Sider Overview
Sider is an AI assistant that lives in your browser sidebar, putting multiple frontier AI models one click away on any webpage. Instead of switching tabs to ChatGPT or Claude, you open Sider’s side panel and chat with GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini, and Llama models side by side — comparing answers, summarizing the page you are reading, translating text, or generating images without leaving your workflow.
Originally launched as “ChatGPT Sidebar,” Sider has grown into a full multi-model productivity suite: browser extensions for Chrome, Edge, and Safari, plus iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows apps. The core idea is simple but powerful — AI assistance should be ambient, available wherever you work, not locked inside a separate tab.
What Sider does
The sidebar chat is the heart of the product. Ask anything, and Sider answers using your chosen model — or run the same prompt across several models simultaneously to compare outputs. That side-by-side comparison is genuinely useful for important questions: seeing how GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini each handle a tricky email or a complex explanation builds intuition about which model to trust for what.
Page-aware assistance
Where Sider shines is context. With one click it can summarize the article you are reading, explain a selected paragraph, translate a page into your language, or rewrite highlighted text in a different tone. For researchers and students, the ability to ask questions about a PDF, extract key points from a long report, or get a YouTube video summarized without opening new tabs saves real time every day.
Built-in AI tools
Beyond chat, Sider bundles practical tools: an AI writer for drafting and improving text, a translator with bilingual page views, an image generator, PDF and file chat, AI text extraction from images, YouTube summarization, and read-aloud. Power features like data analysis and a deep-research agent sit on the higher tiers. Saved chats and findings can be organized in Wisebase, Sider’s knowledge hub.
Multi-model access without multiple subscriptions
One of Sider’s strongest selling points is economic: instead of paying $20/month each for ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, and Gemini Advanced, Sider’s plans give you metered access to all of them through one subscription. You can also connect your own OpenAI API key. For users who want to sample frontier models without committing to several subscriptions, this is the cheapest way in.
Pricing: credits-based freemium
Sider’s free plan includes daily credits (around 30 basic chats per day) across efficient models like GPT-4o-mini and Claude Haiku, plus limited quotas for YouTube summaries, PDF chat, and image generation. Paid plans scale up: Basic at $8.30/month adds 3,600 basic credits and 100 advanced credits monthly; Pro at $16.60/month offers 12,000 basic and 300 advanced credits; Unlimited at $25/month removes the caps on both. Advanced credits are consumed by frontier models like GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet — so heavy users of top-tier models will burn through them and should size their plan accordingly.
Limitations
The credit system is the main friction: two credit types, different burn rates per model, and monthly resets take some learning. Free-tier users hit walls quickly if they lean on advanced models. The extension occasionally glitches — sidebar not loading on certain pages, formatting quirks — and the mobile apps are noticeably less capable than the browser version. It is also, fundamentally, a browser tool: there is no offline mode, and it only works where the extension runs.
Sider vs. alternatives
Against single-model sidebars (like ChatGPT’s own side panel), Sider wins on model choice and comparison features but loses on deep integration polish. Against Monica, its closest competitor, the two are feature-comparable — choice comes down to pricing and which interface you prefer. Against just opening ChatGPT in another tab, Sider wins on speed and page context, which is the entire point.
Who Sider is best for
Sider fits students, researchers, writers, and knowledge workers who live in the browser and want fast AI help without tab-switching: summarizing papers, translating articles, drafting emails, comparing model answers. It is also the most affordable way to access multiple frontier models under one roof.
It is less suited to users who need deep, sustained work in one model with unlimited usage — a dedicated ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription serves those better — and to anyone who primarily works outside the browser.
Getting the most out of Sider: practical tips
A few habits make Sider dramatically more useful. First, learn the keyboard shortcut that opens the sidebar — the whole value proposition is speed, and reaching for the mouse defeats it. Second, use model comparison deliberately: for factual questions, run two models and check where they agree; for creative work, pick the one whose style you prefer and stick with it to save advanced credits. Third, lean on the page-aware actions rather than copy-pasting: select text and hit summarize, explain, or translate directly, which keeps the source context attached and produces better results than pasting into a blank chat.
Credit management deserves attention. Frontier models burn advanced credits quickly, so reserve them for questions that matter and let the efficient models handle routine summarization and translation — the quality gap for simple tasks is small. If you consistently run out, compare the cost of upgrading against buying a dedicated ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro subscription: Sider wins for multi-model samplers, while single-model power users may be better served going direct. Finally, organize genuinely useful outputs in Wisebase rather than letting them vanish into chat history; a sidebar assistant generates a lot of ephemeral text, and the good stuff is worth keeping.
Verdict
Sider is the most versatile AI sidebar available: multiple frontier models, strong page-aware tools, and pricing that undercuts buying separate subscriptions. The credit system takes getting used to, but for browser-heavy knowledge work, having GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini one click away is hard to give up once you have tried it.
Key Features
- Sidebar chat with GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini, and Llama models
- Side-by-side multi-model answer comparison
- One-click page summarization and selected-text actions
- PDF/file chat, YouTube summaries, and AI text extraction
- AI writer, translator with bilingual view, and image generator
- Data analysis and deep-research agent on higher tiers
- Wisebase knowledge hub for saving chats and findings
- Chrome, Edge, Safari extensions plus iOS, Android, Mac, Windows apps
Sider Pricing
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo |
| Basic | $8.30/mo |
| Pro | $16.60/mo |
| Unlimited | $25/mo |
Last updated on September 21, 2026 — always confirm on the official site.
Sider Pros & Cons
✓ Pros
- Access to multiple frontier models under one affordable subscription
- Side-by-side model comparison is genuinely useful
- Excellent page-aware tools: summarize, explain, translate, rewrite
- Cheaper than buying ChatGPT Plus + Claude Pro separately
- Works across Chrome, Edge, Safari, and mobile/desktop apps
✕ Cons
- Paid plans use a credit system that can be confusing to track
- Premium models consume advanced credits fast during heavy use
- Some users report occasional glitches or interface quirks
- Mobile and desktop apps lag the browser extension in features
- Font size and customization options are limited
Sider FAQs
Is Sider free?
Which AI models does Sider support?
How do Sider credits work?
Which browsers does Sider support?
Can I use my own API key with Sider?
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