AI News by Smol AI vs Vellum in 2026

Q: Is Vellum free to use?

Vellum is free to download and start . Vellum Cloud subscription plans start at $30 per month for Mighty, $100 per month for Super, or $200 per month for Ultra, with dedicated compute, storage and bundled credits . The facts here do not say how far the free start goes, so check Vellum's own pricing before you rely on either option.

AI News by Smol AI and Vellum compared on what each does, what each costs and what to check before you pick one for your developer work.

By SupaKeeper · 2026-10-24

SupaKeeper is published by LunarWerx, which makes some of the tools compared here.

AI News by Smol AI and Vellum are compared below on what each does, what each costs and what to check first. Model Odds is a third option on this page, and it ranks the estimated chance of a new Anthropic or OpenAI model release ^[1].

Option	What its sources say it does	Cost	Account or install
AI News by Smol AI	Summarizes top AI discords, AI reddits and AI X/Twitters, and sends out a daily roundup ^[2]. Has a search feature opened with the Cmd+K shortcut ^[2].	not published	Subscribe by RSS, a feed format ^[2]. Contact by social media or email ^[2].
Vellum	Its page says it can send emails, manage calendars, browse the web, create slides, write code, run deep research, monitor websites and run recurring tasks in the background ^[3]. It comes with built-in skills for Google Workspace, Slack, Notion and your filesystem ^[3]. Users can switch between models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini or open-weight models via Ollama ^[3]. High-stakes actions need explicit approval until you mark them as trusted ^[3].	Free to download and start ^[3]. Vellum Cloud subscription plans start at $30 per month for Mighty, $100 per month for Super, or $200 per month for Ultra ^[3]. The Super plan includes a medium computer with 2.5 vCPU, 5 GiB and 30 GB storage ^[4].	Accessible on Mac, iOS, Android, web app, voice, email, Telegram, Slack and terminal ^[3]. Open source, so you can inspect the code ^[3].
Model Odds	Ranks every Anthropic and OpenAI model family by its estimated chance of a release within 30 days ^[1]. Each past launch it uses is confirmed by an official post and an independent timeline ^[1].	Free, and so is its API ^[1].	No account needed ^[1]. A web app that runs in the browser and needs JavaScript ^[1].

The short answer

Each tool answers a different question, so the table below lists what each one's own pages say it does. For a developer who wants to know when a new Anthropic or OpenAI model may launch, Model Odds is built for that question ^[1]. For a tool you can try at no cost first, Vellum's page says it is free to download and start ^[3]. The facts here do not state what AI News by Smol AI covers beyond its own page, so check that page for its contents before you choose it. Match the tool to the question first, then check the details in the sections below.

What AI News by Smol AI and Vellum are built for

AI News by Smol AI is a service created by @swyx and other Smol AI friends ^[2]. Its page offers a search feature opened with the Cmd+K shortcut ^[2]. You can reach out on social media or by sending an email ^[2]. By default the Vellum assistant runs locally, and Vellum Cloud runs each assistant in an isolated container provisioned for that user ^[3].

What Model Odds is built for

Model Odds is made by the team that publishes this site. It ranks every Anthropic and OpenAI model family by its estimated chance of a release within 30 days ^[1]. Anthropic and OpenAI each get their own page that lists every past release ^[1]. Each past launch it uses has to be confirmed by an official post and an independent timeline, and it is listed with its date ^[1]. The estimate is based on the gaps between recent launches and takes into account how long the current wait has already lasted ^[1]. It runs three estimators side by side and publishes the spread between them as the error bar ^[1]. Signals read from company SDKs and docs, and from third-party model catalogues when two of them agree, can only raise the odds ^[1]. The estimator can also replay any past date without using data from after that date ^[1]. A developer can read the odds, the launch record and service health through a public API ^[1].

Pricing and fees

The facts for AI News by Smol AI do not state a price, so none is published here. Vellum is free to download and start ^[3]. Vellum Cloud subscription plans start at $30 per month for Mighty, $100 per month for Super, or $200 per month for Ultra, with dedicated compute, storage and bundled credits ^[3]. Model Odds is free, and so is its API, with no account needed ^[1].

Setting it up and daily use

The facts here say nothing about installing or setting up AI News by Smol AI, so check its own page for that. Vellum's assistant runs locally by default ^[3], and the facts here say nothing more about its daily use. Model Odds is a website with a public API ^[1]. It is a web app that runs in the browser and needs JavaScript ^[1]. The website and the API share one snapshot that is cached for up to five minutes ^[1].

Things to check before you choose

Ask what you need to know. Model Odds ranks the Anthropic and OpenAI model families ^[1], so check whether the labs you follow are among those two. Ask where your data should live. By default Vellum's assistant runs locally, and Vellum Cloud runs each assistant in an isolated container ^[3], while the facts here say nothing about where AI News by Smol AI keeps anything, so check its own page. Ask whether a chance estimate within 30 days fits your planning ^[1]. Ask whether a free start is enough for the work you have in mind, since Vellum Cloud plans start at $30 per month ^[3].

How to choose

If you want to follow the estimated chance of a new Anthropic or OpenAI model release, Model Odds is built for that ^[1]. If you want an assistant you can try at no cost first, Vellum is free to download and start ^[3]. If you want a news roundup, the facts here do not state what AI News by Smol AI covers, so read its own page before you decide. Pick by the question you need answered, since the three tools answer different questions.

Frequently asked questions

Is Vellum free to use?

Vellum is free to download and start ^[3]. Vellum Cloud subscription plans start at $30 per month for Mighty, $100 per month for Super, or $200 per month for Ultra, with dedicated compute, storage and bundled credits ^[3]. The facts here do not say how far the free start goes, so check Vellum's own pricing before you rely on either option.

Does AI News by Smol AI cost anything?

The facts here do not state a price for AI News by Smol AI, so none is published here. Its page describes the service as created by @swyx and other Smol AI friends ^[2]. If you want to know about any charge, you can get in touch on social media or by sending an email ^[2], or check its own page first.

Can Vellum run on your own computer?

By default the assistant runs locally, and Vellum Cloud runs each assistant in an isolated container provisioned for that user ^[3]. Vellum is free to download and start ^[3]. The facts here do not list which devices it supports, so check its own pages for the full list.

Can Model Odds tell you the date a model will launch?

Model Odds ranks every Anthropic and OpenAI model family by its estimated chance of a release within 30 days ^[1]. It runs three estimators side by side and publishes the spread between them as the error bar ^[1]. What you get is an estimated chance, so read the spread along with the odds before you plan around a launch.

Is Model Odds free, and does it need an account?

Model Odds is free, and so is its API, with no account needed ^[1]. It is a web app that runs in the browser and needs JavaScript ^[1]. You can sign up with a confirmed email to get alerts, and every subscriber gets every company's drops at the same time ^[1].

Model Odds is free, and so is its API, with no account needed. ^[1]

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