
AI ASSISTANT · WORTH A LOOK
Osaurus
Free, open-source (MIT) Mac app for running AI models and agents on your own computer.
What Osaurus does
Free, open-source (MIT) Mac app for running AI models and agents on your own computer. Osaurus downloads open models (Gemma, Qwen, Liquid's LFM3 and others) and runs them locally on Apple Silicon with MLX, so chats, files and memory stay on the Mac and it works with Wi-Fi off. It also has agents with tools (file search, reading files, running code in a sandbox), persistent memory, MCP support and an optional switch to cloud models. Windows and iPhone versions are in public beta.
Good for
- Summarise or search confidential documents on your own Mac without uploading them
- Offline AI assistant for travel or locked-down networks
- Try small open models such as LFM3 for free before paying for an API
- Run local agents that read a folder of files and answer with file and line references
Try this in 10 minutes
- Summarise or search confidential documents on your own Mac without uploading them. Use the free plan: pick one real example from your own business and try just that.
- Offline AI assistant for travel or locked-down networks. Put the result next to how you do it today. Is it faster, cheaper or better?
- Try small open models such as LFM3 for free before paying for an API. Note what you had to fix by hand before you'd show it to a customer.
Mini-tasks based on common small-business uses for this tool.
Honest take
No red flags in our notes so far
- Good first local-AI app for a non-technical Mac user: install, pick a model, turn Wi-Fi off.
- If nothing should leave the Mac even when online, untick usage sharing at setup and turn off crash reporting under Settings, Privacy.
- Requirements: macOS 15.5 or later on Apple Silicon (M1 or newer), 2-20 GB of disk per local model.
- Install with brew install --cask osaurus or the DMG from osaurus.ai or GitHub (about 80 MB; a 3.6 GB build bundles a model for offline use straight away).
- Open source on GitHub (osaurus-ai/osaurus, MIT, about 8,100 stars on 29 Oct 2026).
- Privacy, from the source code (commit a051a36, 28 Oct 2026): local models run on the Mac, and with Wi-Fi off nothing can be sent.
- When online, the app checks for updates (Sparkle), crash reporting through Sentry is on unless switched off (Settings, Privacy), and the anonymous usage-data box (Aptabase) is pre-ticked during onboarding.
- The privacy policy at osaurus.ai/privacy describes diagnostic and usage data as opt-in and says chats, prompts, files and keys are not included.
- The 28 Oct LFM3 demo (37 s video) used fictional sample data on a Mac with 64 GB of RAM, running LFM3 1.7B (MLX 8-bit); the agent searched and read the folder in chunks over 29 steps in about 1.5 minutes rather than taking in the whole file at once, and the video does not open the cited files.
Our Hype or Fact? checks
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Pricing
Free (MIT licensed, no account) for local models. Optional Osaurus Cloud credits for hosted models; Workspaces for teams $20 per workspace per month (introductory rate, 14-day trial).
Prices as listed by the maker when we last checked (2026-10-29); usually in US dollars. Check the website for current prices.
Latest update
- 2026-10-28: Release 0.25.28 added Liquid AI's LFM3 models, about 13 hours after Liquid's launch post; demo video shows LFM3 1.7B answering questions over a sample case folder with Wi-Fi off.
- : Osaurus (free, MIT-licensed Mac app for local AI) added Liquid AI's new LFM3 models in release 0.25.28 on 28 Oct. Its demo runs LFM3-1.7B with Wi-Fi off on fictional sample case files; the agent searched and read the files in chunks over 29 steps on a 64 GB Mac, and the cited files are not shown. LFM3 benchmarks are Liquid's own. Fact or hype: partly fact.
Is Osaurus worth it? Quick answers
Is Osaurus worth it?
Osaurus is worth a look if it matches a job you already do (AI assistant). Good first local-AI app for a non-technical Mac user: install, pick a model, turn Wi-Fi off. There is a free tier, so you can test it before paying.
How much does Osaurus cost?
Free (MIT licensed, no account) for local models. Optional Osaurus Cloud credits for hosted models; Workspaces for teams $20 per workspace per month (introductory rate, 14-day trial).
What is Osaurus used for?
Free, open-source (MIT) Mac app for running AI models and agents on your own computer. Typical uses: summarise or search confidential documents on your own Mac without uploading them; offline AI assistant for travel or locked-down networks; try small open models such as LFM3 for free before paying for an API.