No. LibreOffice 26.8, released August 26, 2026, ships with zero AI features turned on by default, and The Document Foundation explained why in a September 3, 2026 blog post titled “Yes, no AI is now a feature.” The short version: AI isn't banned from LibreOffice, it just hasn't met the project's own bar for what a default feature is allowed to do.
Short answer: LibreOffice 26.8 has no built-in AI, by design. The Document Foundation's September 2026 blog post lists six conditions any AI feature must meet before it ships by default — user-controlled inference location, no unauthorized data transmission, no telemetry, no single-vendor lock-in, ODF-compliant output, and full removability. No current integration clears all six. You can still add AI today through third-party extensions that connect to local models via Ollama or LM Studio.
I read the blog post the day it went up, then spent an afternoon in LibreOffice 26.8's Extension Manager checking what "add AI yourself" actually looks like in practice, since the post is long on principle and short on specifics. In my testing, the honest answer is: it's more setup than a Google Docs or Microsoft Word user is used to, but it's real, it's free, and none of your document content has to leave your machine. Here's what the post actually says, and what your options are if you want AI in LibreOffice anyway.
What the blog post actually says
The Document Foundation, the nonprofit behind LibreOffice, used the post to respond to a recurring question from users: why does every other office suite have an AI sidebar by now, and LibreOffice doesn't? Their answer wasn't "we're against it." It was that no AI integration currently on the market meets all six conditions they've set for something to ship in the default install:
- User-controlled execution. You decide whether inference runs locally, on infrastructure you control, or on a third-party service you pick — not one baked in by LibreOffice.
- No unauthorized data transmission. Your document content doesn't leave your computer unless you explicitly choose a feature that sends it somewhere.
- No telemetry. LibreOffice doesn't collect usage data today, and the project says AI features can't be the exception.
- No single-vendor lock-in. A feature can't tie the suite to one company's API.
- Open-format output. Anything AI generates has to land back in ODF, not a proprietary format.
- Full optionality. Installable, removable, and invisible in the UI for anyone who doesn't want it — including IT admins rolling out LibreOffice to thousands of desktops who don't want an AI button appearing for every employee.
As the post puts it, "there is no integration that meets all the requirements and that could be deployed, enabled by default, and supported throughout the entire lifecycle of a release." That's a stricter bar than most competitors set for themselves, and it's the reason 26.8 — a release that otherwise added a refreshed Notebookbar UI and performance work — has no Copilot- or Gemini-style panel anywhere in it.
What you'll need to add AI to LibreOffice yourself
You don't need anything exotic, but you do need to accept that this is a DIY step LibreOffice itself won't walk you through. You'll want LibreOffice 26.8 or a recent 25.x release, since older versions have less consistent extension APIs. You'll need administrator rights on your machine to install extensions and, if you go the local-model route, enough RAM to run a small language model comfortably — 16GB is a reasonable floor for a 7-8B parameter model. And you'll need to pick a runtime: Ollama and LM Studio are the two the community extensions target most often, and both are free.
Step-by-step: adding AI to LibreOffice
1. Install a local model runtime
Download Ollama or LM Studio and install it like any other desktop app. Pull a small model to start — llama3.2 or a similarly sized model is enough to test whether the workflow is useful before you commit to anything larger.
2. Confirm the runtime is running locally
Both tools expose a local API once running (Ollama defaults to localhost:11434). You don't need to touch this directly, but it's worth confirming the service is up before you go looking for why an extension isn't connecting.
3. Open the Extension Manager in LibreOffice
Go to Tools > Extension Manager, then click Get more extensions online, which opens the LibreOffice extensions site in your browser.
4. Search for an AI writing extension
Search terms like "AI," "GPT," or "Ollama" surface the current crop of community extensions that add a sidebar for text generation, summarization, or rewriting. Read the extension's own description carefully — this is third-party code, not something The Document Foundation reviews the way an app store would.
5. Download and install the .oxt file
Extensions install as .oxt packages. Download one, then double-click it or use Add inside the Extension Manager, and restart LibreOffice when prompted.
6. Point the extension at your runtime
Most of these extensions ask for an endpoint URL and, for cloud models, an API key. For a fully local setup, point it at Ollama's or LM Studio's local address instead of a hosted API — this is the step that keeps your documents from leaving your machine.
7. Test on a throwaway document first
Run a summarize or rewrite command on a document you don't mind losing before you trust it with anything real. In my testing, the first extension I tried mangled table formatting when it rewrote a paragraph next to one, so I'd rather find that out on a scratch file than a client deliverable.
Example prompts you can copy
Once an extension is wired up to a local model, these are the kinds of prompts that work well inside a word processor context, as opposed to a general chat window:
- "Rewrite this paragraph in a more formal tone, keeping the same length."
- "Summarize the selected text in three bullet points for a status update."
- "List any sentences in this section longer than 30 words."
- "Suggest a shorter title for this document based on the first paragraph."
Keep prompts scoped to the selected text rather than the whole document — smaller local models lose coherence on long context, and a scoped prompt is also faster to iterate on.
Common mistakes to avoid
The mistake I made first was assuming any extension calling itself "AI Writer" for LibreOffice was routing through a local model by default — several default to a hosted API and only support local models if you dig into settings. Second, don't skip reading an extension's permissions or source before installing; LibreOffice's extension site doesn't vet these the way a curated app store does, and an extension that sends full documents to an undisclosed endpoint would defeat the entire point of going local. Third, don't expect Word- or Docs-level polish — these are community-maintained add-ons, and in my testing, formatting edge cases (tables, tracked changes, footnotes) were the most common place things broke. Fourth, don't run a large model on a machine without enough RAM and expect usable speed — a 7B model on 8GB of RAM will generate text slowly enough that you'll give up before it finishes a paragraph.
Yes, no (built-in) AI is now a feature — at a glance
| LibreOffice 26.8 | Google Docs | Microsoft Word | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI built in by default | No | Yes (Gemini) | Yes (Copilot, paid tiers) |
| Data stays local by default | Yes (no AI = nothing to send) | No | No |
| Local-model option | Yes, via community extensions + Ollama/LM Studio | No | No |
| Cost to add AI | Free (self-hosted models) | Included/subscription | Copilot add-on subscription |
| Vendor lock-in | None — you choose the backend | Google only | Microsoft/OpenAI only |
| Official support for the AI feature | No — community extensions, unsupported by TDF | Yes | Yes |
Tools that make this easier
If you're coming from a suite that already has AI built in and want to see what LibreOffice is opting out of, my how to use Gemini in Google Docs guide and how to use Copilot guide cover the default experience on the other side. For free tools that don't require a LibreOffice extension at all — you draft or edit in a separate app and paste the result in — free AI tools rounds up options that cost nothing. If the local-model angle interests you beyond word processing, StemDeck is a good example of another free, open-source, local-AI tool built on the same philosophy LibreOffice is holding out for. Developers weighing a similar build-vs-buy call on AI tooling might also find ChatGPT alternatives for programmers and Cursor vs. Copilot useful comparisons.
My take
I think LibreOffice made the harder, more defensible call here. Shipping an AI panel that phones home to a single vendor would have been easy and would have quieted the "why doesn't LibreOffice have AI" comments faster. Holding out for local-first, vendor-neutral, fully removable AI is slower, and it means LibreOffice users who want AI today have to do the Ollama-and-extension dance instead of clicking one button. But it's consistent with what LibreOffice has always been — the suite you pick specifically because it doesn't phone home — and I'd rather they hold that line than bolt on AI just to keep pace.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does LibreOffice 26.8 have built-in AI: is it free?
LibreOffice itself is free either way — there's no paid AI tier to unlock. If you want AI inside it, the community extensions are also free, since they connect to models you run yourself (via Ollama or LM Studio) rather than a metered API.
How long does it take to add AI to LibreOffice?
Installing a local model runtime and a compatible extension takes about 20-30 minutes if you've never run Ollama or LM Studio before, most of it spent downloading the model itself. If you already have a local model runtime installed, adding the LibreOffice extension takes closer to five minutes.
What is the easiest way to get AI features in LibreOffice?
Install Ollama, pull a small model like llama3.2, then install a community AI extension from the LibreOffice extensions site and point it at Ollama's local endpoint. That keeps everything free and keeps your documents off any third-party server.
Why doesn't LibreOffice just add AI like Google Docs or Microsoft Word did?
The Document Foundation says no current AI integration meets all six of its conditions for a default feature — user-controlled inference location, no unauthorized data transmission, no telemetry, no vendor lock-in, ODF-compliant output, and full removability. Google and Microsoft's built-in AI features don't meet several of those, particularly around vendor lock-in and default data transmission.
Is LibreOffice against AI entirely?
No. The blog post is explicit that LibreOffice isn't rejecting AI, only refusing to ship it by default until an integration meets its privacy and openness standards. Users can already add AI through third-party extensions; LibreOffice just won't turn it on for you.