I tested 20+ Linux desktop AI companions—several match or beat Copilot depending on use case.
Newelle, LM Studio, PyGPT, and Jan.ai stand out for supporting local models, offline use, and more integrations.
Most mainstream AIs lack official Linux desktop apps.
As an avid user of AI tools, I was instantly intrigued when I overheard a conversation about AI assistants that Linux users could access and use via a desktop app. The discussion aroused my curiosity because it made me realize that, although I use Copilot on Windows, I don't usually use an AI companion on Linux primarily because, unlike Windows, Linux distributions usually don't have built-in AI companions.
When curiosity got the better of me, I did what any tech enthusiast would in a similar situation: I installed and tested over 20 AI companions with official Linux desktop apps. After weeks of testing, I narrowed my list to these Copilot alternatives that are just as good, if not better, based on your AI use cases and Linux workflow.
All AI tools have strengths and weaknesses because they're trained to perform well at specific tasks. Thus, this list is unordered. Use your AI use cases to decide which Linux AI companion best fits your needs.
Newelle
Want an open-source AI companion with deep GNOME user-space integration? Then Newelle should be at the top of your list of Microsoft Copilot replacements for Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, and other Linux distros that use GNOME as their default desktop.
Newelle is a good Copilot alternative because it's just as capable. Like Copilot, its desktop app and UI are clean and modern because it uses the GTK4 and Adwaita library. You can also use your voice to interact with its multimodal features. Other features include vibe coding, rich text rendering, and conversational AI.
However, I found Newelle to be more powerful and better than Copilot because it can run different LLM models locally, which essentially means you can use it with Groq, Google Gemini, GPT4Free, Anthropic Claude, and other mainstream LLMs that support API connections. It also supports the Model Context Protocol and has terminal assistance, profile management, and extensions.
Install Newell using flatpak:
LM Studio
The LM Studio desktop application is available for Linux, Windows, and Mac. It supports LLMs that use the GPT-Generated Unified Format (GGUF). Examples of such models include Gemma 2 and 3, DeepSeek-R1, GPT-OSS, Meta Llama, custom GPTs, and many other LLMs available in the Hugging Face library.
As an AI companion, LM Studio is just as capable as Copilot, and its UI is just as clean. However, unlike Copilot, you can use it to download and load large language models entirely offline and privately on your computer. It also one-ups Microsoft's Copilot by letting you create a self-hosted AI server. Other key features include CLI integration via LMS chat and support for headless mode via llmster. It also accepts custom parameters and multiple requests via the llama.cpp engine.
It has built-in GPU acceleration for faster request processing and response times (this is great if you have a high-capacity graphics card/GPU), as well as software development kit support for Python and TypeScript/JavaScript. It can also help you code, and the available LM Studio plugins can extend its functionality.
Install the LM Studio desktop app on Linux by downloading the app image.
After downloading the app image, right-click on it, select Properties, and enable it to run as an executable program. Otherwise, it won't start.
PyGPT
Are you looking for a Copilot alternative that looks and functions more like Google AI Studio? Do you use Microsoft Copilot to get the most out of your computer and Microsoft Suite tools?
If you've answered yes to at least one question, check out PyGPT, an open-source personal desktop assistant that's compatible with Linux, Windows, and Mac. Like Copilot, it supports chat, text, image, and video generation, file uploads for context (aka Retrieval-Augmented Generation, or RAG), and voice-based interactions.
After testing, it became clear that PyGPT is contextually better than Copilot because of its ability to connect with different web services for task automation; it also supports API integration with Google Gemini, GPT-4 and 5, Anthropic Claude, and other LLMs, which is great for accessing your favorite LLM via its Linux desktop app. Beyond generating and running Python code, its built-in plugins enable terminal code execution, agent building, and much, much more.
Install PyGPT using snap:
Jan.ai
Jan.ai is another open-source, general-purpose AI assistant designed to run LLMs locally. Like Copilot, you can use it for general conversational AI needs, media generation, context grounding, code generation, and more. However, unlike Copilot, Jan.ai can work offline. It also supports popular LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, and other GGUF models.
Since it's designed to get things done with AI agents, you can connect it to tools like Notion, Jira, Google Drive, Slack, and similar tools for agentic AI workflows.
Install Jan.ai on Linux by downloading the .deb file and then using dpkg to install it.
You've probably noticed that the Linux AI companions on this list are not as mainstream as Copilot and other popular desktop AI companions. If you're looking for something more mainstream, I have good and bad news.
The bad news is that most mainstream AIs didn't make it to this list because they don't have official Linux desktop apps. The good news is that most of the tools I've mentioned work with different LLMs. Additionally, you can still use ChatGPT, Claude, and similar AI tools on Linux, but only through unofficial or community-developed desktop clients and web wrappers. For example, if ChatGPT is your go-to AI assistant, you can use Joshua Redmond's ChatGPT unofficial desktop client for Linux.
As you experiment with these and other Copilot alternatives for Linux, remember that some LLM models and versions have feature limitations. Some, for example, can't generate media directly. Therefore, when downloading and loading a model into a desktop AI companion app like Jan AI, double-check to ensure it meets your needs.