Which Sider AI alternative fits the reason you are leaving?
Match the alternative to the reason you're leaving, not to a list of features, because every Sider plan has the same features. Sider's pricing page says "All plans include all features". So the $10 Nano plan gives you the whole product, and it just runs on a meter of 7,500 credits a month. We read every price below from each vendor's own page on 31 October 2026, and all of them are in US dollars.
| Option | Shape | Billed monthly | Billed yearly | What the cap looks like | Pick it if |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sider Nano (staying) | Sidebar, web, desktop and mobile apps, plus the Sider Hand browser agent | $10 | $100 | 7,500 credits a month, 10,000 on yearly billing | You use the sidebar daily and can commit for a year |
| Monica Pro | Sidebar, web, desktop and mobile apps | Not shown on the page | $99 | 200 advanced model queries a month (GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Gemini 4 Argon) | You want a count you can plan around, not a credit meter |
| MaxAI Pro | Sidebar plus web app | $30 | $144 ($12 a month) | "Unlimited Pro chat", on models up to GPT-5.1, Claude-Sonnet-4.5 and Gemini-3-Pro | Email and message replies are the job |
| Merlin Pro | Sidebar plus web app | $29 | $228 | "50x usage on Plus-level models", under fair use | You want GPT 6.1 Sol and Claude Opus 5.5 in a sidebar |
| ChatGPT Plus | OpenAI's own apps | $20 | Billed monthly | Higher model limits than Free, per OpenAI | You only use GPT |
| Claude Pro | Anthropic's apps, Claude in Chrome included | $20 | $200 | More usage than Free, measured every 5 hours and every week | You mostly ask Claude and want its own browser agent |
| Magai Standard | Web app | $20 | Yearly toggle, saves 17% | $20 of monthly usage across models | You want a model workspace with a 30-day money-back guarantee |
| Whizi Pro | Many models in one workspace, web and mobile | $29.99 | $239.99 | 2,500 credits a month, a fixed cost per message for each model | You want 280+ models and a published price per message |
Two of the rows change the usual advice. Claude's plan table lists Claude in Chrome as a feature of Pro, and it shows "No" for Free. So if you mostly used Sider to ask Claude about the page you were on, Anthropic now sells you that for $20. MaxAI lists older models than Sider does. Sider's plan cards name GPT-6, Claude Fable 5.1, DeepSeek and Gemini, while the newest models on MaxAI's pricing page are GPT-5.1, Claude-Sonnet-4.5 and Gemini-3-Pro. Its page also states that "all payments are final and non-refundable".
Each of these has a page of its own. The Monica page covers what its plans really let you do, and the Merlin page covers its fair use cap. If you care more about a web workspace with many models than about a sidebar, look at Magai and ChatHub.
Is staying on Sider cheaper than switching?
Yes, if you move to yearly billing. Billed yearly, every Sider plan costs $0.83 per 1,000 credits, because the yearly bonus credits scale with the price. Billed monthly, the same credits cost $1.25 to $1.67 per 1,000. We did the math ourselves from what Sider's pricing page showed on 31 October 2026.
| Sider plan | Billed monthly | Credits a month | Per 1,000 credits | Billed yearly | Credits a month, yearly | Per 1,000 credits | Cloud computer for Sider Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nano | $10 | 7,500 | $1.33 | $100 | 10,000 | $0.83 | Temporary, on demand |
| Lite | $25 | 15,000 | $1.67 | $250 | 25,000 | $0.83 | Dedicated, 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM |
| Pro | $50 | 35,000 | $1.43 | $500 | 50,000 | $0.83 | Dedicated, 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM |
| Max | $100 | 80,000 | $1.25 | $1,000 | 100,000 | $0.83 | Dedicated, 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM |
The odd row is monthly Lite. It costs more per credit than Nano, and its extra $15 buys 7,500 credits plus a dedicated cloud computer that runs Sider Hand 24/7. Sider values that machine at US$10 a month. If you never use Sider Hand, Lite is the worst deal on the page. Max's credit selector runs from 80,000 to 180,000 a month. We priced the 80,000 default.
Two catches decide whether yearly is safe. First, a credit has no fixed size. The tooltip on every plan reads "Credits work across all features. The amount used depends on the model, feature, and task." Sider's pricing page doesn't say what a Claude Fable 5.1 answer or a Deep Research run costs. You find out from the Credits Log in Billing after you've spent them. Second, refunds are tight. Monthly plans are "non-refundable once processed". A yearly plan is refundable within 7 days of the charge, and only if you've used fewer than 500 credits.
Our read: if Sider works for you and the monthly bill is the complaint, switch to yearly before you switch vendors. Run a month on the Credits Log first, so you know how many credits your real week burns. Leave Sider when you want a different shape of product, or a cap you can count in messages.
Is there a free Sider AI alternative?
Yes, for light use. MaxAI's free plan gives unlimited chat on its fast free model plus 3 Pro chats a day. Sider's own pricing page shows no free plan, though its help center says free users get 30 Basic Credits a day. The free options, as of 31 October 2026:
| Free option | What you get | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Sider free account | 30 Basic Credits a day, 10 image queries and 10 PDFs in total, per Sider's help center | Not listed on the pricing page; totals don't reset |
| Monica Free | 40 basic model accesses a day on Claude Haiku 5.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite and GPT-6 Luna | No GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Sonnet 5.5 or Gemini 4 Argon |
| MaxAI Free | Unlimited free model chat, 3 Pro chats a day | Limited file uploads |
| HARPA demo | 10 messages a day through your own ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini web sessions, up to 100 command runs | You need those accounts signed in |
| Whizi free account | 10 messages a day on Whizi AI, Auto and Claude Haiku 5.5 | No sidebar that reads the page |
Free tiers are there so you can test the fit. None of them comes close to Monica Pro's 200 advanced queries a month or to Sider Nano's 7,500 credits. If you ask a frontier model every day, you'll end up paying for it somewhere.
Where does Whizi beat Sider, and where does it lose?
Whizi loses to Sider in the browser and wins on model range and on knowing the price of each message. Start with the loss. Sider lives in a sidebar that reads the page, summarizes YouTube and runs a browser agent. Whizi is a chat workspace on the web and in mobile apps. Its Chrome extension is a toolbar popup with 5 users on 31 October 2026, against Sider's 5,000,000. Sider also lists Claude Fable 5.1 on its $10 plan. On Whizi, Claude Fable 5.1 is a Powerhouse model ($49.99 a month) at 100 credits a message.
It wins on breadth and on a price you can see before you send. Whizi Pro is $29.99 a month for 2,500 credits. It opens Claude Opus, Claude Sonnet, ChatGPT Sol and Kimi K3, as well as Grok and the DeepSeek, Llama, Mistral and Qwen lines. Each model has one fixed credit cost per message, and the length of your chat doesn't change it. Claude Sonnet 5, for example, costs 10 credits a message. That's the number Sider's page leaves out. If your old chats are in ChatGPT, Whizi can import the export for you.
- Open Sider's Credits Log in Billing and note how many credits a normal week uses
- If the monthly price is the only problem, price Sider's yearly plan before switching anywhere
- If you only ask one lab's model, compare ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro at $20 a month
- If you want a fixed count, compare Monica Pro's 200 advanced queries a month at $99 a year
- If you want models Sider doesn't list, count which ones you used last month before buying a 280+ catalogue
- Cancel at the end of the billing period, because Sider's monthly charges are non-refundable
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free Sider AI alternative?
MaxAI is the best free Sider AI alternative as of October 2026. Its free plan gives unlimited chat on a fast free model plus 3 Pro chats a day. Monica Free allows 40 basic model accesses a day. HARPA's demo is the pick if you already pay for ChatGPT or Claude, because it routes 10 messages a day through those web sessions.
How much does Sider AI cost?
Sider costs $10 a month for Nano, $25 for Lite, $50 for Pro and $100 for Max on monthly billing, as of 31 October 2026. Billed yearly, the same plans cost $100, $250, $500 and $1,000. Yearly plans add bonus credits, so Nano gets 10,000 credits a month instead of 7,500. Every plan includes every feature.
Is Sider better than Monica?
Sider is better if you want a browser agent and one credit pool across chat, images and agents. Monica is better if you want a cap you can count. Monica Pro gives 200 advanced model queries a month for $99 a year. Sider Nano gives 10,000 credits a month for $100 a year, and its page never says how many answers that buys.
