A Sider alternative with nothing in the middle

GlassBar is a Sider alternative that removes everything between you and the AI model: no daily credits, no account, no subscription, and no company server relaying your questions. It is a browser extension that pins a frosted-glass chat bar to the bottom of every web page — you ask about the page you're reading and the answer streams in place, using the page's title, URL, and visible text as context. You bring your own API key from Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, OpenRouter, xAI Grok, Groq, DeepSeek, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint — or run fully offline against Ollama or LM Studio. Free to use. $15, once, for Pro.

That structure is the whole pitch. Sider is a capable all-in-one AI sidebar, and if its bundle suits you, keep it. But the things that send people searching for an alternative — metered credits, subscription tiers, a required account, usage counted on someone else's server — are structural. GlassBar was built without those parts.

Why people go looking for a Sider alternative

The credit meter. Sider's free tier is metered. Third-party pricing trackers put it at roughly 30 basic credits per day as of July 2026 — about 1,800 basic plus 100 advanced credits a month — and one 2026 review cites the free tier as low as 10 queries a day, so treat the exact figure as approximate (SaaSworthy, AI Toolbox review). Whatever the number is today, there is a ceiling, and it resets tomorrow.

The subscription. Getting past the ceiling means a monthly plan. Trackers list four paid tiers as of July 2026 — Starter at $4.20, Basic at $6.70, Pro at $12.40, and Unlimited at $16.70 per month. Sider's own pricing page blocks automated access, so those figures come from trackers rather than from Sider directly.

The account and the routing. Free credits are metered per account, per third-party setup guides, so an account is effectively required. And because usage is counted server-side, credit metering implies your requests pass through Sider's service on the way to the model — no primary Sider page spells the routing out, so that inference is the confirmable limit as of July 2026.

Firefox. Sider has no official Firefox extension as of July 2026. A search on addons.mozilla.org returns nothing from sider.ai, Sider's site lists Chrome and Edge builds only, and a July 2026 third-party review puts it plainly: excellent on Chrome and Edge, Firefox not supported. No desktop extension also means nothing to enable on Firefox for Android.

One fairness note: Sider is not key-hostile. It supports adding your own OpenAI API key and registering OpenAI-compatible endpoints; native Anthropic or Gemini keys are not confirmed. But even with your own key, you are still inside an account-and-credit system. GlassBar starts from the key — there is no other mode.

What you give up, what you gain

What you give up

• Bundled model access. Sider's subscription covers GPT-5.x, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek with no keys to manage. With GlassBar you create keys with the providers you want and pay them directly for what you use.
• The all-in-one toolbox. Sider positions itself as a sidebar-slash-agent with many jobs. GlassBar does one job — page-aware chat in a bar docked to the bottom of the tab.
• One-click Chrome install. GlassBar's Chrome Web Store listing is still pending. Chromium users sideload the dev build today; Firefox installs in one click from AMO.
• A flat monthly price. Bring-your-own-key means pay-as-you-go with your provider — the cost depends entirely on the models you pick, not on a tier.

What you gain

• No credits, no ceiling. Nothing in GlassBar counts, caps, or throttles your questions.
• No account. Install, paste a key, ask. The key lives in the browser's local extension storage and is sent only to the provider you choose.
• Nothing in the middle. Page title, URL, visible text, and your question go directly from your browser to your provider. No proxy, no telemetry, no analytics — the developer receives no user data.
• Firefox, including Android. GlassBar is live on addons.mozilla.org for Firefox 142+, with Firefox for Android enabled on the same listing — rare in this category.
• Local models. Point GlassBar at Ollama or LM Studio on localhost and nothing leaves your machine at all.
• One-time pricing. The free tier is the full product. $15 once unlocks Saved Chats — per-page persistence, searchable history, Markdown and JSON export. Never a subscription.

GlassBar vs Sider

Sider column as of July 2026, from third-party trackers and reviews — sider.ai blocks automated access, so its own pages could not be used as primary sources. Want the wider view against Monica and Merlin too? See the full comparison.

Switching takes about two minutes

1. Install from AMO. Add GlassBar to Firefox — desktop 142+ or Firefox for Android, same listing. On Chrome, Edge, or Brave, sideload the dev build until the Web Store listing lands.
2. Paste your key. Open GlassBar's settings, pick a provider, paste the key. It is stored in the browser's local extension storage and sent nowhere else. If you already gave Sider an OpenAI key, that same key works here — this time going straight to OpenAI.
3. Press Alt+J. The bar rests as a small pill at the bottom of every tab — hover to expand, click to pin, Esc to tuck away. Ask about the page and the answer streams in place with real formatting: headings, lists, code.

There is no import step because there is nothing to import — GlassBar starts stateless. If you want conversations to persist per page, auto-restore when you revisit, and export to Markdown or JSON, that is the one thing behind the $15 Pro unlock: Saved Chats.

Questions people ask

How keys are stored, what Pro includes, and how the privacy model works are covered in the FAQ and the privacy policy.