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Merlin AI vs Sider

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Sider publishes a starting price ($10); Merlin AI does not. Both have a free tier.

Merlin AIBrowser sidebar running many chat models on any pageSiderBrowser sidebar that puts GPT, Claude, Gemini, and other models next to any page you're reading.

Side by side

FactMerlin AISider
CategoryBrowser Extensions & CopilotsBrowser Extensions & Copilots
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at—$10 month
Public APINoNo
PlatformsWeb, Chrome Ext, iOS, AndroidWeb, Chrome Ext, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
CompanyFoyer Tech Inc.Sider
Launched2022—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

Merlin AI

Buy it if you genuinely rotate between GPT, Claude and Gemini and resent paying three subscriptions — the aggregation is the whole value. If you live inside one model, its native app is faster, cheaper and gets features first.

Pros

  • One subscription reaches a dozen-plus frontier and open models
  • Extension surfaces the assistant directly on Gmail, YouTube, Google and LinkedIn
  • Mobile apps sync history, so the browser session continues off desktop
  • Real free tier for evaluating before paying

Cons

  • 'Unlimited' paid plans are governed by an opaque fair-use credit budget users hit without warning
  • Extension is desktop-Chromium only; mobile browsers get a reduced web app
  • Feature parity with each underlying model's own app is never complete
  • No developer API

Sider

Sider puts a chat panel on top of whatever page you're on, so you can ask about an article or PDF without copying it into a separate tab. The catch is that heavier use beyond the free daily cap needs a paid tier, and pricing quoted across review sites is inconsistent, so the entry price is worth confirming before committing.

Pros

  • Works as a sidebar on any web page rather than a separate chat tab
  • Routes one prompt to several models (GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Grok)
  • Ships native apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac plus browser extensions
  • Can chat with PDFs and YouTube videos, not just plain text

Cons

  • Free tier is capped at a small number of daily uses
  • Independent pricing write-ups disagree on exact plan costs depending on where you check
  • No public API for developers

Which one fits

Choose Merlin AI if you need

  • People who compare answers across frontier models before trusting one
  • Heavy in-browser workflows: summarising videos, articles and inbox threads in place
  • Users who want one bill instead of separate OpenAI, Anthropic and Google subscriptions

Choose Sider if you need

  • Reading and summarizing long articles or PDFs without leaving the page
  • Comparing answers from several models in one panel
  • People who want one subscription instead of several separate chatbot logins

More comparisons

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