Three ways an AI works with QuanterLab, and each does one job. Expecting one to do another's job is the mistake this page exists to prevent. None of them is required: the platform works with a browser and nothing else.
The map
| Quantin, in the platform | Claude or ChatGPT, through the hosted connector | Your own assistant, at QuanterLab Desktop | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A chat assistant inside the web app, in every plan. | A hosted MCP server that your claude.ai or ChatGPT account connects to. | The engine and the canvas on your machine, with a local MCP server that Claude Desktop or Claude Code connects to. |
| It can | Explain cards, methods and results; read your saved work; argue against weak evidence; work through the math. | Read the catalog and your saved work; run backtests, walk-forwards, scans and your saved canvas strategies (free runs every day on the Free plan; what each plan runs); follow and summarise the runs; search and quote the published papers. | Build and run circuits, walk a registered study window by window, compile it, and submit it to the platform as a draft. |
| It cannot | Run anything. It is a guide. | See the bars or trade: results arrive as tiers and summaries, never a price series, and nothing it does places an order. | Publish, and see the bars: it receives results, never a price series. Custom primitives are closed to it. |
| Where the compute is | None. | QuanterLab's servers (what each plan runs). | Your machine. |
| What you need | A QuanterLab account. | A QuanterLab account (a free one works), and a Claude or ChatGPT account. QuanterLab is in Claude's plugin directory for Claude's paid plans (Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise); on Claude's Free plan, add the connector by hand. It is in ChatGPT's plugin directory for any ChatGPT account, free ones included. | QuanterLab Desktop with a Practitioner or Research plan, and Claude Desktop or Claude Code installed on the same machine under your own Anthropic account. |
| How to start | Open it inside the platform. | The setup steps, three for each. | Install, sign in once, then open Assistant in the desk's top bar. Download and setup. |
A common question
Through the hosted connector an assistant reads and summarises on every plan, with free runs every day on the Free plan (the table below says what each plan runs). It can backtest a rule you describe in words, run a walk-forward on it, open the paper you are thinking of and tell you which of your saved backtests rated best; it cannot see the bars or trade. At the desktop the assistant builds, runs and walks a registered study window by window, because the compute is your machine and the data stays inside the engine there. For a quick test from a chat, the connector does it; for a study you mean to publish, the desktop is the surface that does it.
Runs from an assistant
| What | Free | Practitioner | Research |
|---|---|---|---|
| In ChatGPT and Claude | |||
| Read the studies, the catalogs and your saved work | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Runs: backtests, walk-forwards, scans, stochastic methods, regime analysis and your saved lab circuits | Free runs every day | Each kind up to its daily cap: 50 backtests, 50 stochastic-method backtests, 10 walk-forwards, 10 lab circuits, 30 mean-reversion scans, 15 pairs scans, 20 regime analyses, 10 regime optimisations | The same caps |
| On every plan: 3 runs at once, on daily bars, and a refused call does not count. | |||
A run is a backtest, a walk-forward, a scan, a regime analysis or one of your saved lab circuits. A run outside your plan or past a cap is refused with a message that says why. The plans.
Under the hood
Quantin answers with a model QuanterLab chooses and pays for, and it is included in every plan. You can also have Quantin answer with a model of your own choosing, on your own Claude or ChatGPT API key: add the key with "Use your own key" in Quantin's menu, or in Settings under "Your own key", then pick one of the models the key offers. Those answers are billed to your key, not to QuanterLab; the key is stored encrypted and read only during a chat turn. With a ChatGPT key Quantin answers without the platform's tools for now.
The connector and the desktop use whatever model your own Claude or ChatGPT account runs. The platform does not pick that model and does not pay for it.
Which account
Keeping it clean
An assistant that can build and run will also cut corners unless told where they are. Four short skill files name the traps (look-ahead, survivorship, uncharged costs, multiple testing), the shape of a project that stays legible, the shape of a progress report without invented findings, and the bones of a paper. They are on the connector page, and they are plain Markdown any assistant can read.
Documentation