BoltAI is a native Mac AI app for OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and local models. One-time license from $79 with a free trial. See features and pricing.
Researched and fact-checked by Bartu Cavusoglu · Updated October 26, 2026
BoltAI is a native macOS app that gives users one workspace for chatting with AI models from many providers. It is built with SwiftUI and AppKit, runs on Intel and Apple Silicon Macs with macOS 13 or later, and connects to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Mistral, Azure, Amazon Bedrock and local models.
The product is bootstrapped and run by Daniel Nguyen, who says it started in 2023 and has received more than 160 updates. It is a bring-your-own-keys client, so BoltAI sells the app while AI usage is billed by the providers. The license is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.
Users add their own API keys for each provider, or connect local models through Ollama and LM Studio, then choose a model for each chat or agent. Requests go directly from the app to the chosen provider. Chats are stored locally in a SQLite database, and API keys can be encrypted with a passphrase.
Beyond the main chat window, BoltAI offers an Instant Chat overlay opened by a global shortcut, ShotSolve for turning screenshots into answers, push-to-talk dictation and inline editing. It can also use ChatGPT or Claude subscriptions through the Codex CLI or Claude Code integration. Cloud Sync is optional and extends chats, projects and agents to Mac, iPhone and iPad.
For structuring work, BoltAI provides projects and folders, multi-chat threads, forkable chats, reusable agents with custom instructions and knowledge, context profiles and a prompt library. Users can tune temperature, max tokens, top-p, top-k, penalties and system instructions, and use memory to reuse preferences across chats.
On the content side, it supports vision for images and screenshots, document Q&A for PDFs, pptx and docx files, image generation, web search through Brave or Google Programmable Search Engine, code execution and Claude skills for Office files. MCP support lets users connect local and remote servers and toggle tools per agent.
BoltAI is a native macOS app that lets users chat with AI models from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini and Mistral, as well as local models, in one workspace. It adds agents, projects, document Q&A, screenshot answers and MCP tools.
BoltAI is a one-time purchase in USD: Essential is $79, Pro is $99, and Pro+ is $199. Team licenses are $99 per seat with a 5-seat minimum. Each includes one year of updates, and AI usage is billed separately by your providers.
Yes. The site offers a free trial with no account required, and the pricing page states a 14-day trial of all features. Cloud Sync requires a license.
Yes. BoltAI does not bundle AI credits, so you add keys from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or Mistral. You can also use local models, or use ChatGPT and Claude subscriptions through the Codex CLI or Claude Code integration.
The license is perpetual, so you can keep using the last version you have. New features, Cloud Sync and mobile access pause. Individual renewals are 40% off, and auto-renew is off by default.
The company states that chats are stored locally in a SQLite database and are never used for training. Requests go directly from the app to your chosen provider. Cloud Sync is optional and encrypted in transit and at rest.
Local features work fully offline, including local models run through Ollama or LM Studio. Only Cloud Sync and services that require the internet need a connection.
BoltAI offers a Team Perpetual license from 5 seats at $99 per seat, with 10GB of shared storage, priority support via Discord, and invoices for reimbursement. Teams should note that team renewal has no discount.