XPlains.ai - Personal Text Translator

Stop losing flow to context-switching. Understand confusing text instantly without leaving your page. Every 3 minutes you switch tasks. It takes 15-30 minutes to regain focus. You waste 25% of your week looking up what things mean. XPlains.AI solves this: Highlight confusing text → Press Cmd+Shift+Y → Get plain-language explanations instantly! No tab-switching. No copying into ChatGPT or Claude. No breaking your flow. What It Does XPlains.AI is a browser extension that translates jargon, technical language, and corporate speak into clear explanations right on the page you're reading. Works on Slack, documentation, research papers, email threads, articles, anywhere. Three explanation modes: • Simplify This: Beginner-friendly, short explanations with real-world examples • I Want Depth: Comprehensive technical analysis for when you need the full picture • Just the Essentials: Executive summaries under 40 words for busy professionals Who It's For ✓ Project Managers dealing with technical Slack channels where engineers use terms you've never seen. ✓ Researchers processing dense academic papers and need concepts broken down without derailing your reading. ✓ New team members onboarding into a company full of acronyms, internal tools, and domain-specific language. ✓ Non-technical founders reading engineering discussions and need to understand enough to make decisions. ✓ Anyone who's ever copy-pasted text into ChatGPT just to understand what someone said. How It Works 1. Set up once: Add your Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI API key (you pay only for what you use, about $0.003-0.005 per explanation) 2. Pick your mode: Choose Simplify, Technical, or Executive based on your needs 3. Use anywhere: Highlight confusing text on any website and press Cmd+Shift+Y (or Ctrl+Shift+Y on Windows) 4. Stay in flow: Get your explanation in a draggable overlay. No leaving the page. Privacy & Security (Enterprise-Ready) ✓ Local storage only. Your data never leaves your device ✓ Bring Your Own Key. You control which AI provider to use ✓ No tracking. Zero analytics, no data collection ✓ Direct API calls. Text goes straight to your chosen AI provider, not through our servers ✓ Works offline. Settings and preferences stored locally Perfect for enterprise environments with strict data policies. Real Use Cases Slack chaos: "Let's socialize the tiger team's north star metrics" → Get it explained without asking (and looking lost) Technical docs: Reading AWS documentation and encountering "eventual consistency" for the 50th time → Finally understand it Research papers: "Utilizing a multi-modal transformer architecture" → Break it down into concepts you actually know Email threads: Boss sends "We need to operationalize the strategic initiatives" → Know what they actually want Meeting notes: "We should leverage synergies to move the needle on our KPIs" → Decode the corporate speak Key Features ✓ Universal compatibility. Works on any website: Slack, Teams, Reddit, documentation sites, academic journals, news articles ✓ Three translation modes. Switch between beginner, technical, and executive summaries based on your audience ✓ Keyboard-first. Fast workflow with Cmd+Shift+Y shortcut (customizable) ✓ Draggable overlay. Explanation appears right on your page, movable and resizable ✓ Text-to-speech. Listen to explanations (great for accessibility) ✓ Full keyboard navigation. WCAG 2.1 AA compliant for accessibility ✓ Dark mode support. Matches your system preferences ✓ Multi-provider support. Works with both Anthropic Claude and OpenAI ChatGPT APIs Pricing: You Control Costs Free to install. You pay only for API usage directly to Anthropic or OpenAI: • Typical cost: $0.003-0.005 per explanation • Example: 100 explanations = ~$0.30-0.50 • You set your own API spending limits through the provider No subscriptions. No hidden fees. You're in control. Technical Details Supported browsers: Chrome, Edge, Brave (any Chromium-based browser) API providers: Anthropic Claude (Sonnet 4.5) or OpenAI (GPT-4) Version: 2.9.4 Manifest: V3 (latest Chrome standard) Storage: chrome.storage.sync (encrypted by browser) Why Teams Love It ✓ New engineers onboard 3x faster by understanding technical discussions in real-time ✓ Project managers stop interrupting engineers to ask "what does that mean?" ✓ Researchers process papers faster without constant dictionary lookups ✓ Non-technical founders stay informed without slowing down technical teams ✓ Everyone reclaims the 25% of time wasted on context-switching What Makes This Different Not a translation tool. This isn't for languages. It's for translating complexity into clarity. User-initiated learning. You choose when to get help. It's not automatically rewriting everything (which creates an echo chamber). You see the original text and actively learn. Privacy-first architecture. Built for enterprise. Your API key, your data, your control. Just-in-time explanations. Like having a patient coworker who explains things instantly, without you leaving your flow to search or ask. Common Questions Q: Do I need to pay for this? The extension is free. You pay API costs directly to Anthropic or OpenAI (pennies per use). Q: Is my data private? Yes. Data stays local. When you highlight text, it goes directly to your chosen AI provider, not through our servers. We never see what you translate. Q: Does it work offline? Settings work offline. Explanations require internet (API call to Claude or ChatGPT). Q: Can I use it at work? Yes. Many enterprise users do. Since you control the API key and data stays local, it fits most corporate security policies. Q: What if I hit my API limit? You set spending limits directly with Anthropic or OpenAI. The extension will notify you if a request fails. Support & Feedback Having issues? Questions? Feedback? Email: support@xplains.ai Join 28+ users (yes, we're early and we're proud of it. Mom is user #3) who've alrea…