Duck.ai vs Maple AI

Duck.ai

• People who want to use mainstream AI models without an account
• Privacy-minded users who do not want chats used for model training
• DuckDuckGo browser users who want an assistant built in

Maple AI

• People who want cloud-hosted models without exposing their chats
• Professionals working with confidential client or company material
• Developers routing coding tools through an encrypted API

Duck.ai

• Free use has a daily limit, and the most advanced Claude and GPT models are reserved for Plus and Pro subscribers.
• Advanced models cannot be bought on their own: the subscription bundles them with DuckDuckGo's VPN and identity services.
• The subscription is sold only to residents of the US, UK, EU and Canada, and its VPN and identity features work only in the DuckDuckGo browser.
• There is no standalone app: outside a web browser, Duck.ai is built into the DuckDuckGo browser for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows.

Maple AI

• Only open-weight models are offered; proprietary models from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google are not part of the lineup.
• The Free plan leaves out web search, and uploads, voice recording and API access start at Pro for $20 per month.
• API usage is charged per million tokens at each model's rate, separately from the subscription.
• Maple Agent, the assistant with long-term memory, is in private beta behind a waitlist.

Duck.ai

Anonymized chats

Metadata such as your IP address is removed before a prompt reaches the model provider, so requests appear to come from DuckDuckGo rather than from you.

Choice of models

Free models come from Anthropic, Mistral AI and OpenAI, plus two open models hosted by Tinfoil. Subscribers add more advanced Claude and GPT models.

Chat history kept on your device

Recent chats are saved locally by default, up to 5 can be pinned, and the Fire Button deletes the rest. Optional Sync & Backup stores chats end-to-end encrypted.

Image creation

Select New Image, describe what you want, then refine the result with follow-up prompts. A daily limit applies, with higher limits for subscribers.

Voice chat and dictation

Speak with an OpenAI voice model over an encrypted relay, or dictate a prompt for up to 5 minutes per session. Audio is not kept after the session ends.

Image and PDF uploads

Some models accept image and PDF uploads, with PDF limits of 15 pages on Free, 35 on Plus and 50 on Pro. Spreadsheets are not supported.

Maple AI

End-to-end encrypted chats

Messages are encrypted on the device with a per-account key and decrypted only inside a hardware-isolated enclave for inference. Maple says it cannot read them and does not train on them.

Open models inside enclaves

Open-weight models such as Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek, Gemma, Llama and OpenAI's GPT-OSS run on GPUs in trusted execution environments, so prompts are not passed to the labs that made them.

Public code and attestation

Client and server code are published on GitHub under the MIT license. Reproducible builds and a signed enclave attestation let anyone check what is running.

Private web search

A search agent queries the web anonymously through Brave's search API and brings current information into the chat. Web search is left out of the Free plan.

Projects, documents and voice

Chats can be grouped into projects and pinned. Pro adds image and document upload in the apps, plus voice recording, inside the same encrypted workspace.

Maple Proxy API

An OpenAI-compatible endpoint that verifies the enclave and encrypts requests from tools such as OpenCode and Goose. API usage is billed per million tokens, apart from the plan price.

Duck.ai

• Free$0

  Six free chat models, image creation and voice chat within a daily limit, with PDF uploads of up to 15 pages.

• Plus$9.99

  per month, or $99.99 per year, plus tax if applicable

  Adds GPT-5.6 Terra and Claude Sonnet 4.6, higher daily and weekly limits and 35-page PDF uploads, plus DuckDuckGo's VPN and identity services.

• Pro$19.99

  per month, or $199.99 per year, plus tax if applicable

  Everything in Plus, with Claude Opus 4.8 and GPT-5.6 Sol, higher reasoning effort, 2x the Plus usage limits and 50-page PDF uploads.

Maple AI

• Free$0

  End-to-end encrypted chat with basic AI features. Web search is not included.

• Pro$20

  per month

  All models including Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek and GPT-OSS, image and document upload in the apps, voice recording and API access.

• Team$30

  per user / month

  Everything in Pro with 2x more usage per member, chat credits pooled across the team and unified billing.

• Max$100

  per month

  Everything in Pro with 20x more usage, priority support and early access to features and models.

Duck.ai

• Annual discount

  About 17% off with yearly billing

  Plus is $99.99 a year against $9.99 a month, and Pro is $199.99 a year against $19.99 a month, a saving of about 17% over twelve monthly payments.

Maple AI

No public discounts listed.