Ensu: a free AI chat app that runs on your device, with no account
Ensu is a free chat app from Ente Labs that downloads a small AI model once and then answers on your own device. Per Ente, it needs no account and does not send your messages to any server. We tested the web build in a browser on 27 October 2026: it downloaded and answered two sample prompts, with errors in both answers, and kept the chats after a reload. We did not test the Android app.
Ensu comes from Ente, which has a Kerala connection. Its CEO and cofounder, Vishnu Mohandas, writes in "5 years of Ente" that he wrote the first line of Ente's code on 1 February 2020, the day after leaving Google in Switzerland, and landed at his home in Kerala a few weeks later. In an AMA he says he came back home to Kerala in 2020 and started working on Ente.
Quick facts
- Ente's FAQ says Ensu is free "with no usage limits", with no subscription, and that it is "currently an Ente Labs project", so its long-term direction is not settled.
- Per Ente, it works offline after the first model download. The download is "roughly 1 GB depending on the model". Our web test showed "Approx. 664 MB".
- Ente's FAQ says there are "no accounts required and no analytics or tracking" and that chats never leave the device. That is Ente's statement. We did not inspect network traffic.
- Ente's download page lists Android (Google Play or APK), iOS, macOS, Windows and Linux. The latest GitHub release we saw was ensu-v0.1.22, published 23 October 2026. A web build is marked experimental.
- You cannot choose your own model in the current release. Ente's FAQ says each platform gets a fixed default, and a small model "may struggle with highly technical, multi-step reasoning".
- No web search, and no memory between chat sessions, per the FAQ.
- We tested only the web build, on a desktop browser. We did not test the Android or iOS apps, offline mode, image attachments, voice input, Ensu Packs or Your Notes.
Why use it over ChatGPT or Gemini
It is not a stronger assistant. Ente says so itself: Ensu runs a much smaller model than the large cloud models. The reason to try it is different. Once the model is on your device, your questions are answered there, with no sign-in and no usage cap. That suits things you would rather not paste into a cloud chatbot, such as a private note, a draft message or a rough diary entry, and quick explanations when you have no signal.
Which model it uses
Per Ente's FAQ, the default depends on the device. A Mac with 16 GB or more of memory gets Gemma 4 E4B. High-memory Android and iOS phones get the smaller Gemma 4 E2B. Everything else, including lower-memory phones, Windows, Linux and the web build, gets LFM 2.5 VL 1.6B from Liquid AI. The web page we used shows no model name, so we are relying on the FAQ for that. Ente says it may change the defaults later.
Our test
We opened ensu.ente.com in a desktop browser on 27 October 2026. The page asked us to download the model first ("Approx. 664 MB") and we pressed Download. It took several minutes on our connection. We then sent two prompts, using sample text only.
- Explain why the sky is blue. We asked for three short bullet points for a school student. The answer was mostly right but not fully accurate. Its second and third bullets (shorter blue wavelengths scatter more, and we see the scattered blue light) are correct. Its first bullet says that when sunlight enters the atmosphere "it splits into different colors", which is misleading: sunlight is not split, blue is scattered more than other colours. It took about a minute to reply on our setup.
- Summarise a short notice. We pasted a four-sentence notice about a village library and asked for one sentence. The reply was readable but not faithful. It left out "from next month", and it turned volunteers being "needed to help sort donated books on Saturdays" into "volunteer book sorting required every Saturday". It also added a "Village Library updates:" label and joined the points with semicolons. It took about two minutes.
The speed is not a guide to your phone or laptop. Our test ran in a remote browser of unknown hardware, and Ente says speed depends on your device. We also saw that after reloading the page, Ensu opened straight to the chat box with our earlier chats listed and did not ask for the download again. We did not check where the browser stores them.
How to try it
- Pick a version from ente.com/ensu. On Android, Ente lists Google Play and a GitHub APK (118.5 MB for v0.1.22). Ente's help page says to verify a GitHub APK against its published signing certificate.
- Open the app and let it download the model once. Use Wi-Fi.
- Type a question. Check every answer: our two tests each had a mistake, and Ensu shows "Ensu can make mistakes. Please double-check key details."
Availability in India: Ente's pages that we read state no country restriction, and the GitHub APK is a direct download. We could not verify the Google Play listing for India, so check it on your own phone. Ensu is not a replacement for a large cloud assistant, and it is an early release: Ente's announcement is dated 2 March 2026.
Sources checked 27 October 2026: