Local AI Apps and Tools for Mac

MLX is a machine learning array framework for researchers and developers building models on their own hardware. Its distinctive feature on Apple silicon is shared CPU and GPU memory: both processors can work on the same arrays without copying data between them. It's open source under the MIT license.

Cherry Studio is a free, open source desktop app for people who use several AI models and want their conversations in one place. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. Chats, settings and knowledge base files are stored on your device.

InvokeAI is a free, open-source image generator for artists and production teams who want to create and edit images on their own hardware. Its locally hosted web interface brings image generation, canvas editing and workflow tools into one application. With local models, prompts and artwork stay on the machine you control.

whisper.cpp runs OpenAI's Whisper speech recognition models on your own hardware, with fully offline transcription once you've downloaded a model. It's for developers building speech-to-text into applications and people who want to transcribe audio locally. Audio can stay on-device rather than going to a cloud transcription service. The project is open source under the MIT license.

Cline is an AI coding agent for developers who want help understanding a codebase and changing it. Its shared agent core is open source under Apache 2.0. You can use it in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, or a terminal. A native desktop app runs on macOS and Windows. No editor is required for desktop sessions. The JetBrains plugin itself is not open source.

Docling is an MIT-licensed, open source document parser for developers turning files into structured content for search and AI applications. It runs locally on macOS, Linux, and Windows, including in air-gapped environments. Its PDF processing identifies page layout and reading order, extracts tables, code, and formulas, and classifies images.

Screenpipe records screen activity and audio as searchable local history that AI agents can use as context. It's for people who want to recall past work and teams that want agents to draft follow-ups or update work records using what actually happened. Raw history stays on your device by default.

Goose is a general-purpose AI agent that runs on your computer. It suits people who want an agent for coding, research, writing, automation, or data analysis, without committing to one model provider. The desktop app runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux; there's also a CLI for terminal work and an API for use in other software.

MinerU parses documents locally into structured text for AI agents, RAG systems and knowledge bases. It's for people working with scanned PDFs, academic papers and Office files whose tables, formulas or page layouts need more care than plain text extraction.

Ollama runs language models on your own computer or server. It provides a command-line runner and a local API for people building AI applications or connecting existing tools to models they host themselves. The software is distributed under the MIT license.

LocalAI runs language models, speech, vision and image generation on hardware you control. It's for developers and teams that want a self-hosted AI server for their apps without sending model requests to a cloud service. Its OpenAI-compatible API works with existing clients, and it also accepts Anthropic, Ollama and ElevenLabs API calls.

Zed is a native code editor for developers who want AI coding assistance and collaboration in the same desktop app. It runs on macOS, Linux, and Windows, with a minimal interface and a focus on responsive editing. Its AI agents can work in parallel on tasks that involve editing files, exploring code, and running tools.

Unsloth brings model training and everyday AI use into a desktop app for people who want to run models on their own hardware. Its no-code interface covers chat, fine-tuning and media generation on macOS, Windows and Linux. The Unsloth software is open source under Apache 2.0.

Hunyuan3D generates textured 3D assets from reference images or text and can run on your own computer. It's for 3D artists, hobbyists and developers who want AI-generated meshes they can use in other software. It supports macOS, Windows and Linux; Hunyuan3D Studio is a separate hosted option.

Off Grid AI runs language models on iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux. You can chat, analyze documents and generate images on your own hardware. The mobile app uses the MIT license, while the desktop app uses AGPL.

Whisper Notes is an offline transcription app for iPhone, iPad and Apple Silicon Macs. It's for people recording interviews, lectures or meetings who need the audio and transcripts to stay on their device. It requires no account and has no cloud sync, analytics or tracking.

PicApport is a self-hosted photo server for families and businesses that want a searchable media archive on their own hardware. Its AI tagging add-on recognizes image content without sending photos to a cloud service and saves the resulting tags in image metadata. The server runs on Windows, Linux or macOS, with a Docker image available, and you access the gallery through a browser.

Pi is a terminal-based coding assistant for developers who want to shape the agent around their own workflow. Its core stays small, while extensions can change its tools, commands and terminal interface. It's open source under the MIT license.

agent-browser gives AI agents a compact text view of a browser page, with references that identify the exact elements they can interact with. It's for developers who want coding assistants or other agents to use websites without filling their context with a full page's HTML. The open source tool runs locally on macOS, Linux and Windows under the Apache 2.0 license.

QMD is a local search engine for people with Markdown notes, meeting transcripts, or documentation they want to search themselves or make available to an AI agent. It accepts exact keywords and natural-language queries, with indexing and model inference running on your own machine. It's open source under MIT.

OpenWhispr is a free, MIT-licensed dictation and meeting transcription app for people who want voice input across their apps with control over where processing happens. It's available on macOS, Windows, Linux and iOS. Local transcription works offline and keeps audio on your device; optional cloud transcription sends audio to the selected provider, whose retention policies apply.

Amical is a free, open-source AI dictation app that formats spoken text for the app you're using. It's for people who want voice input for email, chat, coding prompts and everyday writing, with a choice between local processing and cloud models. It runs on macOS and Windows, with mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Locally AI is a native app for running language and vision models on recent iPhones, iPads, and Macs. It's for people who want a private AI assistant on their own device, with text, image processing, and voice conversations available without cloud processing. Once a model is downloaded, it works offline and doesn't require an account.

RecurseChat is a paid Mac app for people who want to chat with AI and ask questions about their files on their own computer. It runs local LLMs without an internet connection or a server, keeping local conversations on the device. The same app also connects to Claude and ChatGPT, so you can choose local processing or a cloud provider.

Aiko is a paid, native transcription app for macOS, iOS and visionOS that processes speech on your device with OpenAI's Whisper model. It's for people turning meetings, lectures or other recordings into text while keeping the audio local, including sensitive recordings.

Perfect Memory AI keeps a searchable record of what you've seen on your screen and heard in meetings on Mac and Windows. It's for people who need to find a page, presentation or conversation again without remembering which app held it. Recordings stay on your device, and search returns material you've actually seen or heard.

GoModel is a self-hosted AI gateway for developers and platform teams that want one API for local models and cloud providers. It accepts OpenAI- and Anthropic-compatible requests, so applications can keep their existing SDKs while the gateway handles provider selection and usage controls.

picoLLM is an on-device inference SDK for developers building apps that run compressed language models on users' hardware. It generates text locally, so prompts don't need to go to a cloud inference service. Its main distinction is Picovoice's compression method, which learns how to allocate precision across model weights rather than applying a fixed allocation.

LLMKube is a free, open-source Kubernetes operator for teams and homelab owners running local LLM inference across their own hardware. It manages Linux GPU servers and Apple Silicon Macs together, so a mixed fleet can serve models through the same platform. It uses the Apache 2.0 license.

asitop is a terminal hardware monitor for Apple Silicon Macs, with separate views of CPU, GPU and Apple Neural Engine activity. Its README targets Apple Silicon on macOS Monterey; hardware-counter availability can differ on newer macOS releases. It runs locally and suits people who want to watch hardware use during demanding workloads, including local AI inference. It's free and open source under the MIT license.

Demucs separates a finished song into vocals, drums, bass and the remaining accompaniment on your own computer. It's for musicians who need individual stems or a vocal-free backing track, and developers building audio tools. The project is archived and no longer maintained. Its Python code is open source under the MIT license.

Seed-VC changes recorded speech or singing to sound like a voice supplied in a short reference clip, without training a separate model for that speaker. It runs locally on Windows, Linux and Apple Silicon Macs, with uses in audio production, live streaming and online meetings. The project is archived and no longer maintained.

AI Render is a Blender add-on that uses your scene and a text prompt to generate an image with Stable Diffusion. It's for Blender artists who want to use their 3D work as the basis for AI images and explore different treatments within the application they already use.

mcp-proxy is a self-hosted tool for connecting AI clients and MCP servers that use different connection types. It's for developers who need a stdio client, such as Claude Desktop, to reach an SSE or Streamable HTTP server, or who want remote clients to access a local stdio server. The proxy runs on your own machine or server.

digiKam is a local photo manager and image editor for photographers who need to organize large collections of photos, RAW files and videos. It runs on Linux, Windows and macOS and is open-source software under GPL-2.0. Its archived GitHub mirror points contributors to the maintained KDE repository.

Kangaroo is a desktop SQL client and database administration app for developers and database administrators who work across different database systems. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and includes an AI assistant for help with database problems alongside its query and design tools.