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Pg. A5 · MMXXVI · MIT license
Open
Source
● MIT LICENSE
— Self-host desk · Pg. A5 · Operating cost —

Pricing · self-host operating costs for Peanut Gallery.

Peanut Gallery is open source, MIT, and unpublished from the Chrome Web Store as of 2026-05-02. Run it yourself with your own API keys at roughly $1 per hour in provider costs. There is nothing to buy from Manu Games — the $8/mo Plus subscription that was once planned never shipped.
Bring your keys
Self-host
You pay providers at their rates. ~$1 per hour at full tilt.
Peanut Gallery Plus
Never shipped
A flat-rate hosted backend was once planned. It never launched and is not offered or planned.
Source
MIT
One repo, full stack — extension, backend, persona kernels, Director.
Self-host
$0
Node 20, three keys, one .env. MIT all the way down.

Bring your own keys.

§ 01 · The free path
The simplest guide possible

Self-hosting is now the only path to run Peanut Gallery. The source is MIT-licensed — you clone it, you run it, you own it, you carry the operator responsibilities for any session you produce. Three providers, three steps, done.

1

Clone the source

git clone https://github.com/Sethmr/peanut.gallery — full stack in one repo. The self-host walkthrough covers loading the extension unpacked into Chrome.

2

Get three keys

Sign up at these three sites. Every one has a free tier that covers casual use:

Deepgram · transcription · sign up

Anthropic · fact & comedy · sign up

xAI · troll & FX · sign up

3

Paste them into the side panel

Click the gear icon at the bottom of the side panel → pick My keys → paste the three strings.

Close the drawer. Click the red Start button on a video. You're live.

01
Deepgram
Real-time speech-to-text · Nova-3
Required
02
Anthropic
Fact-checker & comedy writer · Claude Haiku
Required
03
xAI
Troll & sound-effects guy · Grok 4.1 Fast
Required
COSTREAL NUMBERS
Running your own keys typically lands at ~$1 per hour of reactions in API spend. All three providers offer free tiers (Deepgram bundles $200 of credit at signup; Anthropic + xAI extend generous free usage). For most casual viewers, BYOK is genuinely $0/month.

Want the deep version — self-hosting the backend, writing your own persona pack, tuning fact-check sensitivity? The Operator's Manual has it. For paste-your-keys-and-go, the three steps above are the whole flow.

Peanut Gallery Plus — retired

§ 02 · Never shipped
What was planned

Plus never shipped. A flat-rate hosted backend (pay once, skip the API keys) was designed as an accessibility tier for non-technical users. It never launched — Manu Games LLC unpublished the Chrome Web Store listing on 2026-05-02 before any subscription opened — and it is not offered or planned. There is nothing to buy here; the payment and subscription code has been removed from the source.

The only way to run Peanut Gallery is the free path above: your own keys (BYOK) or self-host. If you fork the open-source repo and stand up your own hosted tier, you own the entire operator side — billing, taxes, ToS, abuse handling, provider-policy flow-down, and legal exposure for the sessions you produce.

Free · One-off trialNo card

Try it for free.

15 minLifetime, per install

A single 15-minute trial of the hosted backend, lifetime, per install. No email. No card. Just click Start and go.

  • Full fact-checker + comedy writer + troll + FX
  • Swap Morning Crew / TWiST persona packs
  • Native Chrome side panel experience
  • Does not renew — when the 15 min are up, switch to BYOK or self-host
▶ Install & try

Letters to the editor.

§ 03 · FAQ
Is it really free?
Yes. Peanut Gallery is free and MIT-licensed — fork the repo, it's all there. Run it on your own provider keys (BYOK) or self-host. There is no paid tier and no payment processing.
Is my audio stored anywhere?
No. Audio is streamed to Deepgram live, transcripts fan out to Anthropic + xAI live, everything is held in memory for the duration of the session and discarded when you click Stop. No logs, no recordings, no analytics inside the extension. The privacy policy covers the full picture.
What models does it use?
Deepgram Nova-3 for real-time transcription, Claude Haiku for the fact-checker + comedy writer, xAI Grok 4.1 Fast for the troll + sound-effects guy.
Is this AI-generated content safe to show at work?
Sometimes. The Troll is designed to dunk and the comedy writer is designed to joke — edit the personas (the extension supports sideloading your own pack) if you want a more SFW room. The Operator's Manual covers writing your own pack.
Are these the real people?
No. The personas are generic archetypes — an unofficial, unauthorized fan parody and homage to talk- and podcast-style formats (including The Morning Crew and This Week in Startups). No license, no endorsement, no affiliation; the AI is prompted to clarify it's a fan parody if asked whether it's a real person, and it ships no verbatim copyrighted material. Full legal framing in the Terms of Service. To request a name be removed from our marketing, email [email protected].
How do I contact a human?
[email protected] for bug reports, or open a GitHub issue.
Open-source archive · MIT. Self-host with your own keys · you're the operator
▶ View source Operator's manual →