The Best Local AI Apps for Mac That Run on MLX in 2025

Smarter, faster, and finally private. These apps show what’s possible when Apple Silicon meets on-device intelligence.

Let’s cut through the hype.

Everyone’s talking about AI, but most of it still lives behind login screens, in server farms, or hidden inside vague promises like “coming later this year.” Meanwhile, the tools that actually run locally on your Mac, without the cloud, are quietly changing how we work every day.

At the heart of this shift is MLX, Apple’s machine learning framework designed for Apple Silicon. It lets developers run large language models and advanced AI right on your MacBook, Mac mini, or Studio, no internet required. That means no uploads, no lag, no leaks.

If you care about speed, privacy, and control, you’re going to want to know about these MLX-powered apps you can download and use right now.

Let’s get into it.

1. Fenn

Find what you actually meant, not just what you typed.

We’ll start with the obvious one.

Fenn is a local search engine for macOS that understands your files semantically, visually, and contextually. Built for the messiness of real life, it helps you find what you’re looking for, even if you don’t remember the filename, folder, or format.

You can search for things like:
"Dog with a birthday hat"
"Voice note about campaign ideas"
"Slide deck with neon pink title"

Fenn finds the moment inside a video, the paragraph in a 40-page PDF, or the text inside a blurry screenshot. It’s like Spotlight, if Spotlight actually understood you.

Fenn runs 100% locally using Apple’s MLX framework, which lets it perform fast semantic indexing and visual analysis across your files without ever touching the cloud. It's also featured in our article Why Privacy Matters in File Search on Mac if you want to understand the architecture behind it.

Try Fenn → https://usefenn.com

2. LM Studio

Run open-source LLMs locally. No login. No limits.

If you ever wished you could run ChatGPT on your Mac without the internet, this is it.

LM Studio lets you download and run large language models directly on your machine. You can chat with models like LLaMA, Mistral, or DeepSeek right inside the app. And since everything runs on-device, it works even when you're offline.

It’s a must-have tool if you:

• Want a reliable backup when cloud-based models are down

• Prefer open-source alternatives to commercial AI

• Care about keeping conversations completely private

LM Studio leverages MLX for efficient model execution on Apple Silicon. You can run surprisingly large models on the MacBook Air without any fan noise or battery anxiety.

Download LM Studio → https://lmstudio.ai

3. RPLY

An AI assistant that handles your “text debt.”

We’ve all been there. You open Messages and realize you never replied. It wasn’t intentional. You just forgot.
RPLY solves this by using local AI to scan your iMessage history and gently nudge you when texts go unanswered. It even suggests natural replies based on your writing style.

Created by the team behind NOX, RPLY is designed for real people, not robots. It filters unread messages, shows your average response time, and can even track your “Inbox Zero” streak.

For those extra serious about privacy, RPLY includes a local LLaMA-based mode that processes everything offline. No cloud. No contacts uploaded. Just a faster way to stay human in your conversations.

Try RPLY → https://www.heynox.com/rply/download

4. Fullmoon

A free, open-source way to run private LLMs on any Apple device.

Think of Fullmoon as the simplest gateway into private, local LLMs. You can install it on macOS, iOS, iPadOS, or even visionOS and chat with compact models like LLaMA 3 or DeepSeek without needing a server.

It supports themes, shortcuts, and works well with Apple Shortcuts and automation. If you’re a dev or power user, it’s a great testing environment. And if you just want a lightweight local AI that respects your data, it does that too.

Best of all? It’s completely free and open source. Built with MLX and optimized for Metal.

Get Fullmoon → https://fullmoon.app

5. Nutshell

AI meeting notes without bots or the cloud.

Most “AI meeting tools” work by dropping bots into your calls or uploading everything you say to cloud servers. Nutshell doesn’t.

It records audio from your Mac, transcribes it locally in real time, and lets you interact with your notes through a built-in AI chat assistant. You can create custom prompts, ask for summaries, and get insights instantly. All processed on your device.

No WiFi required. No bots. No risk of your client calls ending up in a training dataset.

If you’re a founder, freelancer, or team lead who lives in meetings, this one is worth trying.

Download Nutshell → https://withnutshell.com

The Bottom Line: AI That Respects Your Machine

MLX is quietly enabling a new wave of AI apps for macOS. They’re faster. They’re private. And they don’t treat your files, messages, or voice notes as training material.

You don’t need a data center. You just need a Mac with Apple Silicon and a few tools that know how to use it.

Want to see how this shift is changing search?
Read Find Any File vs Fenn or Spotlight Mac: The Ultimate Guide to explore why we built Fenn the way we did.

And the next time you hear “AI is coming soon,” remember:
It’s already here.
It just runs locally.

Try Fenn → https://usefenn.com