Fenn
Fenn is a private, on-device AI search app for Apple Silicon Macs that finds the exact page, timestamp, or screen you need.
Fenn is the most complete local-first search we've looked at for Mac — file contents, app data, and screen memory in one private index, and the $9/mo Flex plan (billed as one annual payment of $108) is cheap for anyone who loses hours hunting through folders. If you'd rather not pay yearly, the $249 one-time Lifetime licence includes one year of updates and covers a single Mac. The catch is structural: one licence covers one Mac, you need Apple Silicon, and cloud tools will out-search it on breadth. Nothing in this category out-privates it.
Verified 5d ago · liveness 73/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/fenn
- Mac power users on Apple Silicon who want offline semantic search over everything on the drive
- Designers juggling InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, RAW, and Figma files who need content-level search
- Researchers and analysts who must locate a specific page, image, or audio segment without uploading anything
- Anyone who lives in screenshots, screen recordings, and meetings and needs to recall what was on screen
- Windows or Linux users — Fenn is macOS-only and requires Apple Silicon
- Teams wanting one shared index with cross-device sync and collaboration features
- Anyone who needs one licence across several Macs — Fenn sells per Mac
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Skip Fenn if you work on Windows, Linux, or an Intel Mac, or if you need one licence across several Macs or a shared team index — Fenn is Apple Silicon-only and sells per Mac.
The Flex plan is $9/mo but billed as one annual payment, so you commit roughly $108 up front rather than paying monthly.
At $9/mo (billed as a single annual payment of about $108) Fenn undercuts most cloud AI search subscriptions, and the $249 one-time Lifetime licence can pay for itself within roughly two years against the Flex plan. It's priced for solo Mac power users and small privacy-bound studios rather than enterprise search budgets — the $999 Teams option is billed one time and covers one Mac per licence.
In short
Fenn — Fenn is a private, on-device AI search app for Apple Silicon Macs that finds the exact page, timestamp, or screen you need. Best for Mac power users on Apple Silicon who want offline semantic search over everything on the drive, Designers juggling InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, RAW, and Figma files who need content-level search, Researchers and analysts who must locate a specific page, image, or audio segment without uploading anything. Plans from $9/mo.
What's new in Fenn
Checked 5 days agoAcross the latest 5 updates: 5 news mentions.
How to Search Nikon NEF Files on Mac
Fenn published a guide to searching Nikon NEF raw files on Mac, extending its documented RAW coverage for photographers with large local archives.
How to Search Panasonic RW2 Files on Mac
A guide covering Panasonic RW2 raw file search on Mac, aimed at photographers who keep shoot archives on local drives.
How to Search Sony ARW Files on Mac
Fenn published a guide to searching Sony ARW raw files locally on Mac without uploading images to a cloud service.
Is Meta Muse Private?
A privacy analysis of Meta Muse, part of Fenn's ongoing comparison content positioning local processing against cloud AI tools.
How to Search Canon CR3 Files on Mac
Fenn published a guide to searching Canon CR3 raw files on Mac, one of four RAW-format guides released in early October 2026.
What people actually say about Fenn — 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.
33 mentions across 3 sources (Hacker News, Product Hunt, Lemmy) · researched Jul 3, 2026.
Average across the 3 sources that answered — each source counts once, not each post.
- +Semantic search finds files by content, not just filenames
- +Works fully offline with no cloud uploads or account needed
- +Indexes video, audio, images, PDFs, and design files
- +Native Apple Silicon support ensures good performance
- +Chat with files for summaries and comparisons privately
- −Indexing may consume significant disk space over time
- −Future pricing unannounced creates uncertainty for adopters
- −Limited community feedback makes it hard to gauge reliability
- −Search depth in images and audio not fully clear
- −Privacy of visual processing could be explained better
- • Future pricing may be introduced; potential cost for continued use
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Fenn? 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
- On-device indexing of local files with no uploads and offline operation
- Search inside documents: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, Keynote
- Search inside creative files: InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, RAW, Figma
- Search inside audio and video: MP3, OGG, WAV, MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV
- Index app data from Apple Notes, Apple Mail, Notion, Bear, and Craft
- Index developer files: Markdown, Python, XML, HTML, TXT
- Screen memory search for meetings, chats, shared screens, and dashboards
- Agentic search that evaluates files against criteria without opening them
- Chat with files with citations back to the source
- Auto-organize folders that stay current as files change
- AI file renaming based on content for images, audio, video, and PDF
- Face recognition search inside video
- Search by content similarity
- Convert documents, images, invoices, and videos into structured CSV
- File anonymizer that strips sensitive data before sharing with ChatGPT
About Fenn
Fenn is a macOS app for people whose work lives on their hard drive and who don't want it anywhere else. It builds a private index of what's on your Mac — documents, PDFs, images, RAW files including Canon CR3, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW and Panasonic RW2, audio, video, screenshots, design files, and even app data — then lets you search inside all of it with AI that runs locally. Nothing gets uploaded, and the whole thing works offline. Search depth is the point. Fenn reads inside PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, and Keynote; creative formats including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, RAW, and Figma; audio and video including MP3, OGG, WAV, MP4, MOV, AVI, and MKV; developer files like Markdown, Python, XML, and HTML; and app data from Apple Notes, Apple Mail, Notion, Bear, and Craft. The vendor claims coverage of 50+ file types. Beyond retrieval, Fenn handles housekeeping: auto-organize folders stay current as files change, AI renaming works on images, audio, video, and PDFs, duplicate detection clears clutter, and any file can be turned into structured CSV. Agentic search evaluates files against criteria without you opening them one by one. Screen memory search recalls meetings, chats, shared screens, and dashboards that were never saved as files. And chat with your files answers questions, summarizes, and compares versions with citations back to the source. Two features show where the product is heading: a file anonymizer that detects and strips sensitive information before you hand a document to something like ChatGPT, and an iPhone Companion app that takes the workflow off the desk. Fenn runs on Apple Silicon and sells on privacy first — local processing, no uploads, offline operation. Against cloud AI search tools, you trade some breadth for the guarantee that your files stay on your machine.
Behind the Verdict
Fenn's pitch is narrow and honest: everything you saved, saw, heard or said on your Mac, searchable locally, with nothing uploaded. That is a different product from cloud AI search, and it wins on the axis privacy-bound buyers care about most. Strengths. Depth of file-type coverage is the standout. Fenn reads inside documents (PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Pages, Keynote), creative files (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, RAW, Figma), audio and video (MP3, OGG, WAV, MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV), developer files (Markdown, Python, XML, HTML, TXT), and app data from Apple Notes, Apple Mail, Notion, Bear, and Craft. Recent guides covering Canon CR3, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW and Panasonic RW2 show the raw-photo workflow is being actively developed, which matters if you're a photographer with years of archives. Screen memory search is the feature most competitors lack: it recalls meetings, chats, shared screens and dashboards that were never saved as files, and face recognition search lets you find a person inside a video. The housekeeping features — auto-organize folders that stay current as files change, AI renaming for images/audio/video/PDF, duplicate detection, and turning documents, images, invoices and videos into structured CSV — mean Fenn does work beyond retrieval. And the file anonymizer is a clever bridge: when you still need to send a document to ChatGPT, Fenn detects and strips sensitive information first. Weaknesses. One licence covers one Mac — no shared index, no cross-device sync, and no team collaboration layer is evidenced anywhere in the vendor's material. Apple Silicon, macOS only, so Windows, Linux and Intel Mac users are out entirely. Because everything runs locally, Fenn only sees what's on your disk: files that live purely in a cloud service and are never cached locally won't be in the index. Large local libraries consume real disk space, which bites on a nearly full drive. If all you need is finding a file by name, Spotlight does that for free. Where it fits. Mac power users on Apple Silicon who want offline semantic search over everything on the drive. Designers juggling InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, RAW and Figma files who need content-level search. Researchers, analysts and privacy-bound consultants handling client files on one machine. Anyone who lives in screenshots, screen recordings and meetings. Where it doesn't. Teams needing one shared index with sync and collaboration. Anyone who needs one licence across several Macs. Windows or Linux shops. And people whose search needs stop at filenames.
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Fenn actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You need the InDesign layout where a client approved the teal palette three months ago, but you only remember the color. You point Fenn at your project drive, then search visually across InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Figma files.
Outcome: Fenn opens the exact layout with the matching visual content, and an auto-organize folder keeps every revision of that project current as you save new files.
A client sends a contract you must summarize, but you also want to run it past ChatGPT. Before sharing, you run Fenn's file anonymizer over the PDF to detect and strip sensitive information.
Outcome: You get a clean copy safe to hand to an external tool, while the original stays on your Mac and the summarized version stays in your private Fenn index.
You need every shot from a shoot where the subject wore a red jacket, spread across Nikon NEF and Sony ARW files on an external drive. You search by content similarity and by the face in the frame.
Outcome: Fenn surfaces the matching RAW files without you opening each one, and you can batch-rename them by visual content instead of by timestamp.
Use Cases
- Find a specific slide from a past video call by searching a keyword from the presentation.
- Organize all screenshots of a project into an auto-updating smart folder.
- Rename hundreds of design files based on their visual content using AI.
- Extract invoice data from scanned PDFs into a CSV for accounting.
- Recall a verbal instruction from a recorded meeting without scrubbing through audio.
- Search for a face seen in a video clip from months ago.
- Locate a Notion, Craft, or Bear note from your local cache without opening the app.
- Search inside Nikon NEF, Sony ARW, Canon CR3, or Panasonic RW2 raw files.
Models Under the Hood
as of 2026-10-15
Limitations
- Fenn is macOS-only and requires Apple Silicon, so Windows, Linux, and Intel Mac users are out entirely.
- One licence covers one Mac — there is no shared index, cross-device sync, or team collaboration layer evidenced anywhere in the vendor's material.
- Indexing and searching a large local library consumes disk space, which is a real problem on a nearly full drive.
- Because everything runs locally, Fenn only sees what's on your disk: files that live purely in a cloud service and are never cached locally won't be in the index.
- If your needs stop at finding a file by name, Spotlight does that for free.
as of 2026-10-13
Verification history
We have re-verified Fenn 10 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-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
Showing the 6 most recent of 10 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 Fenn tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Flex
$9/mo billed as one annual payment
Ideal for
Solo Mac power user who wants the full feature set and is comfortable paying $9/mo as one annual payment rather than month to month.
What this tier adds
Starting tier — includes private on-device indexing, search inside 50+ file types, screen memory search, agentic search, face recognition, and unlimited private AI chat.
Lifetime
$249 one-time
Ideal for
Solo Mac user who plans to keep Fenn for years and prefers a $249 one-time payment over an ongoing subscription.
What this tier adds
Adds lifetime access and covers one Mac, with one year of updates included rather than continuous updates.
Teams
$999 one-time
Ideal for
Small studios or agencies buying Fenn for a handful of Macs and wanting a single billed-once purchase.
What this tier adds
$999 billed one time for teams, with all Fenn features and one Mac per licence.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Fenn's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
At $9/mo (billed as a single annual payment of about $108) Fenn undercuts most cloud AI search subscriptions, and the $249 one-time Lifetime licence can pay for itself within roughly two years against the Flex plan. It's priced for solo Mac power users and small privacy-bound studios rather than enterprise search budgets — the $999 Teams option is billed one time and covers one Mac per licence.
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Fenn — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Solo Mac power user: expect a first meaningful search within an hour of install once Fenn has indexed a starter folder, though a full drive index can run overnight depending on library size. Designer or photographer with large creative archives: plan a day or more for the initial index before search feels complete. Privacy-bound consultant: minutes to enable the anonymizer workflow, with indexing
Switching to or from Fenn
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Spotlight: keep Spotlight for filename lookups and add Fenn on top for content, audio, video, and screen memory search.
- →From cloud AI search tools: install Fenn, point it at your local folders, and keep cloud tools only for files you deliberately choose to upload.
- →From manual folder hierarchies: set up auto-organize folders and let Fenn build criteria-based collections instead of hand-sorted directories.
- ↗To Spotlight: nothing to migrate — Spotlight indexes filenames on the same drive, so you simply stop using Fenn.
- ↗To a cloud AI search tool: you'd need to upload the files Fenn indexed locally, trading the privacy guarantee for cloud breadth.
- ↗To a NAS or external drive indexer: your files stay where they are, but the Fenn index itself doesn't transfer.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Fenn”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Fenn” 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 Fenn.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Fenn
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Fenn, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
LLM Hub
Run 15+ offline AI models on your phone for private, on-device chat, image, music and code generation.
Mumble Note
AI voice notetaker for iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch — talk, and Mumble turns it into notes, tasks, and ideas
PaperBrain
Turn open-access research papers into audio podcasts and ask them questions by chat.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Fenn vs Screenplayiq
These tools serve completely different needs. ScreenplayIQ is for film industry professionals who need data-driven script analysis and box office predictions, while Fenn is for privacy-conscious Mac users who want powerful offline search across their files. Pick the one that matches your core task; they don't compete.
Fenn vs Geologicai
These tools solve entirely different problems. GeologicAI is a specialized industrial platform for mining companies needing rapid, sensor-rich core analysis with sub-48-hour turnaround. Fenn is a personal productivity tool for Mac users who want privacy-first semantic search across all local files. Choose based on your role: if you're in critical minerals exploration, pick GeologicAI; if you're a creative or knowledge worker managing a messy local drive, go with Fenn.
Fenn vs Versatile
These tools serve such different domains that a direct comparison is unusual. Choose Versatile if you're a steel erector or GC needing real-time crane analytics to cut overtime; it's purpose-built for crane-intensive jobs. Pick Fenn if you're a Mac user wanting private, offline AI search across all your files, including recent support for Figma/Sketch and screen recordings. There's no overlap.
Alternatives to Fenn
View all
LLM Hub
Run 15+ offline AI models on your phone for private, on-device chat, image, music and code generation.
Mumble Note
AI voice notetaker for iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch — talk, and Mumble turns it into notes, tasks, and ideas
PaperBrain
Turn open-access research papers into audio podcasts and ask them questions by chat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Best-of guides
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