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Best AI for eye care

Ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians are seeing more and more people with diabetes, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), while waiting times to see an ophthalmologist in the Netherlands can run to as long as eighteen months. AI analyses a retinal photo or OCT scan within a minute and shows who needs to see an ophthalmologist quickly and who does not. Since 2022, the Dutch guideline on diabetic retinopathy includes a module on automated screening with AI. Across the EU, at least 13 AI systems are now CE-certified for detecting diabetic retinopathy, including RetCAD from Nijmegen. Optician chains also offer AI retinal screening in store. In addition, the optical sector uses AI for virtual try-on of glasses and for measuring pupillary distance. The ophthalmologist or optometrist remains responsible for diagnosis and referral.

Professional tool with the strongest GDPR profileRetinaLyzeGDPR: Good
  • Provider based in the EU
  • Publishes certification/GDPR safeguards
View the tool
General model: the default choiceClaudeGDPR: Strong
  • Editorial score 9.0 of 10
  • Elo 1506
Claude for eye care
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Watch out in this field

Retinal images are health data and therefore special category personal data under the GDPR. Software that assesses images is a medical device: check the CE class under the MDR (usually IIa or IIb) and whether the algorithm has been validated for your camera or OCT device. Some tools are for 'research use only'. Choose a provider with a data processing agreement, ISO 27001 and ISO 13485, and clear data location (EU hosting or on-premise). Ask whether your images are used to train models. Opticians without a medical background may screen and refer, but not make a diagnosis. Explain in your client communication what an AI result does and does not mean. Under the EU AI Act, medical AI counts as high risk.

All 26 options

Professional tools with the strongest published GDPR safeguards first, then general assistants by suitability.

26options, 14 field-specific
8free to try
8professional tools from NL or EU
6GDPR strong or good
Good · 2Limited · 9Unknown · 3
#SolutionQualityQuality from blind duels on LMArena: users choose between two anonymous answers. A difference of about 20 points is noticeable, a few points is noise. How we measurePriceGDPROur summary of what the provider itself publishes about your data. For a professional tool: whether the data is held in the EU, whether there is a certification or GDPR guarantee, and whether the provider is based in the Netherlands or the EU. For a general model: EU hosting, no training on your data and self-hosting. From Strong to Unknown; Caution only applies to a model with a documented problem. How we measure
1RetinaLyze professional toolRetinaLyze System A/S (Copenhagen, DK); in NL via EyeVinci (Heemstede) · EU · free to tryDanish AI screening for fundus photos and OCT scans, with telemedicine and digital referral. In the Netherlands it is aimed at opticians and optometrists via EyeVinci.own modelon request (30 days free tria…Good2Fittingbox professional toolFittingbox (Labège, FR) · EUFrench system that lets customers virtually try on glasses online or in store. Features 3D frames and pupillary distance measurement.own modelon requestGood3iCare RETCAD professional toolIcare Finland / Revenio (developed by Thirona Retina, Nijmegen, NL) · EUAI from Nijmegen that assesses a retinal photo in about a minute for diabetic retinopathy, AMD and glaucoma. Aimed at ophthalmologists and opticians.own modelon requestLimited4MONA DR professional toolMONA.health (Leuven, BE) · EUBelgian AI software that assesses fundus photos for diabetic retinopathy and maculopathy, so a nurse or assistant can carry out the screening.own modelon requestLimited5Retmarker professional toolRetmarker (Coimbra, PT) · EUPortuguese AI for diabetic retinopathy screening programmes, plus a biomarker to predict the risk of serious complications.own modelon requestLimited6RetInSight Fluid Monitor professional toolRetInSight (Vienna, AT; part of Topcon Healthcare) · EUAustrian AI that detects and measures fluid in OCT scans, to monitor patients with wet AMD.own modelon requestLimited7deepeye TPS professional tooldeepeye Medical (Munich, DE) · EUGerman AI assistant that reads every OCT scan a second time and helps plan injection treatment for wet AMD.own modelon requestLimited8Topcon Harmony professional toolTopcon Healthcare (EU headquarters in Capelle aan den IJssel, NL)Web platform that brings together examination data from devices of different brands, with telecare and integrated AI for ophthalmologists and optometrists.own modelon requestLimited9OphtAI professional toolEvolucare Technologies (Villers-Bretonneux, FR) · EUFrench AI that analyses fundus photographs for diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. You use it in the browser, as a desktop app or via an API in your own software.own modelon requestLimited10RetinAI Discovery (OCT Atlas) professional toolIkerian AG, formerly RetinAI Medical (Bern, CH)Swiss platform for eye images in which the OCT Atlas model segments and measures retinal layers, fluid and biomarkers on OCT scans. Intended for assessment and follow-up of AMD, diabetic retinopathy, DME and glaucoma.own modelon requestLimited11Altris AI professional toolAltris, Inc. (Chicago, US) · free to tryBrowser software that analyses retinal OCT scans and, according to the provider, recognises 70+ biomarkers and pathologies, with severity scores for triage. Works with OCT devices from multiple brands and also targets optometrists.own modelon request (2 weeks free trial)Limited12EyeArt professional toolEyenuk (San Francisco, USA)American AI that autonomously assesses retinal photos for diabetic retinopathy and, in Europe, also for AMD and glaucoma.own modelon requestUnknown13LumineticsCore (voorheen IDx-DR) professional toolDigital Diagnostics (Coralville, USA)Autonomous AI that gives a diabetic retinopathy diagnosis within 30 seconds, without a doctor reviewing the images first.own modelon requestUnknown14Remidio Medios AI professional toolRemidio (Bangalore, IN)Indian retinal photo screening that works offline on the device. Suitable for locations without a good internet connection.own modelon requestUnknown15Claude generalAnthropicFamily of language models from Anthropic that excels at long documents, careful reasoning, coding and reliable, safe output.1506Elo$20 / monthStrong16Gemini generalGoogleGoogle DeepMind's natively multimodal model family, deeply integrated into Workspace, with a very large context window.1527Elo€4.99 / monthStrong17ChatGPT generalOpenAIOpenAI's versatile, agentic flagship with a very large context window and a broad ecosystem of integrations.1485Elo$8 / monthStrong18Copilot generalMicrosoftMicrosoft's AI layer that combines GPT and Claude models with your own organisational data and the Microsoft 365 apps.1485Elofrom €10 / monthCaution19Le Chat (Mistral) generalMistral AIFrench/European AI lab with open-weight and commercial models and the Le Chat assistant, with EU data residency as its core proposition.1426Elo$14.99 / monthStrong20Qwen generalAlibaba Cloud · free to tryChinese model family from Alibaba Cloud with a free chat app, a large open-weight catalogue and the proprietary flagship Qwen3.8-Max with 1 million tokens of context.1484Eloon requestCaution21GLM (Z.ai) generalZ.ai (Zhipu AI) · free to tryChinese AI lab (Zhipu, international Z.ai) with the open-weight GLM family under MIT licence, particularly strong at programming and agent tasks at low prices.1483Elo$18 / monthCaution22Kimi generalMoonshot AI · free to tryChinese AI lab (Moonshot AI) with the open-weight Kimi K2 family and an assistant that focuses strongly on agents, deep research and long documents.1487Elo$19 / monthCaution23Grok generalxAIThe model from xAI, integrated into X, distinguished by real-time access to live X posts and web data.1471Elo$10 / monthCaution24DeepSeek generalDeepSeek · free to tryOpen-weight (MIT) Chinese language model with a 1M context window and a built-in reasoning mode, at very low API costs.1475Eloon requestCaution25Perplexity generalPerplexity AI · free to tryUS AI search engine that delivers answers with source citations via its own Sonar models and external frontier models, with separate Enterprise agreements on data use.–Elo$20 / monthUnknown26Llama generalMeta · free to tryMeta's natively multimodal, open-weight Mixture-of-Experts family (Scout and Maverick), free to download and self-host.–Eloon requestCaution
Download as CSV Quality: LMArena · prices: OpenRouter and providers · as of 9 November 2026

Last checked: 6 November 2026 · How we check

How to get started in eye care

  1. Try this weekStart free with RetinaLyze on non-confidential work. In an hour you will get a feel for what AI can do in eye care.
  2. Sort the basics (GDPR)Choose the business variant, sign a data processing agreement and turn off training on your data. See the GDPR check per option.
  3. Go further with field softwareBook a demo with RetinaLyze: built for eye care, with the strongest published safeguards.

Where AI does the most in this field

The core tasks we track for this profession. Tools in the list above can be compared on these tasks.

  1. 1Capture, assess and archive retinal photos and OCT scans (fundus, OCT, visual field)
  2. 2Screen for diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and AMD and refer in good time
  3. 3Monitor patients with wet AMD and schedule injection treatments
  4. 4Advise optical clients on frames and lenses, in store and online (fitting, pupillary distance)

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Frequently asked questions

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The full Safety grid

What is the best AI for eye care?

It depends on your requirements. Field-specific solutions such as RetinaLyze are built for eye care; general assistants such as Claude are more broadly usable and cheaper to get started with. At the top of this page you'll find our picks.

What is the difference between a 'field-specific tool' and a 'general assistant'?

A general assistant (such as ChatGPT or Claude) is a clever all-rounder you chat with yourself. A field-specific tool is a ready-made product for eye care, often built on top of such an assistant, with its own specialist knowledge, integrations and GDPR arrangements. The 'Quality' column shows which model a tool runs on.

May I use confidential data?

Retinal images are health data and therefore special category personal data under the GDPR. Software that assesses images is a medical device: check the CE class under the MDR (usually IIa or IIb) and whether the algorithm has been validated for your camera or OCT device. Some tools are for 'research use only'. Choose a provider with a data processing agreement, ISO 27001 and ISO 13485, and clear data location (EU hosting or on-premise). Ask whether your images are used to train models. Opticians without a medical background may screen and refer, but not make a diagnosis. Explain in your client communication what an AI result does and does not mean. Under the EU AI Act, medical AI counts as high risk.

What does the GDPR profile mean?

Our summary of what the provider publishes about data protection: EU hosting, no training on your data, certifications and provenance. 'Strong' = several safeguards published; 'Unknown' = the provider shares little, so ask them. It is a tool, not legal advice.