Grammarly Premium
$30/month
$360 the first year. $1,800 over five. Cloud-based — your text leaves your machine.
Free & open source · on-device AI autocomplete · macOS
Write faster everywhere on your Mac.
Write faster everywhere on your Mac.
Nothing ever leaves your machine.
Shadowtype predicts your next words as faint ghost text — right at the caret, in any text field. It runs a local LLM on Apple Silicon, so it works offline, needs no account, and your keystrokes never touch the cloud. Press Tab to accept. Free and open source — every feature on, no subscription, ever.
Keystrokes stay on-device
~150 ms on M2, compact model
Mail
Offline — still completing
Tab accept word · ⌥Tab line
Keystrokes never leave the device
Sub-frame ghost text at the caret
Zero telemetry, zero analytics
Works in Mail, Slack, Notes, Safari…
Free · open source
Most AI writing tools rent. We don't charge at all.
In a market of $20-$30/month "AI for writing" subscriptions, Shadowtype is free and open source. Use it for ten years; you still paid nothing.
ChatGPT Plus
$20/month
$240 the first year. $1,200 over five. Cloud-based — separate window, copy-paste workflow.
Shadowtype
$0forever
Forever. On as many of your Macs as you like. Free updates. 100% on-device. No account.
No card on file · no "free trial" auto-charge · no price-hike emails · no churn email asking you to come back. It's free and open source — like software used to work.
How it works
Three keystrokes from thought to sentence
No new window, no command palette, no copy-paste. Shadowtype lives in the caret of whatever you're already typing in.
Type anywhere
Mail, Slack, Notes, your code editor, a browser field — if there's a cursor, Shadowtype is watching the local context, not the network.
Hey team, just shipped the
See the ghost text
A local model predicts your next words and renders them faint, inline, at the caret — like spell-check, invisible until it's useful.
Hey team, just shipped the fix to staging.
Tab or Right Arrow to accept
Tab (or → at end-of-line) takes the next word, ⌥Tab takes the whole line. Keep typing to dismiss. Need a bigger change? Select text and hit ⌥⌘K to rewrite it.
Hey team, just shipped the fix to staging.
What it does
A system-wide ghost-text layer for your whole Mac
It behaves like spell-check: invisible until useful, never in the way. Best-in-class capability — matched locally, on your hardware.
100% on-device & offline
Inference runs locally on Apple Silicon with llama.cpp + Metal. No cloud, no account, no network call for completion — ever. Pull the Wi-Fi and it keeps finishing your sentences. Your keystrokes are read on the device and stay there.
llama.cpp + Metal
no inference server
no telemetry
encrypted profile
Inline ghost-text completion
Faint suggestions appear exactly at the caret in every text field. Tab accepts the next word; ⌥Tab takes the whole line.
Per-app & per-domain control
Enable or silence Shadowtype by app bundle or browser domain. Casual in Slack, formal in Mail — set instruction overrides per app.
Personalization that learns you
An on-device style profile biases completions toward your phrasing — stored encrypted, never transmitted, wipeable anytime.
Autocorrect & typo suppression
A fast heuristic holds back a suggestion when you're mid-typo, and full inline autocorrect fixes transpositions as you go.
Multiple local models
Pick from a catalog of GGUF models — Qwen3 Base (sharp FIM continuation), Gemma 3, MoE and small-MoE variants. Compact, mid-size, and the largest are all included, RAM permitting. Bring your own GGUF too.
Screen-aware context
Optional local OCR reads the focused window so suggestions fit what's on screen, with clipboard awareness for sharper completions.
Emoji & multi-language
Type :smi → 😄. English is sharpest, with working support for Norwegian, Hinglish and more — your language, never sent anywhere.
Selection rewrite
Select any text and press ⌥⌘K to rewrite it inline — improve, shorten, formal, casual, fix grammar, or summarize. Runs on your Mac, previews before it commits. Pro.
Local API + MCP for developers
An OpenAI-compatible HTTP endpoint runs on localhost so your scripts, editors, and agents can call the same on-device model — no key, no cloud. A built-in MCP bridge plugs into Claude Code and other MCP clients. Bring your own GGUF via the BYOM picker.
OpenAI-compat
/v1/chat/completions
MCP server
BYOM (any GGUF)
127.0.0.1 only
New
Rewrite anything. On-device.
What Apple's Writing Tools do in the cloud, Shadowtype does locally — free and open source. Select text in any app, press ⌥⌘K, and pick how to rewrite it. The model runs on your Mac, so nothing is ever sent anywhere.
Selected
hey can u send me that doc when u get a sec
↓
Make formal
Could you please send me that document when you have a moment?
The proof
Turn off the Wi-Fi. Watch it break.
Turn off the Wi-Fi. Watch it break.
It keeps finishing your sentences.
There is no inference network call, ever. The only outbound traffic is an optional update check and the one-time model download. Everything that completes your text happens on your Mac. Try the toggle in the demo above — flip it offline and keep typing.
The honest comparison
See how Shadowtype compares
Same on-device autocomplete as the alternatives — without the subscription, the telemetry, or the cloud. Read the full side-by-side breakdowns.
Free & open source
Free forever. Every feature on.
Shadowtype is free and open source. No tiers, no subscription, no account, no card — just download it and write. The full source lives on GitHub, so you can read it, build it, and verify exactly what runs on your Mac.
Free & open source
Everything included
Every feature, no limits, no account, no card, no expiry.
$0
Free & open source · no account · no expiry
- Inline ghost-text in every app — no daily word cap
- Unlimited completions · largest models
- 100% on-device, offline, no account
- Full autocorrect, clipboard context & per-app instructions
- Local OpenAI-compatible API, MCP server & BYOM
- Use on as many of your Macs as you like
Why people switch
Built on what cloud keyboards can't offer
Real, local, private — owned, not rented.
Keystrokes stay on the device
No account, no telemetry
Works on a plane
Free & open source
All your Macs
Questions
Good to know
Does it really work offline?
Yes. All completion happens on your Mac using a local model and Metal — there is no inference network call, ever. The only outbound traffic is the optional update check and the one-time model download. Turn off Wi-Fi and Shadowtype keeps completing.
What about my privacy?
Your keystrokes never leave the device. There is no telemetry, no analytics backend, and no account. Password and secure fields are never read. The personalization profile is stored encrypted on your Mac and you can wipe it any time. You keep full copyright of everything you write.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Shadowtype is free and open source — every feature is on, with no cap, no account, and no subscription. There is no paid tier: system-wide ghost text, Tab-to-accept, emoji, typo suppression, screen-aware context, full autocorrect, personalization, clipboard context, custom & per-app instructions, configurable completion length, the largest models, and Labs features are all included.
Is it really open source?
Yes. The full source is on GitHub. You can read the code, build it yourself, file issues, and contribute. There is no telemetry and no backend to trust — you can verify exactly what runs on your Mac.
Which Macs are supported?
macOS 14 (Sonoma) and later, on Apple Silicon (M1 and up). 8 GB RAM runs the compact + mid models; 16 GB+ unlocks the larger ones. Use it on as many of your Macs as you like.
Can I use my own model, or call it from my code?
Yes. Shadowtype ships a local OpenAI-compatible HTTP API on
127.0.0.1 — your scripts, editor plugins, and agents can hit /v1/chat/completions with no key and no cloud. There's also a built-in MCP server for Claude Code and other MCP clients, and a BYOM picker for any GGUF you drop in. Everything stays on your machine, bound to localhost only.How do updates work?
Shadowtype checks for new builds in the background and offers a one-click in-place update — signed, notarized, and verified before install. No App Store, no Sparkle, no account. You can also grab any release directly from GitHub.
Ready when you are
Free and open source. Every feature, on your Mac.
All models, the local API, MCP, and BYOM — included, on-device, offline.
Download Shadowtype, accept your first word with Tab, and feel the difference. Read the source, build it yourself, or contribute on GitHub.
- Free forever
- Open source
- No subscription
- No account
- Works offline