Alternative solutions to ChatGPT, although numerous, are mainly based abroad, in the United States or China. Here are 5 100% European alternatives to the leader in consumer AI.
In a context of growing geopolitical uncertainties and debates over digital sovereignty, many European citizens are wondering about “sovereign” alternatives to ChatGPT. However, alongside the American and Chinese solutions which dominate the market, truly European solutions intended for the general public are rare. We have selected 5 European conversational interfaces, two French, two Swiss and one Dutch. The objective? Offer simple and accessible equivalents to replace ChatGPT for common tasks: document synthesis, text generation, web search, etc. Each of these services is owned by a European company, but be careful, not all of them use European data centers and therefore do not offer a guarantee of sovereignty.
The different points of sovereignty
| The Cat | HuggingCat | Lumo | Apertus | Euqai Chat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Editor | Mistral AI | Hugging Face | Proton | Public AI | Euqai |
| Nationality of the publisher | French | Franco-American | Swiss | Swiss | Dutch |
| European and sovereign data centers | partial | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| European underlying model | Yes | partial | partial | Yes | partial |
Le Chat: French models, American cloud infrastructure
Mistral AI Chat, unveiled in February 2024, is the French reference solution. The company’s headquarters is based in Paris. Mistral AI, on the other hand, currently depends heavily on Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Cerebras for hosting Chat. If the training of models must ultimately be carried out at Eclairion (French player), nothing has been announced about its other verticals. Positive point however: all of the models available on Le Chat are developed in France.
HuggingChat: Headquarters in the United States, American and French models
HuggingChat is Hugging Face’s consumer AI interface. Although the company’s headquarters is based in Brooklyn in the United States, the publisher still retains a substantial part of its operations in France. The publisher mainly uses American cloud providers to host its models and HuggingChat. However, several Mistral AI models are available. Please note, however, that the company has its headquarters in the United States and is therefore fully subject to the Cloud Act and Fisa in particular. This is the least sovereign solution in our comparison.
Lumo: foreign models (non-EU), Swiss cloud infrastructure
Lumo was launched in July 2025 by Swiss privacy-focused publisher Proton. Proton hosts Lumo and all the models used on its own secure infrastructure in Switzerland. The platform uses only open source models, including several developed abroad (Mistral Nemo, OpenHands 32B, OLMO 2 32B, GPT-OSS 120B, Qwen, Ernie 4.5 VL 28B, Apertus, and Kimi K2).
Apertus: 100% Swiss and sovereign
Apertus is the AI model and platform developed by EPFL, ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Supercomputing Center (CSCS). The platform and model were developed by teams in Switzerland and are hosted in Switzerland on the CSCS infrastructure. This is the most sovereign tool on our list.
Euqai: European cloud infrastructure, foreign and French models
Euqai Chat, finally, was developed by the company of the same name based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Euqai is primarily a provider of intelligent orchestration between models to reduce costs.
The editor is based on several open source models, but again not only European. The chat platform and templates are hosted on the servers of Leafcloud, a Dutch cloud provider.
The feature match
| The Cat | HuggingCat | Lumo | Apertus | Euqai Chat | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Choice of model | x | x | x | ||
| Conversation history | x | x | x | x | |
| Document upload | x | x | x | x | x |
| Native web search | x | x | x | x | |
| MCP Support | x | x | x | ||
| Memory | x | x | x | ||
| Code interpreter | x | ||||
| Mobile app | x | x |
Unsurprisingly, Mistral AI’s Le Chat comes out on top with the most complete functional arsenal: choice of model, history, memory, web search, MCP support, code interpreter and mobile application. It is the most credible alternative to replace ChatGPT on a daily basis. Lumo ranks remarkably well in second place with a smart balance between essential features and accessibility via its mobile app. Proton’s privacy-first approach has therefore not sacrificed user experience. HuggingChat is also a great option thanks to its diverse choice of templates, history, and MCP support, making it a solid option for users comfortable with open source. Apertus, despite a limited number of functionalities, compensates with its consistency: history, document upload and memory are sufficient for classic use of AI.
Euqai Chat appears more limited. The App has two functionalities: web search and document upload, that’s it. For a user looking to truly replace ChatGPT on a daily basis, Euqai therefore remains on the sidelines.
More or less attractive paid offers
| Price | Features | |
|---|---|---|
|
The Pro Chat |
17.99 euros |
– Messages and web searches quota increased |
|
Hugging Face Pro |
9 euros |
20x more free messages |
|
Lumo+ |
9.99 euros |
– Unlimited chats |
Only three publishers offer premium subscriptions: Le Chat Pro at 17.99 euros per month, Hugging Face Pro at 9 euros and Lumo+ at 9.99 euros. The benefits provided do not revolutionize the user experience. Chat Pro, despite its twice the price positioning, simply increases quotas (30 times more reflection with chain of thought models, 5 times more research reports) and adds storage (15 GB) and access to Mistral Vibe. Hugging Face Pro simply promises “20 times more free messages” without further detailing the quotas of the free version. As for Lumo+, it removes the basic limitations: unlimited chats and histories, large files and access to advanced models. In short, subscriptions above all allow you to use AI intensively without running into free ceilings, but do not offer exclusive features.
Which tool for which profile?
For French people looking for the closest experience to ChatGPT, Le Chat by Mistral AI is the obvious choice. Complete interface, mobile application, code interpreter, memory… The functional arsenal leaves nothing to be desired. This completeness, however, comes at a price: 17.99 euros per month for the Pro version, double that of its European competitors. A justified price for intensive users who want all the power of sovereign generative AI. The second natural choice is Lumo from Proton, which combines essential functionalities and guarantees of maximum sovereignty. Hosting in Switzerland, proprietary infrastructure, total absence of advertising tracking: the publisher specializing in confidentiality applies its usual recipe to conversational AI. At 9.99 euros in premium version, it is the best feature/price and sovereignty ratio in the comparison.
For those who prefer free and are simply looking for a tool that works in 2026, HuggingChat still remains a safe bet. The choice of models, history and MCP support are more than enough for daily use. As for Euqai Chat, its positioning remains unclear: the absence of history and memory limits it to occasional uses, a quick web search or the occasional analysis of a document. Difficult to make it your main AI assistant.
Finally, in terms of true sovereignty, it is Apertus which takes the prize: developed and hosted entirely in Switzerland by public institutions (EPFL, ETH Zurich, CSCS), it embodies the pinnacle of European mastery of AI. Mistral AI, despite its French models, remains dependent on Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud for hosting. The sovereignty displayed on paper does not always reflect the reality of infrastructure.
