Enclave
Enclave runs open-source AI models entirely on your iPhone or Mac, so your chats, voice notes, and PDFs never leave the device.
If your documents and conversations can't touch a server, Enclave is one of the few Apple-native apps that actually delivers local AI rather than just marketing it. The Free Forever Local tier is unusually generous — unlimited local models, voice chat and document chat at $0/mo with no time limit — and Pro's dollar-for-dollar credit conversion ($9.99/mo turning into $9.99 of credits, no markup) avoids the usual reseller markup trap. The honest trade-off: on-device small models are weaker on general knowledge than frontier cloud tools, which is exactly why Pro exists. Pair Enclave with a cloud assistant for the hardest reasoning tasks rather than expecting it to replace one.
Verified 3d ago · liveness 65/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/enclave
- Privacy-conscious Apple users who want AI with no cloud dependency
- Professionals handling confidential documents that cannot leave the device
- Travelers, pilots, and remote workers who need AI without connectivity
- Students and writers using local models for brainstorming and drafts
- Users who need frontier cloud model reasoning as their primary daily assistant
- Heavy cloud AI users who will exhaust $9.99 in monthly credits quickly
- Teams needing shared workspaces, collaboration, or admin controls
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Skip Enclave if you want frontier-class reasoning as your everyday assistant and are not willing to keep a separate cloud tool for the hard questions — the on-device models trade peak intelligence for privacy.
Pro's $9.99/mo converts entirely into cloud credits that reset each billing period — unused credits don't roll over, so light months still cost you the full $9.99.
The Free Forever Local tier at $0/mo is genuinely free with no time limit, which undercuts most freemium AI assistants that paywall voice or document chat. Pro at $9.99/mo billed monthly is cheaper than ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, and unlike those it converts the full subscription into cloud credits with no markup — but those rivals give unlimited frontier-model usage where Enclave caps you at the credit value of your subscription.
In short
Enclave — Enclave runs open-source AI models entirely on your iPhone or Mac, so your chats, voice notes, and PDFs never leave the device. Best for Privacy-conscious Apple users who want AI with no cloud dependency, Professionals handling confidential documents that cannot leave the device, Travelers, pilots, and remote workers who need AI without connectivity. Free to start; paid plans from $9.99/mo.
What's new in Enclave
Checked 4 days agoAcross the latest 3 updates: 3 news mentions.
Improve Siri & Apple Intelligence: Privacy Guide
Enclave blog walks through Apple's optional Siri, Dictation and Translate data-sharing setting and how to review it under Privacy & Security.
WebGPU Local AI: Why 207 New Kernels Matter
Hugging Face shipped 207 reusable GPU kernels runnable in WebGPU apps; preview building blocks, not an immediate speedup.
GPT-6 Astra: What It Means for Local AI
OpenAI began staged GPT-6 Astra rollout Sept 4, 2026, starting with Trusted Access Program enterprises; API and consumer tiers follow.
What people actually say about Enclave — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
73 mentions across 4 sources (Reddit, Hacker News, App Store, Lemmy) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
Average across the 4 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +Fully offline and private — no data leaves your device.
- +Free local model usage with no account or tracking.
- +Can import any GGUF model from Hugging Face for unlimited variety.
- +No ads, no telemetry, just pure local AI.
- +Works in poor reception areas like planes and remote locations.
- −Frequent crashes when loading custom GGUF models.
- −Severe hallucination — invents facts and events.
- −Can't follow conversation threads; loses train of thought.
- −No option to bring your own API key for cloud models.
- −Updates sometimes break the app completely.
- • No BYO API key — cloud models require purchasing the Pro subscription.
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Enclave? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- Runs open-source AI models offline on iPhone and Mac
- On-device voice chat using Apple speech recognition and synthesis
- Chat with PDFs and text files without cloud upload
- Custom AI assistants with their own system prompts
- Separate conversation history and context per assistant
- Trigger AI tasks offline via Siri voice commands
- Build Shortcuts automations that call local AI
- Select a specific model per Shortcut, local or cloud
- Conversation history stored locally with encrypted storage
- Export conversations or set automatic deletion periods
- Choose from Llama, Qwen, SmolLM, and Gemma models on iOS
- Run larger models on macOS using desktop compute
- Cloud model access to GPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek on Pro
- Optimised for the Apple Neural Engine to limit battery drain
- No account registration and no data collection
About Enclave
Enclave is a local-first AI assistant for iPhone and Mac that runs open-source language models on your own hardware instead of a vendor server. Voice chat uses Apple's on-device speech recognition and synthesis, document chat works on PDFs and text files you import, and custom assistants each keep their own system prompt and conversation history. The app needs the internet only for the initial download and, on macOS, for pulling additional model files; after that it works fully offline. You pick from a curated set of models — the iOS build offers Llama, Qwen, SmolLM, and Gemma tuned for mobile, while macOS can run larger models using desktop compute. Shortcuts and Siri integration let you trigger a specific model per automation, so a private task can stay local while a heavier one goes to the cloud. Pricing splits in two. The Free Forever Local tier is $0/mo and is not a countdown trial: unlimited local models, on-device voice chat, document chat, custom assistants, and Shortcuts are all included. Pro at $9.99/mo billed monthly through the App Store adds GPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek, and turns the entire $9.99 into cloud credits with no markup — credits reset each billing period and unused credits don't roll over, but local AI keeps working after they run out. There is no account, no sign-up, and no server storing your conversations. Since passing 100,000 downloads, the product has leaned into that privacy contrast rather than chasing cloud parity.
Behind the Verdict
Enclave's value proposition is narrow and real: it is a privacy-first Apple app where the model runs on the device. Every core feature in the scrape supports that — voice chat processed locally with Apple's speech recognition and synthesis, document chat where PDFs and text files are parsed on-device, custom assistants with their own system prompts and separate conversation histories, and Shortcuts/Siri automations that can be pointed at a specific local model so nothing leaves the phone. Conversation history is stored locally and encrypted, with options to delete individual chats, clear all history, export conversations, or set automatic deletion periods. No account registration is required at any tier. The model lineup is deliberately curated rather than open-ended: iOS ships Llama, Qwen, SmolLM, and Gemma optimised for mobile; macOS supports larger models because it has more compute. The app is optimised for Apple's Neural Engine, which matters on battery-constrained iPhone use, and reviewers quoted on the site consistently praise speed and responsiveness on older hardware like an iPhone 12 Pro Max. Where it fits: professionals handling confidential documents, pilots and travelers who work without connectivity, writers and students brainstorming drafts, and Apple power users who want AI inside Shortcuts. Where it doesn't: anyone whose primary assistant needs frontier-class reasoning daily, or teams that need shared workspaces, admin controls, and collaboration — Enclave is explicitly a solo-developer single-user product with no accounts or tracking. Pro's cloud credits are consumed per use and reset each billing period rather than rolling over, so a heavy cloud user will exhaust $9.99 before month-end and be back on local models. One thing to watch: the vendor's own Pro tier is priced at $9.99/mo billed monthly through the App Store. If you need the newest cloud models, Pro's promise is that new models appear within days of launch — the blog's recent coverage of OpenAI's staged GPT-6 Astra rollout (starting September 4, 2026 with Trusted Access Program enterprises) is the kind of release that tests that promise, since API and consumer tiers follow later.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Enclave actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Imports a signed PDF into Enclave on an iPhone with airplane mode on, creates an assistant with a system prompt for contract review, and asks for clause summaries and risk flags.
Outcome: Clause summaries and flagged risks without the document ever leaving the device — the file is parsed locally and the conversation stays in encrypted local storage.
Builds a Shortcut that takes selected text and pipes it to a specific local model, then triggers it by voice through Siri while driving.
Outcome: Text processing runs offline through Shortcuts and Siri with the model choice fixed per automation, so no prompt data reaches a server.
Opens Enclave offline with a Gemma or Qwen model loaded, switches to voice chat to talk through an outline hands-free, then exports the conversation.
Outcome: A usable draft outline produced entirely on-device with no connectivity, exported for later editing.
Use Cases
- Brainstorm ideas privately with no internet connection
- Summarise and extract insights from imported PDFs and text files
- Create custom assistants for specific topics like writing or coding
- Chat hands-free with on-device voice input while offline
- Automate local AI tasks through Siri and Shortcuts
- Keep confidential client documents on-device while still questioning them
- Use AI on a plane or in remote locations without connectivity
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-09-24
Limitations
- Local AI is free and unlimited, but the models that fit on a phone are smaller than frontier cloud models, so general-knowledge answers are weaker.
- Cloud model access sits behind Pro at $9.99/mo billed monthly, and that subscription converts into $9.99 of cloud credits which reset each billing period with no rollover — run out and cloud models go dark until the next period while local AI continues normally.
- Subscriptions are billed and managed through the App Store, so cancellation goes through Apple.
- Cloud chats are forwarded but never stored on the vendor's servers.
- There is no team workspace or shared assistant layer; this is a single-user app.
as of 2026-10-04
Verification history
We have re-verified Enclave 8 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
Showing the 6 most recent of 8 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Enclave tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free Forever Local
$0/mo
Ideal for
Privacy-first Apple users who only need on-device AI — no account, no subscription, no internet after the initial model download.
What this tier adds
Starting tier: unlimited local models, on-device voice chat, custom assistants, document chat, and Shortcuts/Siri at $0/mo with no time limit.
Pro
$9.99/mo
Ideal for
Solo users who want cloud-model reasoning on demand alongside the free local tier without juggling separate accounts or API keys.
What this tier adds
Adds GPT, Claude, Gemini, and DeepSeek access plus $9.99 of monthly cloud credits for $9.99/mo billed monthly.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Enclave's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
The Free Forever Local tier at $0/mo is genuinely free with no time limit, which undercuts most freemium AI assistants that paywall voice or document chat. Pro at $9.99/mo billed monthly is cheaper than ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro, and unlike those it converts the full subscription into cloud credits with no markup — but those rivals give unlimited frontier-model usage where Enclave caps you at the credit value of your subscription.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Enclave — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
iPhone: download the app from the iOS App Store, pick and download a model — usually a few minutes, and the only step that needs internet — then start chatting; first value in roughly 5-10 minutes. Mac: same flow from the Mac App Store, with longer model downloads for the larger options, so budget 10-20 minutes depending on file size and connection.
Switching to or from Enclave
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From a cloud chat assistant like ChatGPT: install Enclave, download a local model, and re-create your recurring prompts as custom assistants with system prompts.
- →From another offline LLM app on iOS: export or copy your saved prompts, create matching custom assistants in Enclave, and import the documents you were querying.
- →From Apple Notes or a scratch document: import the text as a document chat source and question it locally instead of re-pasting it into a chat window.
- ↗To a cloud assistant like ChatGPT or Claude: export your Enclave conversations, since history is stored locally and exportable, and rebuild the system prompts in the destination tool.
- ↗To a desktop local-model stack such as Ollama: reuse the same open-source model families (Llama, Qwen, Gemma) on a Mac and move your standard prompts over manually.
- ↗To a team collaboration tool: there is no shared-workspace concept in Enclave, so any team knowledge must be re-established in the destination platform.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Enclave”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Enclave” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Enclave.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Enclave
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Enclave, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
ChatGPT
ChatGPT is OpenAI's AI chat assistant for reasoning, Codex coding, deep research, voice and agentic work on one subscription.
Cortex.cpp
Free, open-source desktop app to run 123 HuggingFace models locally or route prompts to Claude, GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek with your own API keys
Claude
Claude is Anthropic's AI assistant for long-document analysis, coding, and agentic work in one chat-and-Cowork surface.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Enclave vs Sublime Security
Enclave and Sublime Security serve completely different needs. Choose Enclave if you need a private, offline AI assistant for personal productivity and document analysis on iPhone/Mac. Choose Sublime Security if you're a security professional defending against advanced email threats. They are not substitutes; consider both if your use cases are separate.
Enclave vs Audioeye
Enclave and AudioEye serve completely different needs. Choose Enclave if you want private, offline AI on your iPhone or Mac — ideal for document chat and voice without data leaving your device. Choose AudioEye if you need automated web accessibility compliance for ADA/WCAG, especially as an enterprise facing legal risk. They are not direct competitors.
Enclave vs Push Security
Push Security and Enclave are entirely different tools solving unrelated problems. Push Security is a browser security platform for enterprises to detect advanced phishing, secure AI tool usage, and harden identities. Enclave is a local-first AI app for individuals who want to run open-source models offline on their Apple devices. They are not competitors; the buyer's choice depends solely on whether the need is security or private AI.
Alternatives to Enclave
View allChatGPT
ChatGPT is OpenAI's AI chat assistant for reasoning, Codex coding, deep research, voice and agentic work on one subscription.
Cortex.cpp
Free, open-source desktop app to run 123 HuggingFace models locally or route prompts to Claude, GPT, Gemini and DeepSeek with your own API keys
Frequently Asked Questions
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