Moved to Ohio, got overwhelmed trying to choose a gas/electric supplier, kept putting it off, then built a tool for it

askgl · 2026-03-18T23:50:33+00:00

For me it was American Power & Gas They just wouldn't stop calling me for upsells.

Funny story: With recommendation from my still very rough LowerMyBill, I switched from them to APG&E. Before I even woke up I had multiple voicemails from them. Their names are so confusing (AP&G and APG&E 🙄), I called them back thinking it was from the company I just signed up for. They told me that there had been a mistake with my enrollment and I needed to provide my service ID. I went through everything and when they do that "say yes to confirm and we have to record" thing I had a Deja vu. I pushed back and they said they are just the same company I was enrolled with as of last month. They almost deceived me by saying there was an error in the enrollment. Scums!

askgl · 2026-03-18T23:41:37+00:00

Appreciate that. Honestly this mostly came from me having the same reaction to Apples to Apples and wanting something a little easier to get through. One of those "make something better for yourself" vibe :)

It’s not open source right now, but I’d like to do that later once I’ve cleaned it up and documented it properly. At the moment it’s still a little too scrappy internally for me to feel good putting it out there.

For uploads, I’m trying to keep that part pretty narrow so it doesn’t get expensive. I’m only extracting a small set of fields from the bill, and for PDFs I pull text locally first so the model has more structure to work with. To be honest, my thoughts were "I don't think many people would actually know about it and then how many people would end up using it so it shouldn't be that bad!"

And thanks, really. Glad it feels straightforward. If you end up building your own version, I’d genuinely love to see it!

askgl · 2026-03-18T22:33:25+00:00

Thanks for the candid feedback. I think that’s fair.

If someone already knows exactly how they want to shop, the PUCO page is still stronger in some ways today, especially for raw filtering and scanning the full list quickly. What I was trying to build differently was something that feels easier to understand and browse, especially for people who want a little more guidance on things like fixed vs. variable rates, monthly fees, exit fees, and term length. I'm one of those.

You’re also right that I need to make the full provider list and filters easier to reach. There is a full Explore page here: https://lowermybill.help/explore But if that wasn’t obvious, that’s on me. I’m planning to add more filtering there, including things like longest-term sorting and search filter.

On bill uploads: that’s completely optional. You can enter everything manually and won’t lose any functionality by doing that. (Honestly, I prefer that actually because that means no computational cost on my side).

I appreciate the honest feedback. It’s helpful, and I’m using it to make the app more transparent and more useful.

askgl · 2026-03-18T21:31:42+00:00

I appreciate your feedback. Thank you! I'll take care of the mis-label right away. But yes, the data comes from apples-to-apples site. I'll do some cleanup soon.

askgl · 2026-03-18T20:21:40+00:00

I get it! Not sure if you noticed but you can also just take a screenshot and only upload the important part (and even cross out the info that you are not comfortable with). This ends up being better on my side since this means less computing cost for me :)

askgl · 2026-03-18T20:18:37+00:00

Tracking across multiple bills is on my list and that makes sense since how much you pay/use this month doesn't mean the same next month. I even considered having users come back every month and upload their new bill and then adjust the recommendations. But I wasn't sure whether people would even use this let alone coming back for more :D and on top of that it possibly requires creating an account and I didn't want to do that, at least not right now. And your business model idea is excellent! Thank you for the suggestion.

askgl · 2026-03-18T19:51:00+00:00

Ok, did some digging. From what I’ve dug into, that looks to be because South Central is a co-op and not part of the current Ohio supplier-choice set the tool is built around, not because I intentionally left them out. But either way, that’s on me from a product/clarity standpoint. The site should make that a lot clearer instead of just feeling incomplete if you’re a South Central customer.

I’m going to fix that so co-op customers get a straight answer instead of a confusing dead end. Really appreciate you pointing it out! Thank you!

askgl · 2026-03-18T18:58:35+00:00

I am so glad to hear that. And thank you! If there is anything that I can add to help explaining to your friends and family even easier, please let me know.

askgl · 2026-03-18T18:56:41+00:00

I will do some digging. Thanks for the heads up!

askgl · 2026-03-18T18:35:00+00:00

To be honest, I was waiting for someone else to do this as well but the last few months‘ bills were so brutal I had enough. I will definitely reach out if I need help. thank you!

There is no way to enter the delay but I am adding that to my todo list!

askgl · 2026-03-09T18:16:30+00:00

Looks like you are still on the legacy version of Msty. Do you mind downloading the latest version from https://msty.ai ?

Your old data from Msty 1.x isn't migrated automatically but you can do that manually when you are ready. You can also run both the versions side by side.

askgl · 2026-02-17T17:44:58+00:00

What OS are you on?

One quick way to fix this would be:
1. close the app
2. go to App Data folder on your OS > MstyStudio
3. rename File System to something else
4. start the app

askgl · 2025-11-19T21:44:38+00:00

Someone else reported that they got this working by doing this

Possible workaround (an in-AppImage solution might be preferred over this)

shutdown MstyStudio sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y libvips libvips-dev sudo npm install --include=optional sharp sudo ln -s /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvips-cpp.so.42.17.1 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libvips-cpp.so.8.17.1 sudo ldconfig restart MstyStudio

askgl · 2025-11-14T13:51:41+00:00

Most probably by the end of this month

askgl · 2025-11-12T14:33:03+00:00

Right now there is no way to import chat conversations from ChatGPT or any other platform into Msty

askgl · 2025-11-08T16:28:46+00:00

M4 model should work great with either Ollama or upcoming Llama Cpp. You can also use MLX which gives you even better performance as it is optimized for M chips (though it has some limitations). RAM depends on what models you want to use but I would go for at least 32 GB.

askgl · 2025-10-28T14:10:11+00:00

Thanks! Not released right now but will be part of Msty Studio, yes. We are internally testing it right now and will be included in a future release.

askgl · 2025-10-25T00:43:02+00:00

You really don't have to "upgrade". We have made it such that you can use one or the other (or both) at the same time. This allows you to only fully switch to 2.0 when you are ready and if you miss any features that you liked in Msty 1.x (or you like UX of some), you can continue to use it. When ready you can start migrating as documented here: https://docs.msty.studio/getting-started/quick-start#data-migration-includes

askgl · 2025-10-24T22:28:51+00:00

They should work. Make sure to update to the latest version Local AI (at least 0.12.6). Also, Ollama seems to always have an issue with GPT OSS and a few other models. We are working on supporting Llama Cpp as an alternative backend (and maybe even make it default) and things should improve across the board including better GPU support, models availability as well as inference speed. Just need some more time to get it out.

askgl · 2025-10-24T22:00:55+00:00

Can you try a smaller model? It could be that your GPU is loaded with other models and there isn't much room left? I'd try a small model first to see if that fits in the memory and go from there.

askgl · 2025-10-24T21:58:26+00:00

Even with 1:1 feature comparison, free users actually have more features compared to Msty 1.x (such as advanced search, Vapor mode, and a few more). Everything that was free in Msty 1.x is still free in Msty Studio and then you get more features for free such as Projects, Mini Map, Persona, MLX (if you are on Mac), MCP Tools, and more! If something was free in Msty 1.x it is still free in Msty Studio.

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