ads and add stronger models. No subscription or seats.
Is Tesseract (tesseract.dev) worth it?
Running Claude Code in one terminal and Codex in another works until you have four of them open and lose track of which one is editing what.
Tesseract puts them in one window. It installs the agents you pick, signs each in with your existing Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini account, and gives every conversation its own agent, so Claude Code can fix a test while Codex writes a migration. Bigger tasks start with an editable plan that waits for your go-ahead, risky commands pause for an answer, file changes can be rolled back per turn, and a delete must name an exact path. A small npm package, tesseract-agent, runs the same agents on a server you can watch from the app. All of that costs nothing on top of your plans.
It is also much more than a coding front end. There are 33 makers for slides, sites, logos and videos, a mail and calendar assistant, remote desktop, a private device network, team chat and a password manager. That breadth is the first warning sign: it is a lot of software for a version 0.12 from a small company, with release builds arriving almost daily.
The catch: read what it can reach and where things go. The agents run with your user's rights, edit files and run shell commands; the computer-control mode moves your mouse and keyboard in other apps, and the terms put the risk of that on you. File contents and screenshots go to whichever AI provider you pick. Separately, every conversation, including ones with local models and your own API keys, is uploaded to Eightcell's servers, encrypted with a key Eightcell holds, and the privacy policy says there is no setting to turn this off. An OpenAI model then labels your chats after 12 hours, with email addresses and keys removed first; Eightcell says the labels are not used to train AI models. Without a paid balance you see ads, and the ad partner, Gravity Labs, receives up to six recent messages from the conversation plus your IP address; personalised tracking adds a device identifier kept up to 180 days, off by default only in the EEA, UK and Switzerland.
Our take: as a way to try several coding agents on a hobby project it is hard to beat at $0. For an employer's repository or a client's, the upload you cannot switch off and the ad partner reading your chat mean the plain terminal, or a $10 top-up at the very least, is the safer place to work.
Where it earns its place
A student with a ChatGPT Plus plan and a side project
Try Codex and Claude Code on the same bug and keep the better fix
Open two conversations in one project, one per agent, and compare the diffs; Tesseract adds no charge, and each agent spends from its own plan's limits.
A freelance web developer on a Claude Pro plan
Keep a long agent task running on a home server while away from the laptop
Install tesseract-agent with npm on the server, run Claude Code there under the same Claude account, and follow it from the desktop or iPhone app. Client code still goes to Eightcell's servers inside the conversation.
A small-business owner who does not write code
Turn a paragraph about the business into a slide deck and a one-page site
The presentation and website makers ask a few questions, show a plan and build the files from a free allowance; a $10 top-up removes ads and unlocks stronger models. Hosting for built sites is listed as coming soon.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Download for Mac, Windows or Linux (Homebrew cask on Mac), sign in with Claude or ChatGPT or add a Gemini key; Tesseract installs the agents you choose from their makers' own releases.
- Integrations
- 14 coding agents including Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Antigravity CLI, OpenCode and Cursor; MCP servers over stdio, HTTP or SSE; Gmail, Outlook, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive; WhatsApp, Telegram and Slack for the assistant.
- Data and privacy
- Conversations are always uploaded to Eightcell's servers, encrypted with a key Eightcell holds, and deleted within 30 days of a deletion request; tool calls and file diffs are not uploaded, but file contents and screenshots go to your chosen AI provider. Chats are labelled by an OpenAI model, not used to train AI models per the policy. Free users' recent messages go to the ad partner Gravity Labs. No certifications published. Which AI tools train on your data?
- Cost at scale
- Nothing per seat; a team pays only its own Claude, ChatGPT or API bills, plus top-ups from $10 per person to remove ads and reach Tesseract's hosted models.
- Limits
- Each agent keeps its own plan's limits; Tesseract can fail over to a backup account when one runs out. Beta software; liability capped at the greater of 12 months' fees or $100, with US arbitration you can opt out of within 30 days.
What’s good
- Free on top of the Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini plan you already have
- 14 agents, each conversation on its own, several running at once
- Plans wait for approval, risky commands pause, file changes can be undone
- Runs agents on a remote server through the tesseract-agent package
- Mac, Windows, Linux, web and iPhone
What’s not
- Every conversation is uploaded to Eightcell's servers, with no setting to stop it
- Free use shows ads; the ad partner receives up to six recent chat messages and your IP address
- Can take over mouse and keyboard and run commands with your user's rights
- Closed source, version 0.12, near-daily releases
- Its own pages disagree on details such as plan names and editor counts
Best for
Hobbyists and solo developers who want to compare several coding agents on non-sensitive projects without paying for another tool.
Tesseract (tesseract.dev) alternatives
Tesseract (tesseract.dev): common questions
- Is Tesseract (tesseract.dev) worth it?
- Tesseract is a generous free window onto every coding agent you already pay for, but it uploads every conversation to its own servers and feeds chat snippets to an ad network unless you pay, which is the wrong trade for anyone's client code. We rate it 3.2 out of 5.
- How much does Tesseract (tesseract.dev) cost?
- Free with your own Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini account, ad-supported; a free AI allowance that refills; pay-as-you-go top-ups from $10, which remove ads and add stronger models. No subscription or seats.
- What are the downsides of Tesseract (tesseract.dev)?
- Every conversation is uploaded to Eightcell's servers, with no setting to stop it; free use shows ads; the ad partner receives up to six recent chat messages and your IP address; can take over mouse and keyboard and run commands with your user's rights; closed source, version 0.12, near-daily releases; its own pages disagree on details such as plan names and editor counts.
- Who is Tesseract (tesseract.dev) best for?
- Hobbyists and solo developers who want to compare several coding agents on non-sensitive projects without paying for another tool.
- How much does Tesseract (tesseract.dev) cost for a team or in production?
- Nothing per seat; a team pays only its own Claude, ChatGPT or API bills, plus top-ups from $10 per person to remove ads and reach Tesseract's hosted models.
- Is Tesseract (tesseract.dev) safe for company data?
- Conversations are always uploaded to Eightcell's servers, encrypted with a key Eightcell holds, and deleted within 30 days of a deletion request; tool calls and file diffs are not uploaded, but file contents and screenshots go to your chosen AI provider. Chats are labelled by an OpenAI model, not used to train AI models per the policy. Free users' recent messages go to the ad partner Gravity Labs. No certifications published.
- What are the best Tesseract (tesseract.dev) alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor and Google Antigravity (with Gemini CLI and Jules).
Answers checked Nov 13, 2026.