Why
Your private thoughts shouldn't be a product.
Every time you talk to a cloud AI, you are sharing something with a company. Your worries. Your work. The letter you couldn't finish. The things you'd never say out loud.
Depending on the service and its settings, those conversations can be stored, reviewed, used to train future models, or disclosed through legal requests.
SuperDuck doesn't have a server. The AI is a file on your disk, the thinking happens on your processor, the conversation is a file in your Library. There's nobody on the other end because there is no other end.
The open-source ones SuperDuck runs are the same class of model the cloud companies charge for — on hardware you already own.
on your mac · 11:40 pm
I think I'm going to quit. Talk me through it before I do something dumb.
Okay. Before the pros and cons — what happened today that made tonight the night?
nothing new. that's sort of the point.
Then it's not a reaction, it's a conclusion. That's worth taking seriously. Let's write down what you'd want to be true in six months, then look at whether staying or going gets you there.
stays on this mac. nowhere else.
Your phone
Your phone talks to your Mac, not a cloud provider.
Scan a code on your Mac with the SuperDuck phone app and you're in the same conversation — on the train, in the waiting room, on a walk. The phone sends your words home, your Mac runs the model, the answer comes back. The thinking muscle stays on your desk.
Our relay forwards encrypted text that we cannot read. Your Mac just has to be on.
Talk instead of typing. A pause sends the sentence.
on your phone · waiting for the dentist
what did I note about the cat
Two things in notes.md: she's due at the vet on the 14th, and she has decided the new chair is hers.
add: ask about the limp
Added to notes.md.
answered by your mac, at home
What it does
A duck that works for you.
- A memory of its own. SD has its own folder. Add files, notes, lists, drafts and SD can read and work on them.
- Talks and listens. Press the mic and speak. Turn on Read aloud and it talks back, with the Mac's voice.
- Reads what you show it. Hold a page up to the camera. Drag a rectangle on your screen. Drop a PDF or Word file on the chat.
- Refine. /refine draft.md 20 — twenty passes over a file, each reading its own notes from the last. Walk away; come back to a better draft.
- Internet, but only when you want it. Switch it on and SD can search and browse. Off — the default — your Mac is an island.
- Quick looks. /ls, /grep, /cat notes.md: instant.
- Themes. Space, Paper, Glass, Mirror (your camera behind the chat), CRT, Amber, Red for night vision.
- For other apps. SD offers a local API in OpenAI format. Your editor, Obsidian, VS Code, JetBrains, can use it, all free.
- Toast Expand SD's capabilities. When
toast detects SD it uses it, no configuration required. See Toast
Price
$149. Once.
Never pay for tokens.
The top cloud plans run about $2,000 a year, every year, for an AI that reads everything you type. The SuperDuck software is a one-time purchase for the Mac app and the phone app together.
The AI models are selected from open source, with free updates included for the year. Modern Macs required. A mac mini works, SuperDuck can stream from SSD. A Macbook with 128GB works well, a Mac Studio with 256GB sings.
Cloud AI, top tier
$2,000 per year
Every year. It doesn't stop.
- Your conversations on their servers
- Used to train the next model, unless you find the opt-out
- Pay by the token; the more you use it, the more it costs
- Rate limits, outages, price changes
- Needs an account, a card, a connection
SuperDuck
$149 per year
Mac app + phone app. Free during the beta.
- Your conversations on your Mac
- Trains nothing, reports nothing, no account
- Open-source models, your choice, free
- No tokens, no meter, no monthly bill
- Works on a plane, in a cabin. Anywhere.
The cloud's biggest models are still a few months ahead of open source AI. For most of what people actually ask — writing, thinking out loud, questions, notes — you won't miss them. For the rest, use
Toast
What you need
A Mac with Apple silicon
64 GB of memory runs the fast model well; 96 GB or more runs the better ones in memory. Less works, slowly, streaming from disk.
Disk for a model
70–160 GB depending on the model. It downloads once and lives in a folder you can see.
An iPhone, if you want one
The SuperDuck phone app. It needs nothing but the code on your Mac's screen.
Three minutes
- Install SuperDuck on your Mac. It checks your memory and offers a model that fits.
- Download the model once. It's big. Make coffee.
- Say hello. Then, if you like: scan the code with your phone and take it with you.
Free beta
Come try it.
Both apps are in TestFlight, free while we polish. Install the Mac app first, then the phone.
SuperDuck for Mac →
SuperDuck for iPhone →
Something odd? Write to sd@superduck.ai. A person reads it.
