Offline AI assistant for Mac
Cloud chatbots stop working the moment you lose signal. An offline AI assistant runs the model on your Mac, so it keeps working on a plane, on the road, or anywhere with no Wi-Fi — and your data never leaves your device.
How offline AI works
Instead of sending your prompt to a server, an offline assistant loads an open-source model onto your Mac and runs it on your own hardware. Once the model is downloaded, no connection is needed. That also makes it private by default.
What you need
- An Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later); 16 GB RAM for 7–8B models, 8 GB for smaller models.
- A local model downloaded once (e.g. Mistral 7B, Llama 3.1 8B, Gemma 3 4B).
- An app to run it — Lyra manages this for you.
Set it up with Lyra
Lyra is a native macOS app that runs local models offline, picks the right model per prompt, and includes on-device voice. Download a model once from the built-in picker and you can use it with no internet. Lyra Local is free for the first 100,000 users.
Download Lyra free →FAQ
Can I use an AI assistant offline?
Yes — if the model runs locally. Lyra runs open-source models on your Mac, so it works offline, including airplane mode.
Is offline AI private?
Yes — local processing means prompts stay on your device.