Ethical Stack.

Brave Leo

Browser-integrated assistant can summarize pages and search results; chat history is stored locally, while inference uses hosted or user-selected models.

Score calculation

(3 + 7 + 7 + 1 + 7) ÷ 5 = 5.0

5 of six dimensions rated. Unrated dimensions are excluded from the average.

Full scoring method ↗
Setup details

Brave Leo: both access. Free tier; Leo Premium subscription available. Ratings describe the stated product, company or configuration in each finding.

What fits your needs

Leo within Brave Browser; privacy and routing differ by selected Brave-hosted, partner-hosted or user-provided model.

Tasks

Summarize open tabs and documents, translate, draft and search from the browser sidebar; a free tier works without a Leo account.

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Access and billing

Free access has lower usage/model availability; Premium offers higher limits and additional models.

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Tradeoffs to expect

Route

Brave-hosted requests go through Brave; selected partner models are processed on that provider's servers, with a stated retention window up to 30 days. BYOM uses the chosen endpoint.

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Local setup

Conversation history is stored locally in the browser and can be disabled; model inference itself is generally hosted unless you configure a local model through BYOM.

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How to switch

Get started

Install Brave Browser, open the Leo sidebar and select a model; check which model host is selected and review local history settings.

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Practical questions

Age and content boundary

Brave’s current consumer Leo pages do not state a product-specific minimum age; its general terms prohibit unlawful, privacy-invasive, abusive or impersonating content. This leaves age eligibility for Leo specifically unresolved.

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Correction and document handling

Leo provides response feedback; chats/history are stored locally unless Sync is enabled. Page summaries send the prompt and viewed page content to Brave’s backend; selected external models have their own bounded retention.

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Local model route

Brave documents BYOM integration with user-selected endpoints, including local model servers; host and inference privacy depend on the endpoint configuration.

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Energy practices

3/10↑

Brave Leo offers Brave-hosted model choices and optional BYOM routes to local or remote models. The serving boundary varies, and the reviewed sources publish no energy, emissions, water, or power-source data.

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Brave’s BYOM documentation distinguishes hosted, local and third-party remote routes; that is useful boundary disclosure but no route has a published footprint or power mix. Users can select models, including smaller local variants, earning C1 for one demand choice. This doesn’t show a greener outcome because device energy, model use, and upstream serving are unmeasured.

1 + 1 reporting + 0 electricity + 1 controls = 3/10. This grade covers documented practices and transparency; it does not measure the energy or emissions of a request.

Hosted Leo model/region/facility allocation; local model hardware and electricity; remote endpoint provider and region; per-request energy/water/emissions; impact of different model choices.

Reporting1/3
Brave documents hosted model choices and BYOM connections to local or remote models, establishing a variable host boundary but no environmental quantities.
Electricity sourcing0/3
For the hosted route, Brave provides no clean-power sourcing data; BYOM can select arbitrary third-party or local providers, so no common electricity grade can be inherited.
Resource controls1/3
Users can choose among Leo models and, for BYOM, select smaller local models such as 1B/3B variants. This is one model-size choice, not a measured efficiency or whole-device footprint.

Water disclosure

Water reporting has not been assessed for this choice.

Training data

—Depends on the model↑

Brave documents BYOM for user-selected local models and remote provider APIs. Local inference changes data location, not training-data provenance, and the exact model is user-dependent.

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No single training dataset can be assigned to the product when BYOM and provider selection are optional. A score should follow the exact model/version chosen by the user.

The selected built-in model or BYOM model identifier and version are required for an assessable training data scope.

Your data & privacy

7/10↑

Brave says its hosted Leo service discards prompts after processing and does not use chats for model training. When a user selects an Anthropic model, Brave’s model guidance says the provider may retain conversation data for up to 30 days, without training use; local BYOM routes follow the chosen endpoint’s own terms.

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Brave’s own hosted path has unusually short retention, no prompt training and unlinkable use. The selectable Anthropic route has a longer, provider-held retention window, and local/remote BYOM transfers control to the selected model endpoint, so the product earns a strong but configuration-dependent score below the highest band.

Openness

7/10↑

Brave’s browser core is public under MPL 2.0. Leo supports desktop BYOM connections to local models through a runtime such as Ollama or to a user-selected endpoint. This can replace the hosted model route with local inference, but the user supplies the model/runtime; Brave doesn’t confirm that its standard hosted models, model weights, or full remote routing service are self-hostable.

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The public browser core and documented local inference path provide meaningful control over the assistant client and configured serving route. A local setup is possible but requires a separate model/runtime, while ordinary hosted Leo remains a provider-dependent service; that supports a substantial but not end-to-end openness score.

Worker protections

1/10↑

Brave’s Leo documentation identifies Brave-hosted models and user-selected BYOM routes, but does not disclose workforce or contractor conditions for its own model operations, data work, or moderation.

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Brave’s Leo documentation identifies Brave-hosted models and user-selected BYOM routes, but does not disclose workforce or contractor conditions for its own model operations, data work, or moderation. Different model routes create separate upstream labor boundaries; supplier evidence cannot be attributed to every Leo request.

1 + 0 pay & conditions + 0 worker voice & remedy + 0 evidence & follow-through = 1/10. This grades documented worker safeguards, not a measured rate of mistreatment.

Worker pay, exposure and health protections, paid versus volunteer roles, vendor/subcontractor coverage, grievance routes, and independent outcome checks are not established by the reviewed leo model and byom documentation checked; no labor standards, vendor coverage, or worker outcome reporting was present in those product pages.

Pay & conditions0/3
No opened source reports worker pay, hours, exposure protections, contractor coverage, or worker-level outcomes for Brave. The reviewed material is limited to Leo model and BYOM documentation checked; no labor standards, vendor coverage, or worker outcome reporting was present in those product pages.; its silence is an information gap, not evidence of poor conditions.
Worker voice & remedy0/3
The reviewed material for Brave doesn’t show worker representation, grievance access, bargaining voice, or documented remedies. Public code contributions, customer controls, or creator rights do not demonstrate worker voice across employees and suppliers.
Evidence & follow-through0/3
No reviewed source provides an independent audit or corroborated worker-level outcomes for Brave’s relevant employees, contractors, and data-work suppliers. The available disclosures are company/project materials rather than independent labor verification.
Workers rubric ↗

Military ties

7/10Not established↑

Brave’s published Terms apply to its browser and related services but contain no specific military-use restriction; no Brave Software military relationship was established.

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Brave Terms govern the browser and related services; Leo can route to Brave-hosted models, named third-party providers, or user-supplied models. Brave’s published terms do not state a military, weapons or harmful-surveillance use ban, and its public Leo policy invites feedback but does not describe a military-specific use enforcement program. The targeted official review did not establish a Brave Software military customer. Ukraine’s “Brave1” defense innovation platform is a distinct entity and excluded.

7 base + 0 safeguard adjustment = 7/10 (0 of 9 safeguard points; every 3 adds 1). No military relationship was established in the cited sources. This ranks above known defense ties without claiming a verified clean record.

Unpublished contracts, reseller/subcontractor activity, customer-configured use and enforcement outcomes remain unknown. Hosted AUPs do not necessarily apply to independent local deployments or permissively licensed copies.

Use restrictions0/4
The reviewed Brave Terms contain generic terms but no military, weapons or harmful-surveillance ban; Leo provider AUPs vary by route and user-selected BYOM is not governed by a uniform Brave model-use policy.
Enforcement & oversight0/3
The reviewed Brave feedback route and general service termination terms are not a military-use-specific review or enforcement mechanism; no such military-specific enforcement is disclosed.
Relationship disclosure0/2
No Brave Software government or defense customer/use is established; the Brave1 defense platform is a separate Ukrainian entity.

The bounded official review found no named military/intelligence contract or operational use for this company/project. This evidence limit is not a clean bill of health; third-party model-provider relationships and customers’ independent deployments are separate.

Military rubric ↗

BDS targets

Not listed↑

No named target found in the two checked BNC campaign lists.

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Company name checked against the BNC consumer boycott/pressure guide and official No Tech campaign list; no named target found. This limited list check is not BDS approval and does not cover every campaign, subsidiary, supplier, or product route.

All sources

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