Merlin alternative: Copilotly compared

As of November 2026, Merlin's Chrome Web Store listing is the only first-party source we could read; getmerlin.in returned an HTTP 403. What the listing says:

A research and agent positioning

It describes Merlin as an "AI-powered browser agent" that lets you research and chat with websites, videos and documents, and write social media content in 128 languages. Copilotly chats with pages, videos and files too, but does not describe itself as an agent and does not list a social-media writing mode.

A larger audience

The listing shows 900,000 users, a 4.4 rating from 8.8K ratings, version 8.4.1 updated November 3, 2026, and a Featured badge. The developer is Foyer Tech. Those are the vendor's own listing figures, and the listing notes ratings update daily.

A keyboard summon from any tab

Ctrl+M / Cmd+M summons a model from any tab. Copilotly has Alt+C for the sidebar and Ctrl/Cmd+K inside its selection toolbar, which is similar in spirit.

If you use Merlin for social content or its research flow and it works for you, that is a good reason to stay. We cannot compare its limits or prices because we could not read them.

A broad model picker

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, Mistral and more, with access by plan. Merlin's listing names ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Mistral and DeepSeek, so the provider overlap is large. See ChatGPT, Claude and DeepSeek.

Rewrite anywhere with a diff

Select text on any page and rewrite it with tone and length pickers, a word-level diff, versions and undo. Details.

Cited search, deep research, page translation

Web search cites sources, deep research shows a live plan, and page translation is bilingual.

Your own API key

Requests on your own key are never metered. Details.

What Copilotly does not do

Copilotly does not offer an AI detector or a plagiarism checker, and no tool can promise a result a school or publisher will accept. If those brought you to Merlin, check whether Merlin still offers them; we could not confirm from its listing.

Copilotly Free gives you fast models within a token allowance, plus per day: 10 premium-model messages, 5 web searches, 3 images, 1 deep research run, 3 full-page translations and 5 voice drafts. Copilotly Pro is $6.99/week, $19.99/month or $149.99/year, with a 7-day free trial for first-time subscribers. See pricing and the free plan.

Merlin's listing says it offers in-app purchases but gives no prices, and its website was not readable by us. We are not repeating figures from third-party pages, because they conflict and some are old. Read getmerlin.in in your own browser for current plans.

Stay with Merlin if

you use its social-content writing or research flow, you like the Ctrl/Cmd+M summon, and it already does what you need.

Switch to Copilotly if

you want a no-card free plan with daily premium messages, Firefox, Brave or Opera support, or in-place rewriting with undo. Related: Sider and Harpa.

Merlin's listing names ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic Claude, Mistral and DeepSeek, and mentions switching between models in one place. Copilotly's picker includes OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, DeepSeek, Mistral, Qwen and Kimi models, grouped into fast, premium and frontier tiers.

What the tiers mean for you

• Fast models are on every plan, within a token allowance, and handle most everyday questions.
• Premium models draw on 10 messages a day on Free and are unlimited on Pro.
• Frontier models need Pro (30 a day) or your own key.

Which model for which job

For long writing and careful editing, many people prefer Claude. For general chat and coding, GPT models are a common default. For low-cost reasoning, DeepSeek is worth a try. Our test of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini on professional questions shows how much the answers can differ.

We cannot compare Merlin's free allowance by model because its listing does not state one.

Use the same text and a similar model on each side. Keep a short note of every answer you had to fix.

Merlin's listing says the developer handles personally identifiable information and location data, does not sell data to third parties outside approved use cases, and does not use it for unrelated purposes or for creditworthiness. Those are declarations on the Chrome Web Store, and the full policy is linked from the listing.

Whichever assistant you use, the text you ask about is processed by an AI model. Keep passwords, card numbers and anything confidential out of prompts unless you have read the provider's terms.

Three questions settle most cases.

1. Do I use Merlin for something specific? If it is social content or a research flow you like, staying is reasonable.
2. Which browser do I use? Merlin's listing is on the Chrome Web Store. If you use Firefox, Copilotly has its own Firefox add-on; Brave and Opera users can install either through the Chrome build.
3. How do I like to edit? If you want to see exactly which words changed in a rewrite and step back if you dislike it, rewrite anywhere is built around that.

If none of the three points to Copilotly, the honest answer is that you do not need to switch. If you are still unsure, the free plan costs nothing to try next to Merlin.

1. Keep Merlin installed while you test. Both can run at once.
2. Install Copilotly from the download page, sign in, and press Alt+C.
3. Choose a default model. Open the model picker and pick the one you used most in Merlin. Premium models draw on your 10 daily messages on Free.
4. Recreate your prompts. There is no import from Merlin. Paste your instructions into custom instructions.
5. Use the selection toolbar for edits: select text, open the toolbar, pick tone and length.
6. Remove Merlin via Extensions, Manage extensions, Remove, when ready.