KoboldAI

KoboldAI: Your Free, Open-Source AI Storytelling Co-Pilot

Unleash your inner storyteller with KoboldAI, a powerful and endlessly customizable AI writing companion designed for creative minds. Developed by a passionate community of volunteers, KoboldAI is not just another AI model; it’s a versatile, browser-based front-end that gives you complete control over your AI-assisted writing adventures. Whether you’re crafting an epic novel, engaging in immersive role-playing, or simply exploring the boundaries of AI-powered text generation, KoboldAI provides a private, flexible, and entirely free platform to bring your ideas to life. It’s built for writers, by writers, with a focus on long-form creative content and deep user control.

Core Capabilities

Masterful Text Generation

At its heart, KoboldAI is a text generation powerhouse. It excels at collaborative writing, allowing you to guide the AI to continue your stories, generate dialogue, describe scenes, or even play the part of characters in a role-playing game. It supports a vast array of models, from smaller local models you can run on your own PC to massive, powerful models via APIs or the unique KoboldAI Horde network. Its strength lies in maintaining context and coherence over thousands of words, making it ideal for novelists and long-form storytellers.

Integrated Image Creation

While text is its primary domain, KoboldAI also integrates with image generation models like Stable Diffusion. This allows you to generate character portraits, landscapes, and scene illustrations directly within your writing interface, creating a truly multimedia storytelling experience. You can bring your written descriptions to life visually without ever leaving the application.

What It Doesn’t Do

KoboldAI is highly specialized. It does not natively support video or audio generation. Its focus remains squarely on providing the best possible experience for text and supplemental image creation for creative projects.

Key Features That Set KoboldAI Apart

• Open-Source & Completely Free: KoboldAI is free to download, use, and modify. There are no subscriptions or hidden fees for the software itself, giving everyone access to top-tier AI writing tools.
• Unmatched Customization: Fine-tune every aspect of the AI’s behavior. With features like Memory, Author’s Notes, and detailed World Info, you can provide the AI with persistent knowledge about your characters, setting, and plot, ensuring incredible consistency.
• Run It Anywhere: You have total freedom. Run KoboldAI locally on your own computer for maximum privacy and offline access, or use a Google Colab notebook to leverage powerful GPUs in the cloud for free.
• Privacy First: When you run KoboldAI locally, your stories and data never leave your machine. This makes it a perfect choice for users who are concerned about the privacy of their creative works.
• The Power of the Horde: Don’t have a powerful GPU? No problem. The KoboldAI Horde is a unique, crowdsourced distributed network. You can receive fast, free text generations from other users who volunteer their computer’s processing power, creating a truly collaborative community ecosystem.

Pricing: The Freedom of Free

KoboldAI proudly stands out with its pricing model—it’s completely free. However, the cost of running the AI models can vary depending on your chosen method.

• Free Software: The KoboldAI client itself is 100% free. You will never be charged for using the interface.
• Local Hardware (Potential Cost): Running models locally is free, but requires a modern computer with a powerful graphics card (GPU) for the best performance. This is a one-time hardware investment.
• Cloud & API Usage (Variable Cost): If you connect KoboldAI to a paid service like OpenAI’s API or a cloud GPU provider like Runpod, you will incur costs from that third-party service based on your usage.
• The Horde (Free): Using the KoboldAI Horde is free. You can contribute your own processing power to earn “kudos,” which you then spend to have your own requests processed faster by the network.

Who is KoboldAI For?

• Creative Writers & Novelists: Authors who need a co-writer that can maintain plot consistency and character voice over long narratives will find KoboldAI’s Memory and World Info features invaluable.
• Role-Playing Enthusiasts: Perfect for solo RPGs or for Game Masters who need help generating non-player characters, descriptions, and plot twists on the fly.
• AI Hobbyists & Tinkerers: For those who love experimenting with different AI models and tweaking settings to achieve the perfect output, KoboldAI offers an unparalleled level of control and flexibility.
• Privacy-Conscious Users: Anyone who wants to use powerful AI without sending their creative projects to a corporate server will appreciate the ability to run everything offline.

Alternatives & Comparisons

KoboldAI vs. NovelAI

NovelAI is a polished, commercial alternative with its own proprietary models. While NovelAI offers a very user-friendly, all-in-one subscription service, KoboldAI is the free, open-source option for users who want more control, the ability to use any model they choose (including NovelAI’s models via their API), and the option to run everything locally for zero cost.

KoboldAI vs. AI Dungeon

AI Dungeon is more of a “game,” offering a streamlined, adventure-focused experience. KoboldAI is a more powerful and granular “workshop,” providing deep customization tools better suited for authors and serious role-players who want to craft a specific, long-form story rather than a freewheeling adventure.

KoboldAI vs. ChatGPT/Claude

General-purpose chatbots like ChatGPT are excellent for conversation and short-form content. However, they lack the specialized features crucial for creative writing, such as persistent memory, character sheets (World Info), and fine-grained control over generation style. KoboldAI is built from the ground up to be a storytelling partner, not just a conversationalist.