A Privacy-First, GDPR-Friendly Collaborative LaTeX Editor
By Shihab Shahriar Antor · Updated October 2026 · 5 min read
LetX is a privacy-first collaborative LaTeX editor built for researchers who need to keep unpublished work confidential. It never uses your documents to train AI, supports real-time collaboration, and runs in the browser, a practical, GDPR-friendly choice for EU universities, labs, and students wary of sending research into AI-training pipelines.
Why privacy matters for research writing
Your unpublished thesis, grant proposal, or paper is sensitive intellectual property. A growing number of AI-native editors send that text into model-training pipelines by default. For EU researchers and anyone handling confidential or pre-publication work, that is a real concern, both for competitive reasons and for institutional data-protection compliance.
How LetX is different
- AI only when you use it. Never trained on your work. On the free plan, text goes to an AI model only when you ask Lexi something; paid plans add inline suggestions, which you can switch off. Your documents are never used to train AI models.
- Independent infrastructure. LetX is not part of any large AI vendor’s ecosystem. When you use an AI feature, the relevant text goes to Google Cloud Vertex AI, whose terms bar it from training on what we send.
- You own your source. Export the full LaTeX source and PDF at any time, no lock-in.
- Real-time collaboration with unlimited collaborators, so a lab works together without per-seat costs.
A practical choice for EU institutions
For universities and labs subject to the GDPR, an editor that does not train on user content and lets you export and delete your data is far easier to justify than one that ingests unpublished research into an AI model. LetX pairs that privacy stance with fast compiles, 1000+ templates including European university thesis formats, and multilingual support via Unicode / babel.
Privacy is a policy and product stance, not legal advice. For formal compliance, review your institution’s data-protection requirements. LetX’s position (no training on user data, full export, independent infrastructure), is designed to make that review straightforward.
If unpublished research must not enter an AI training pipeline, choose an editor that makes AI opt-in and says so in writing rather than one that defaults you in.
If you need documents stored and processed inside the EU, choose an EU-hosted editor such as inscrive.
If you need unpublished work kept out of AI training, use LetX: your documents are never used to train AI.
If you are bound by a data processing agreement your institution must sign, ask any vendor for it before you migrate, including us.
Write privately, collaborate in real time, free.
Open LetX FreeFrequently asked questions
Is there a private, GDPR-friendly LaTeX editor?
LetX is a privacy-first collaborative LaTeX editor that never trains AI on your documents, lets you export and delete your work, and runs on independent infrastructure, a practical, GDPR-friendly choice for EU researchers.
Does LetX use my documents to train AI?
No. Your documents are never used to train AI models, and you decide when the AI in LetX runs.
Can my whole lab collaborate privately?
Yes. LetX offers real-time collaboration with unlimited collaborators at no per-seat cost, while keeping your documents private and never using them for AI training.
Can I export my work and leave any time?
Yes. You can download the full LaTeX source and the compiled PDF at any time. There is no lock-in. Your project is yours.
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Written by Shihab Shahriar Antor , AI Engineer & Founder of Shahriar Labs. Builder of LetX (collaborative LaTeX) and offSchool (SSC science and maths, learned through simulations).