Last updated: April 2026
Gist ("we", "our", "the app") is a macOS menu bar utility developed by Nathan. This policy explains what data Gist accesses, how it's used, and what leaves your device.
We never see the text you process. No accounts, and no analytics in the app itself. Your text stays between you and whatever AI provider you choose — or never leaves your Mac at all if you use local AI. (This website uses cookieless, anonymous visitor analytics — see below.)
The only thing we hold is what's needed to honour a purchase: if you buy a licence, we store your licence key, your checkout email and the names of the Macs you activate on. Nothing else. If you only use the free trial, we store nothing about you.
Gist requires certain macOS permissions to function. Here's what each one does and why:
Accessibility (required) Gist uses the macOS Accessibility API to read the text you've selected in other apps and to replace it with the AI result. This only happens when you explicitly trigger Gist with your hotkey. Gist never reads your screen passively or monitors what you type.
Microphone (optional — only if you use voice dictation) If you use the dictation feature (⌘⇧T), Gist accesses your microphone to transcribe your speech using Apple's on-device speech recognition. Audio is processed locally by macOS and is not sent to any external server. If you never use dictation, Gist never accesses your microphone.
Speech Recognition (optional — only if you use voice dictation) Gist uses Apple's Speech framework for voice-to-text transcription. On Apple Silicon Macs, this runs entirely on-device. On Intel Macs, Apple may process speech on their servers per Apple's own privacy policy.
Apple Events / Automation (optional — only for Notes and Reminders integration) If you choose to send results to Apple Notes or Reminders, Gist uses AppleScript to create the note or reminder. This only happens when you explicitly tap the Notes or Reminders button.
When you trigger Gist, the selected text is sent to the AI provider you have configured. There are two paths:
Cloud AI (Bring Your Own Key) If you use Anthropic, OpenAI, or OpenRouter, your text is sent directly from your Mac to that provider's API using your own API key. Gist does not route your text through any intermediary server. We never see your text or your API key. The provider's own privacy policy governs how they handle your data.
Local AI (Ollama) If you use the local AI option, your text is processed entirely on your Mac by a locally running AI model. Nothing leaves your device. No internet connection is required.
Gist stores the following data locally on your Mac using macOS Keychain and UserDefaults:
None of this data is transmitted anywhere. It stays on your Mac. If you delete Gist, this data is removed.
If you purchase Gist, we store the minimum needed to issue and honour your licence:
This is stored on our own infrastructure (Cloudflare) and is never sold or shared. We never see your card details — payments are handled entirely by Stripe. If you use the free trial and never purchase, we store nothing about you at all.
Email you send to support@gistapp.io is forwarded to our inbox so we can reply.
This website (gistapp.io) uses [Plausible](https://plausible.io), a privacy-focused analytics service, so we can see which pages people visit. It is cookieless, collects no personal data, and does not track you across sites or build any profile of you. There is nothing to opt out of because nothing identifies you.
The Gist app itself contains no analytics of any kind — it does not phone home, and we cannot see what you do in it.
Gist does not knowingly collect any data from anyone, including children under 13.
Gist connects to third-party AI providers only when you explicitly configure an API key and trigger a command. These providers have their own privacy policies:
Gist also connects to ollama.com only during the one-click local AI install to download the Ollama binary and AI model files. No user data is sent during this download.
If we update this policy, we will post the changes on this page and update the date at the top.
If you have questions about this policy, email us at support@gistapp.io.