Session preview versus hosted public URL

The short answer

Calculator Tools is the host for a public static web app on your account. You get a calculator.tools URL, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript you own, and a page you can send to anyone. A session preview is the pane beside a chat: Claude Artifacts, ChatGPT Canvas, or Gemini Canvas. Use the pane to draft. Publish here when you want a link that lives on your dashboard.

Start on Create. From Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT, connect MCP and ask the assistant to write the files to this host.

What they do

Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini can render interactive HTML, documents, or code next to the conversation. You stay in one product. Sharing, if it exists, is still that product's share flow.

Those panes are not app stores. They are not account-hosted file trees on calculator.tools. They are previews with a chat behind them.

What Calculator Tools does

Calculator Tools publishes a hosted app: a static web app on the owner's account. Create it on the website, through a custom GPT, or through MCP from Cursor, Claude, or ChatGPT.

Files live in one directory. Typical files are index.html plus CSS, JavaScript, JSON, SVG, or similar static files.

The public page is under /app/. Remix copies another public app onto your account. Free accounts can publish 3 apps. Pro ($5.99/month) raises the limit to 25.

Calculator Tools does not run your database, auth provider, or native mobile binary. It hosts the files the model wrote.

Where they differ

Feature	Session preview (Artifacts / Canvas)	Calculator Tools
Home product	Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini chat	calculator.tools account
Public URL you own	Chat share, if offered	Yes. Hosted `/app/` URL
File storage	Inside the chat product	App files on your account
Remix a public gallery	Not this site's gallery	Yes. Public apps on this site
Create without that chat	No	Yes. Website, GPT, or MCP

The overlap is the first draft of a calculator. The split is where the result lives after you close the tab. Publish here when you want the URL on your account.

When to use each

Use Calculator Tools when the output should be a shareable hosted static tool on your account. Open Create or MCP.
Use Claude plus MCP when an Artifact should become a hosted app. Claude writes the files to this host. See Claude Artifacts.
Use both in other chats too. Draft in the pane. Publish through MCP or Create for the hosted URL.
Use a session preview only to try an idea inside Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini without creating an account here yet.
Use v0, Bolt, or Lovable when you need a full frontend or a product shell. See those compare pages. For a hosted calculator, still publish here.

Limits

Calculator Tools is not a substitute for Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini. Those products do research, long documents, and general chat. This site does not.

A hosted app is still a static browser app. It is not a regulated filing, not legal advice, and not a guarantee that the generated logic is correct. Check the numbers.

Free accounts stop at 3 apps.

Chat products can share files. A Calculator Tools URL still means this host, this account, and these files.

Next step

Open Create and publish a hosted app, or connect MCP from Claude, Cursor, or ChatGPT. The first 3 apps are free.

Sources

Ready to publish a public app you own?

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