Airplane AI app icon

The NDA-safe AI that even works in airplane mode.

A state-of-the-art local AI model running entirely on your Mac. Your prompts never leave the device. Works offline, on a plane, behind a firewall, on sensitive client work. No cloud, no account, no API key, no subscription, no telemetry. GDPR-compliant by construction.

macOS 15+ Apple Silicon 16 GB RAM 100% Local
Airplane AI showing 10 real offline conversations
Safe by construction

The NDA-safe AI.

Nothing ever leaves your Mac — not even in the background. Enforced by the macOS sandbox, not by policy.

✈︎

Works in airplane mode. Literally.

Zero network code paths. No URLSession, no sockets, no telemetry SDKs in the binary. Auditable. You can drop Wi-Fi mid-sentence and keep typing.

🔒

NDA-safe for the general case.

Your prompts, attachments, and responses never leave the device. Nothing is sent to a vendor, cached on a server, or used to train a model. For typical confidentiality clauses that prohibit disclosure to third-party cloud services, Airplane AI removes the disclosure vector entirely.*

🇪🇺

GDPR-compliant by construction.

No personal data is transmitted, stored on a remote server, or processed by a third party — there is no third party. Article 6 lawful basis and Article 28 processor agreements don't apply when no processor exists. Your SwiftData store lives in your user container and stays there.

🛡

Sandboxed to a single entitlement.

The app ships with com.apple.security.app-sandbox and nothing else. No network, no outgoing connections, no file-system access outside its own container. CI blocks the build if forbidden symbols (URLSession, NWConnection, WKWebView, analytics SDKs) appear anywhere in the binary.

⌛︎

One purchase. Yours forever.

€29.99 one-time on the Mac App Store. No subscription. No per-seat pricing. No kill-switch. Your copy keeps working on macOS 15+ whether we ship new versions or not.

🧠

Real model. Real answers.

A state-of-the-art local AI model, Metal-accelerated on Apple Silicon. Streams tokens sub-second after warmup. Not a demo, not a toy — real open-weight quality, running locally. What model and why →

* "NDA-safe for the general case" means that for typical NDAs prohibiting disclosure to third-party cloud services or generative AI vendors, Airplane AI eliminates the disclosure path because no such vendor exists in the data flow. Some NDAs have unusual clauses — always read your specific agreement. We can't read it for you.

The problem

Cloud AI breaks the same way, every time.

On a flight

Wi-Fi just died.

Cloud AI: offline. Airplane AI: keeps going.

Rate-limited

"You've reached your limit."

Upgrade, wait, or log in again. Airplane AI has no limit.

Confidential

You can't send that out.

NDA. Medical. Legal. Airplane AI never leaves your Mac.

See it work

Ten real conversations. Wi-Fi off.

Screenshots from the actual app — every response generated on-device by the bundled Gemma model.

×Safer bash copy — multi-turn coding chat ×SwiftUI view not updating — debugging chat ×Vienna weekend plan — travel chat ×Formal wording rewrite — writing chat ×Japanese then Spanish translation ×Tokyo noir opening — creative writing ×Grammar fix and explanation ×Context window explainer ×Miles, feet, and marathon kilometres ×Product launch memo
vs. cloud AI

Works when they don't.

Airplane AI ChatGPT Claude Gemini
Works offline / airplane mode
Data stays on your Mac
No account required
No subscription
GDPR-compliant by construction
No training on your data
Works behind a firewall
No rate limits
Works during outages
On-device speech
Command line

Also yours to script.

The same app runs from the terminal. Single shot, named chats, resumable context.

$ airplaneai -p "What is 2+2?"
4. That is the sum of two and two.

$ airplaneai -p "Explain closures" -n "swift-learning"
A closure is a function together with the variables it captured from its
surrounding scope…

$ airplaneai -p "Give me an example" -n "swift-learning" --continue
Sure — here's a minimal Swift closure that captures a counter…

$ airplaneai --list
swift-learning     (4 msgs)
How it works

Install. Open. Chat.

No API keys. No sign-up. No configuration.

1. Download Airplane AI.
Mac App Store or build from source. The Gemma model is bundled inside — no separate download.
2. Open the app.
It verifies the model, loads it onto your Metal GPU, and you're ready in seconds.
3. Chat.
Type. Paste images. Drag documents. Hit the mic. Everything stays on your Mac.
The model

Gemma 3n E4B, quantized for your Mac.

We ship Google's open-weight Gemma 3n Effective-4B model (~4B-param quality, mixture-of-experts design). Q4_K_M quantization keeps the weights dense enough to stay sharp on writing, coding, and reasoning while fitting comfortably in 16 GB of RAM with headroom for the OS, browser, and your real work.

Why Gemma 3n. Open weights (Gemma Terms of Use), state-of-the-art efficiency at this size class, multilingual, handles code, respects instructions, and runs well under llama.cpp with Metal acceleration. No vendor lock-in — the same weights are public and auditable.

Why Q4_K_M. Four-bit K-means quantization preserves almost all of the reasoning quality of the full model while cutting RAM use by ~4x. It's the sweet spot between file size and answer quality for 16–24 GB Macs.

Model
Gemma 3n E4B (instruct)
Format
GGUF, Q4_K_M quantization
Inference
llama.cpp, Metal accelerated
Context window
up to 8K tokens
Minimum RAM
16 GB
Recommended RAM
24 GB for best speed
Model size on disk
~4.5 GB (bundled)
Time to first token
sub-second after warmup (24 GB class)
Streaming
live token-by-token, cancelable < 150 ms
Verification
SHA-256 checked at launch
Network
zero — model is bundled, never downloaded
Training on your data
never — weights are frozen
Before you download

Every question, answered.

Is it safe for NDA-bound work?
For the general case, yes. Your prompts never leave your Mac — nothing is sent to a vendor, cached on a server, or used to train a model. If your NDA prohibits disclosure to third-party cloud / generative-AI services, Airplane AI removes that disclosure path entirely. Always read your specific NDA — unusual clauses exist.
Is it GDPR-compliant?
By construction. No personal data is transmitted, stored remotely, or processed by a third party — there is no third party. Article 28 processor agreements don't apply when no processor exists. The only data on disk is your local SwiftData store, inside your user sandbox.
Does it really work in airplane mode?
Yes — literally. Drop Wi-Fi mid-sentence, it keeps going. Zero network code paths in the binary. Verified by a CI script that fails the build if URLSession, NWConnection, or any analytics SDK ever appears.
What does it cost?
€29.99 one-time on the Mac App Store. No subscription, no per-seat pricing, no kill-switch. Your copy keeps working forever.
Will it replace ChatGPT?
No. For deep research and the latest knowledge, cloud AI is still better. Most days you don't need it — and on the days you need privacy, you can't use it.
Do I need an account or API key?
No. Just a Mac.
Is the bundled model good enough?
For what you actually ask every day? Yes. It handles code, writing, analysis, translation. See the model spec →
How much RAM do I need?
16 GB minimum, 24 GB recommended for best throughput. Apple Silicon only (M1 or newer).
How big is the model?
~4.5 GB bundled inside the app. Memory-mapped at launch, so it doesn't eat all your RAM.
Multimodal?
Yes. Paste images (Apple Vision OCR), drag documents, hold the mic. All processed on-device.
Install

One download. One minute.

Mac App Store — €29.99

One purchase. No subscription. Includes the GUI and the airplaneai CLI.

View on GitHub
Needs

Three things.

macOS 15+Sequoia or later
Apple SiliconM1 or later
16 GB RAMUnified memory

Private by construction.

App Sandbox. Zero network entitlements. No telemetry, no analytics, no crash reporting. Verified by CI scripts at every build.