Your M-series Mac shares one pool of memory between the CPU and the GPU, so a model can use almost all of your RAM as if it were a graphics card. That hardware sits idle most of the day while you pay 20 dollars a month to send your prompts to someone else's server. Off Grid AI Desktop is a free, open-source app that runs language models directly on your Mac.
and grab the latest macOS build, or clone and build it yourself. Yes. Free and open source under AGPL-3.0. There is no paywall on local chat or the Models browser. Yes. Once a model is downloaded, the app needs no network. The download step is the only thing that touches the internet. Any compatible GGUF model. Gemma and Qwen are good starting points. You browse and download them inside the app. 8 GB runs a small model. 16 GB is comfortable for 7B-class models. 32 GB and up lets you run 14B models with a long context window. Only while a model is generating, and only as much as you let it. Pick a smaller model or shorter context if you want headroom for other work. Your prompts never leave the machine. No account, no telemetry, and the source is public so you can verify it. Run a real model on your own Mac today, with nothing leaving your drive.
git clone https://github.com/off-grid-ai/desktop
cd desktop
npm install
npm run dev
What's Coming
FAQ
Q: Is it actually free?
Q: Does it really work offline?
Q: Which models can I run?
Q: How much RAM do I need?
Q: Will this slow down my Mac?
Q: Is my data private?
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