The best private AI assistant in 2026

The most private AI assistant is one that runs on hardware you control with a local model, so your email, messages and memory never sit on a vendor’s servers. OpenClaw is the best-known way to do that, and it documents exactly what it sends home. Rakazo is the pick if you want each bot sandboxed, and Hermes Agent suits people who already run their own server. If you won’t self-host, Lindy is the hosted assistant with the clearest no-training promise.

Disclosure: Rakazo is made by the company that runs this site. It’s ranked on the same criteria as everything else.

Privacy matters more for assistants than for chat apps. An assistant needs your inbox, calendar, accounts and sometimes payments to be useful, and it keeps a memory of you. Several of the big hosted assistants train on what you give them by default, as covered at the end.

How we ranked

We ranked from each tool’s documentation, privacy policy and source code licence, as recorded in our catalog with sources. We didn’t audit any code or traffic ourselves. The criteria, in order:

1. Where your data lives. Self-hostable, open-source software you run yourself beats a vendor’s servers.
2. What the vendor says it collects and trains on. A stated no-training and no-telemetry default beats silence, and silence beats training by default.
3. Local models. Whether prompts can stay on your machine instead of going to a cloud model.
4. Containment. Sandboxing and approvals, because an agent that leaks your data through a prompt injection isn’t private either.
5. Maturity. Size of the project and how long it has been scrutinised.

This order is for privacy only, so it differs from our overall rating in the table on this page, which weighs what each assistant can do, setup effort, price and availability.

1. OpenClaw: most private if you can run it

OpenClaw is a free, MIT-licensed agent that runs on your own computer and talks to you through chat apps you already use. Its state, memory and credentials stay on your hardware, and by default it sends nothing home except a daily version check you can turn off; anonymous feature statistics are opt-in (OpenClaw). It trains no models itself.

Your prompts go wherever your model is. With a cloud model, that provider’s policy applies. With a local model through Ollama, LM Studio or vLLM, nothing has to leave your machine (integrations). Your chat app’s own policy also applies to messages you send through it.

The trade-off is containment. Sandboxing is off by default, and giving an agent your email and messages makes prompt injection and malicious third-party skills a real risk; a third-party skill quietly exfiltrating data is one documented incident (Wikipedia). It ranks first because it’s the most mature of the three and states its defaults most completely, not because it’s the safest out of the box.

Pick it if you’re comfortable on the command line and will turn on sandboxing. See what OpenClaw is and OpenClaw alternatives.

2. Rakazo: self-hosted, with a sandbox for every bot

Rakazo is an Apache-2.0 platform for persistent AI bots that you can self-host for free (GitHub). Like OpenClaw, you bring the model, including local models through Ollama or LM Studio, so a self-hosted setup with a local model keeps data on your machine. Each bot’s computer runs in Docker or a sandbox, and you choose which actions need approval. Its self-hosting docs say product analytics and error reporting are off unless you configure them (docs).

Rakazo doesn’t train models of its own, and its privacy policy says it doesn’t sell personal information. On the hosted plan, your content goes to the model provider you connect, whose terms govern retention, so the hosted plan is less private than self-hosting.

It ranks second because it’s newer, in beta and has a much smaller community than OpenClaw, so its code has had less outside scrutiny.

Pick it if you want a self-hosted agent with sandboxing and approvals, and the option of a hosted plan later. See the Rakazo review.

3. Hermes Agent: self-hosted, for your own server

Hermes Agent, from Nous Research, is MIT-licensed and runs on your computer, a cheap server or serverless infrastructure (GitHub). When you self-host it, its config, memory, skills and chat history stay on your machine, and prompts go to whichever model provider you configure, from OpenRouter or OpenAI to any compatible endpoint (docs).

Its FAQ says it collects no telemetry and sends API calls only to the model provider you configure. It ranks third because of containment: the GitHub Advisory Database lists ten advisories for the package from May and June 2026 (GitHub advisories), and we couldn’t confirm its default sandboxing. The optional Nous Portal subscription routes your prompts and hosted tools such as web search through Nous’s servers, so use your own endpoint if privacy is the point.

Pick it if you run your own server and want an agent that learns reusable skills. It can import settings, memories and skills from OpenClaw.

4. Lindy: most private hosted assistant

Lindy is not self-hostable, so your data lives on its servers. What sets it apart from other hosted assistants is a clear promise: it says data is encrypted in transit and at rest and is never sold, shared or used to train models, and it claims SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and PIPEDA compliance, with HIPAA and a signed BAA on Enterprise (Lindy). It also asks for approval before anything with outside impact.

It costs more than the others, with paid seats from $49.99 per user a month (pricing), and it’s built for work email, calendars and meetings rather than personal life.

Pick it if you need a hosted work assistant and can’t run software yourself.

Assistants that train on your data by default

These assistants are popular, but their own terms say your data is used for training unless you change a setting:

• Muse: Meta says you can opt out of your interactions training its models, so training is on by default. Meta says Muse doesn’t share conversations with its ad systems (Meta).
• dots: OpenAI’s pricing page says Pro content is used to train its models, with an opt-out (pricing).
• Poke: its privacy notice says user data may train its models unless you select Maximum Privacy.
• Instinct: its terms let it train on your materials unless you opt out, and the opt-out only applies going forward.
• Perplexity Teammates: Teammates needs a Max plan, and Perplexity turns on AI data retention by default for Free, Pro and Max accounts, so your data may train its models unless you switch it off in Settings (Perplexity).

Grok Bot asks whether to allow training, and it stays off unless you turn it on (FAQ). Others, including Manus and Claude Duet, don’t state their training default for individual users in the pages we checked. Assume nothing until they do.

Which one to pick

• Nothing leaves your machine: OpenClaw or Rakazo, self-hosted, with a local model.
• A sandbox for every bot: Rakazo.
• You already run a server: Hermes Agent.
• Hosted, for work, with a no-training promise: Lindy.

Whatever you use, check the training setting on every assistant you connect to your accounts, and give an agent only the access its job needs. For assistants ranked on what they can do rather than privacy, see the best AI assistants and the best AI agent.