LibreThinker brings free AI writing assistant to LibreOffice Writer, reaches 10,000 installs

A developer released LibreThinker, a free extension that adds an AI copilot to LibreOffice Writer's sidebar. The tool has accumulated over 10,000 installs and now supports connecting to multiple AI models—including free online LLMs (no sign-up required), paid services like OpenAI and Anthropic (if you provide your own API key), or self-hosted Ollama instances.

Unlike paying for a separate AI tool, LibreThinker lets you rephrase selected text directly inside the document you're already writing. It works out of the box with zero setup for users who choose the free default model, removing friction that typically requires creating accounts or entering payment information.

For students, writers, and business professionals using LibreOffice (an open-source alternative to Microsoft Office), this means professional-grade writing assistance at zero cost—the same capability you'd normally pay $20/month or more for in competing tools. It closes a feature gap that made LibreOffice less attractive for knowledge work.