# AI options: optional, and your choice

**UnAlgorithm Feed works without AI.** Its rules hide ads, suggested posts, activity and people you don't follow on
their own, in your browser. Turning on AI adds judgment about the post itself: it can fold away engagement bait, rage
bait and clickbait, highlight posts that match your interests more accurately, and, in Calm, hide posts that don't
match them. You choose where the AI runs.

## Compare the options

| Option | Cost | Where post text goes | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Rules only** (default) | Free | Nowhere | Hiding ads, suggestions, activity and accounts you don't follow |
| **On this device** (Chrome's built-in AI) | Free | Nowhere: it runs on your computer | Privacy, when your computer supports it |
| **Your own API key** (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, Groq) | Your provider's prices; about a cent per 100 posts with small models | Directly from your browser to that provider | The best results |
| **Local or self-hosted** (Ollama, LM Studio, any OpenAI-compatible server) | Free | Only to the server address you entered | Keeping everything on your own hardware |
| **UnAlgorithm Cloud** | Coming: prepaid credits, no subscription | HeitechSoft's server in Canada | AI without a key or setup |

## What is sent when AI is on

Only what's needed to classify a post:

- its text, capped in length, with email addresses and phone numbers always masked, and @mentions and tagged names
  masked unless you turn that off;
- the kind of media (image, video, link) and, for a shared link, the website's domain and title;
- whether the author is a person or a page, and whether the post is a reshare;
- your interests: the topics you want more and less of, and an optional note about you.

**Never** author names, profile links, group names, comments, images or your browsing history. Your API key is stored
only in your browser, in storage web pages can't read, and is never sent to HeitechSoft. The full details are in the
[privacy policy](https://unalgorithmfeed.com/privacy/).

## What AI adds

| With AI on | Balanced | Calm |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement bait ("Comment YES if you agree") | Hidden | Hidden |
| Rage bait | Hidden | Hidden |
| Clickbait | Hidden | Hidden |
| Promotional and low-effort posts | | Hidden |
| Posts that don't match your interests | | Hidden |

Every AI decision shows its reason under **Why?**, and **More like this** or **Not for me** teaches it what you
want. Results are cached in your browser, so reloading the feed doesn't ask again.

## Setting it up

Open UnAlgorithm's settings, choose **AI**, and pick an option. For your own key, paste it and press **Test and
save**. For a local model, enter the server's address; if Ollama refuses the connection, **Fix it for me** adds the
one rule it needs, for that server only.