10 Best AI Software for Mac in 2026

We tested dozens of AI tools on our MacBook to find the very best. Our list covers a variety of AI-powered applications that run great on macOS – from writing assistants and coding copilots to art generators and productivity boosters. Each pick below runs smoothly on Mac (many are optimized for Apple’s M1/M2 chips) and brings powerful AI features to your desktop. We focused on apps that are either native to macOS or have excellent Mac compatibility (including web apps), and we made sure to include both free options and premium offerings.

In this roundup, you’ll find AI software for writing, coding, art creation, automation, voice/video editing, image editing, productivity, and personal assistance. We explain what each tool does, how it works on Mac, its key AI features, pros and cons, and pricing. We made this list by hands-on testing across a range of use cases, so you can trust these are the top performers.

Our Picks for the Best AI Apps on Mac

Below are our top AI-powered apps for macOS users. Each tool has something unique to offer, but all of them can supercharge your Mac experience in different ways.

1. OpenAI ChatGPT (Desktop & Web)

Overview: ChatGPT is a conversational AI assistant that can help with just about anything – writing content, answering questions, brainstorming ideas, coding help, you name it. While originally accessed via web, OpenAI now offers an official ChatGPT for Mac desktop app that feels right at home on macOS. We love how it lets us quickly summon ChatGPT from any screen (using a shortcut) and even search our past conversations. ChatGPT on Mac can be your personal writing coach, research assistant, or coding buddy all in one.

macOS Compatibility: The ChatGPT desktop app is a native Mac app built for macOS (released in mid-2024). It runs on macOS 12+ and is optimized for Apple Silicon, so it’s fast and efficient. You can also use ChatGPT through any browser on Mac. The desktop version adds Mac-specific perks like a menu bar icon and the Option+Space shortcut to ask questions about anything on your screen. It syncs your chats across devices via your OpenAI account.

Core AI Features: ChatGPT uses OpenAI’s powerful GPT-4 language model (for Plus users) to generate detailed, human-like responses. On Mac, it’s fantastic for drafting essays, composing emails, writing code or debugging, summarizing documents, and providing general knowledge Q&A. You can upload documents in the app and get summaries or explanations. It supports voice input and can even interpret images (with GPT-4 Vision if you have access). Essentially, it’s like having an extremely knowledgeable personal assistant on your Mac that you can chat with naturally.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Extremely versatile conversational AI; easy native app with system-wide shortcut; syncs history across devices; no technical skill needed. Great for creative brainstorming, quick research, and coding assistance in one tool. Free tier available for basic use.
• Cons: The most powerful features (like GPT-4 model access, faster responses) require a subscription. It may occasionally struggle with very recent or specialized queries. Also, heavy use can drain battery a bit on laptops (the app is essentially a web wrapper, so similar to having a browser open).

Pricing: ChatGPT offers a free plan that anyone can use with some limitations (uses the older GPT-3.5 model and slower responses). For advanced features, ChatGPT Plus is $20/month – this unlocks GPT-4, faster response times, and priority access. There is also a ChatGPT Enterprise (and a rumored Pro plan around $200/month for high-volume users), but for most individuals the free or $20 plan will suffice. The Mac app itself is free to download; you just log in with your plan.

2. Jasper AI

Overview: Jasper is an AI content creation powerhouse popular among writers, marketers, and creatives. We found Jasper incredibly useful for generating blog posts, marketing copy, social media content, and more with minimal effort. It’s a cloud-based tool (web app) with a clean interface that runs well on Mac browsers. Jasper comes loaded with templates and recipes for different writing tasks – from long-form articles to Facebook ad text – making it easy to get started. Simply describe what you need, and Jasper will produce intelligent drafts and ideas.

macOS Compatibility: Jasper does not have a native Mac app, but its web platform works flawlessly on macOS in Safari, Chrome, or any browser. There’s also a Chrome extension that integrates Jasper into Gmail, Google Docs, etc., which Mac users can leverage. Performance is smooth on M1/M2 Macs, and you can use Jasper alongside other Mac writing apps without issues (we often have Jasper open in one desktop Space and our text editor in another for a nice workflow).

Core AI Features: At its heart, Jasper uses GPT-4 and other models, fine-tuned for content marketing use cases. Key features include an AI document editor (Jasper Chat) where you can interact with the AI to refine content, over 50 copywriting templates (for blog introductions, product descriptions, press releases, SEO meta tags, and so on), and a brand voice feature to tailor the writing style. Jasper can generate ideas when you’re staring at a blank page, help rewrite or expand existing text, and even create AI art (it has a built-in image generation tool). It’s like an all-in-one creative studio powered by AI.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Excellent for marketers and writers – saves tons of time on drafting blogs, ads, emails; lots of ready-made templates; supports collaboration (team features) and multi-language content. The outputs are generally high quality and can match a desired tone or style. Jasper’s interface is user-friendly for non-techies.
• Cons: Jasper is a premium product, so it’s not cheap – no free tier beyond a short trial. You’ll need a subscription to use it regularly. Also, because it’s oriented toward business content, very creative writers (like novelists) might find it a bit constrained unless you use the free-form mode. As a web app, it requires internet access and doesn’t work offline.

Pricing: Jasper recently updated its plans. For individuals, the Pro plan is about $69/month (or $59/month billed annually). This includes unlimited AI generations and the core features. They also offer custom Business plans for teams with more advanced control. There’s no unlimited free plan – but Jasper does offer a free trial period (usually 7 days or so) to test it out. It’s one of the pricier tools, but many content professionals find the time saved worth it.

3. Grammarly (with GrammarlyGO)

Overview: Grammarly is well-known as an AI-powered writing assistant that helps improve your writing in real time. It’s like having a smart proofreader and editor integrated into your Mac. We included Grammarly because it addresses a different need than generative AI – it fixes grammar, spelling, and clarity, and now with the new GrammarlyGO feature, it can also rewrite and generate text based on your prompts. If you do any writing on your Mac (essays, emails, reports), Grammarly can be a lifesaver for polishing your text and ensuring professional tone.

macOS Compatibility: Grammarly offers a native Mac app and menu bar tool, plus browser extensions and integrations. On Mac, you can use Grammarly for Safari/Chrome to get suggestions in web-based editors, or the Grammarly Desktop app which works in apps like Microsoft Word, Pages, Mail, etc. It runs natively on Apple Silicon Macs with no issues. We like that it’s essentially always running in the background checking our writing across apps. The performance is light and it doesn’t slow down your Mac.

Core AI Features: Grammarly’s AI continuously checks your text for grammar errors, spelling mistakes, punctuation, and style issues. It provides suggestions in-line that you can accept with a click. Beyond basic corrections, it gives feedback on conciseness, clarity, tone, and even plagiarism detection. The GrammarlyGO feature (for Premium users) adds generative AI capabilities – you can ask it to rewrite a sentence for tone or brevity, continue a piece of text, brainstorm ideas, or even draft a reply to an email based on context. Essentially, GrammarlyGO brings some of the creativity of GPT into the Grammarly interface to help you compose text, not just correct it.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Seamless integration on Mac for real-time writing feedback; catches typos and grammar mistakes that Mac’s built-in checker might miss; suggestions for tone and clarity make your writing stronger. The new generative features can help overcome writer’s block. There’s a free plan that covers basic grammar/spell check, which is very useful on its own.
• Cons: Advanced features require Grammarly Premium subscription, which can be around $12–$30 per month depending on plan. The generative AI (GrammarlyGO) has usage limits even on premium plans. Also, Grammarly needs internet access to work (since it processes text on their servers), which could be a privacy consideration for very sensitive writing – though they do have enterprise options with higher privacy. In rare cases, Grammarly suggestions might not understand nuanced context and you’ll need to use your judgment.

Pricing: Grammarly has a free tier that offers basic spelling and grammar correction – great for casual users. Premium plans (which add style improvements, advanced checks, and GrammarlyGO features) start at around $12/month if paid annually (or ~$30 month-to-month). They also have Business plans for teams. If you just need solid proofreading on your Mac, the free version might suffice, but power users will benefit from Premium’s AI rewriting and advanced tonality checks.

4. GitHub Copilot (AI Coding Assistant)

Overview: GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that lives inside your code editor. For Mac-based developers, Copilot can dramatically speed up coding by autocompleting lines or even entire functions using AI. We tested Copilot in VS Code on Mac and were amazed as it suggested code in real-time as we typed, often correctly predicting our intentions. It supports a variety of languages (Python, JavaScript, Swift, C++, etc.) and can generate code snippets, help with algorithms, or even explain code. If you do coding on a Mac, Copilot is a game-changer for productivity.

macOS Compatibility: Copilot integrates with popular IDEs/editors that run on Mac, including Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs (WebStorm, PyCharm, etc.), Neovim, and even Xcode via unofficial plugins. On our MacBook Air M2, Copilot ran smoothly in VS Code (which itself has an Apple Silicon optimized version). There’s no separate Copilot app to install – you just install the extension in your editor and sign in with GitHub. One thing to note: Microsoft also announced a standalone “Copilot” Windows app, but on macOS this isn’t needed since integration is via editors. All features (including the new Copilot Chat) are available on Mac IDEs.

Core AI Features: Copilot uses OpenAI’s Codex model to suggest code as you write. Start typing a function, and Copilot will try to complete it. You can also write a comment describing what you want (e.g., “// function to sort an array of integers”) and Copilot will generate the function code below. It’s trained on a vast dataset of code, so it can often produce standard boilerplate or even complex logic in one go. Recently, GitHub added Copilot Chat, which lets you chat with the AI about your code inside the editor – you can ask for explanation of a piece of code, or get help fixing a bug. It also has Copilot CLI for command-line suggestions, and can help write unit tests or documentation comments. All these make it feel like an AI programmer is collaborating with you.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Deeply integrated into coding workflow – feels like magic autocomplete for code; supports many languages and frameworks; saves time on routine code and helps learn by example. Copilot’s suggestions are context-aware, looking at your project and comments. It can even suggest edge cases you might forget. For Mac developers, it works in all major editors.
• Cons: Not free (after trial). Copilot can sometimes generate code with errors or insecure practices, so you still must review and test everything – it’s not infallible. It also might not handle very unique or project-specific code well since it leans on common patterns. Additionally, there are occasional latency lags when your internet is slow, as it calls the AI API. Copilot’s training on public code raised some license compliance questions (be mindful if it suggests large chunks of verbatim code you don’t understand).

Pricing: GitHub Copilot is a subscription service. Individuals can use Copilot for free trial (about 1 month). After that, it costs $10 per month or $100 per year for Copilot Pro. This gets you unlimited code completions and chat. There is also a Copilot Pro+ ($39/month) with larger context window and some advanced features, and a Business plan at $19/user/month for organizations. Students and open-source maintainers may get Copilot free. Considering how much time it can save, many developers find the $10/mo well worth it.

5. Midjourney (AI Art Generator via Web/Discord)

Overview: Midjourney is one of the best AI art generators and it works great on Mac through its web and Discord interface. We’ve used Midjourney to create stunning images and artwork by simply describing what we want in text prompts. The image quality and creativity of Midjourney’s AI model are top-notch – often producing results that look like professional illustrations or photographs. Mac users can access Midjourney by joining the Midjourney Discord server or using their web beta. It’s a cloud-based tool, so all the heavy image generation happens on Midjourney’s servers (no stress on your Mac’s hardware). If you’re into digital art, graphic design, or just need images for projects, Midjourney is a must-try.

macOS Compatibility: There is no native Midjourney app, but you use it via Discord on macOS. This means you can either install the Discord app (which has an Apple Silicon version so it runs efficiently) or use Discord web in Safari/Chrome. On our Mac, the Discord app with Midjourney is smooth – you enter a text command (/imagine) with your prompt and the AI generates the image. They also have a newer web interface that works in browser for managing your creations. Midjourney doesn’t utilize your Mac’s GPU/CPU at all for generation, so even an older Intel Mac can use it just as well – all you need is internet.

Core AI Features: Midjourney’s primary feature is text-to-image generation. You type a description of an image (the more detailed, the better) and the AI model generates four image variations. You can then upscale any of them to full quality or ask for more variations. The model (currently Midjourney v5.x) excels at artistic styles, lighting, and detailed scenes. It can create everything from realistic landscapes and portraits to fantasy art or logo concepts. Midjourney also allows some image-to-image prompting – you can feed it an existing image to influence the style or content of the result. For Mac users, another benefit is that Midjourney can serve as an AI design assistant, giving you quick concept visuals that you can then refine in Photoshop or other Mac graphics software.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Arguably best-in-class image quality among AI generators; easy to use through Discord; no local setup required; huge community sharing prompt ideas. It’s fantastic for visual brainstorming or getting custom graphics when you don’t have illustration skills. Works on any Mac since computation is cloud-based.
• Cons: Not free beyond a limited trial – requires a subscription for continued use. Working via Discord chat might feel odd or less user-friendly to some (though the web interface is improving). There are also content rules (no explicit or certain banned content in prompts). Since it’s cloud, you need internet and can’t use it offline. Finally, AI art can sometimes produce weird artifacts or need many tries to get exactly what you envision, so it’s a bit of trial and error.

Pricing: Midjourney offers a few subscription tiers. The Basic Plan is $10/month which gives roughly 3.3 hours of fast generation time (plenty for casual use). The Standard Plan is $30/month and offers 15 hours fast generation + unlimited relaxed generations (slower queue), which is a sweet spot for most enthusiasts. There’s also a Pro Plan at $60/month with 30 hours and some perks, and even a Mega plan for enterprise. There’s usually a short free trial (about 25 image generations) so you can test it out. The paid plans are monthly and you can cancel anytime. For the quality of images Midjourney produces, many designers find the $10–30 very reasonable.

6. DiffusionBee (Stable Diffusion for Mac, Offline)

Overview: DiffusionBee is a fantastic free AI art generator app that runs locally on your Mac. It brings Stable Diffusion (an open-source image generation model) to macOS in a user-friendly package. We love DiffusionBee for quick offline image generation – no internet needed and everything stays on your device. With DiffusionBee, you can create AI art, enhance or modify images, and even generate videos, all on your Mac’s hardware. It’s perfect for those who want to experiment with AI art privately or have unlimited generations without a subscription.

macOS Compatibility: DiffusionBee is built exclusively for macOS and is optimized for Apple Silicon chips. In fact, the app was designed with M1/M2 Macs in mind – it runs much faster on Apple Neural Engine and GPU. (It does work on Intel Macs too, but much more slowly.) You’ll need macOS 13.1 or later to run DiffusionBee. In our testing on an M1 Pro Mac, DiffusionBee installed easily (just a drag-and-drop app) and ran completely offline. Generating a typical 512×512 image took around 10–20 seconds on our machine, which is impressive for local AI. It uses about 4–6 GB of RAM when running. No extra drivers or command-line work needed – it’s a one-click installer.

Core AI Features: DiffusionBee provides a suite of creative AI tools:

• Text-to-Image: Type a prompt to generate an image (using Stable Diffusion models).
• Image-to-Image: Supply an input image and a prompt to transform the image in various ways.
• Generative Fill: Select part of an image and have the AI fill it (similar to content-aware fill, but AI-driven – great for adding/removing objects).
• Image Upscaler: Enhance and upsize images using AI to preserve quality.
• Variants and Control: Generate variations of an image, and use “control images” to guide the AI on composition.
• Video Tools: It even has experimental features to generate short AI animation or apply AI on video frames.
• Train Models: Advanced users can train custom Stable Diffusion models on their own data directly in the app.

All these features run locally. The AI model runs fully on your Mac, no cloud involved, so your images and prompts stay private. DiffusionBee essentially turns your Mac into a creative AI studio.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: 100% free and offline – no credits or fees, generate as much art as you want. Great performance on M1/M2 Macs thanks to Apple Silicon optimization. Wide range of features (it’s not just text-to-image, but also editing and upscaling). Privacy and control – everything stays on your Mac. Ideal for artists who want to use AI but not be cloud-dependent.
• Cons: Stable Diffusion’s image quality, while good, is generally a notch below Midjourney’s latest – so results may require more prompt tweaking. The app’s interface, while straightforward, can be a bit basic and occasionally buggy since it’s evolving. It also eats up disk space because the AI models are large (each model can be a few GB). Generation is slower compared to cloud services with powerful GPUs – e.g., an image might take ~30 seconds on a MacBook Air M1 (still, that’s not bad!). Also, if you have an older Intel Mac without a strong GPU, expect very slow generation times.

Pricing: DiffusionBee is completely free. It’s open-source, and there are no premium tiers. You can download it from the official site or GitHub and start using without any sign-up. This makes it a compelling choice for hobbyists or students who don’t want to pay for Midjourney or DALL-E credits. Just remember to have sufficient storage and a relatively recent Mac to get the best experience.

7. Pixelmator Pro

Overview: Pixelmator Pro is a powerful image editing and graphic design app for Mac that has embraced AI to simplify complex edits. If you need Photoshop-like capabilities on Mac with some AI magic, Pixelmator Pro is for you. We’ve been impressed by its machine learning tools for tasks like automatically removing backgrounds, upscaling images, enhancing photos, and even a new feature that generates imagery and text using AI. The app feels fully at home on macOS (it’s Mac-only) and is known for being user-friendly. With Pixelmator Pro, even non-designers can achieve pro-looking results quickly, thanks to AI assistance.

macOS Compatibility: Pixelmator Pro was designed exclusively for Mac and it shows. It runs natively on Apple Silicon and is highly optimized for Metal and Core ML, leveraging the Neural Engine for speed. In fact, it was one of the first apps to update for M1 support. Whether you’re on an M2 MacBook or an older Intel iMac, Pixelmator Pro runs smoothly (though AI features are faster on M1/M2). It supports the latest macOS features like Dark Mode, Split View, AppleScript, and even has Shortcuts integration. You can download it from the Mac App Store. We appreciate that it’s a native app – it launches fast and doesn’t require an internet connection for most features (except the new AI Compose which uses ChatGPT for text generation).

Core AI Features: Pixelmator Pro has a suite of “ML” tools (machine learning) built-in:

• ML Enhance: One-click automatic enhancement of photos (adjusts colors, exposure, etc. using trained models).
• ML Super Resolution: Upscales images intelligently to increase resolution without losing detail. Great for making a low-res image sharper.
• ML Denoise and Deband: Cleans up noise or color banding artifacts in photos.
• ML Match Colors: Can make one image adopt the color palette of another.
• Background Removal: With a click, remove the background from an image (e.g., isolate the subject) using AI object recognition.
• Repair Tool: Magically remove unwanted objects or blemishes from photos – the AI fills in the area naturally.
• Image Playground (New): An AI image generator integrated into Pixelmator (released in 2025) that lets you create new images from a prompt or transform layers in various art styles. This uses on-device “Apple Intelligence” for image generation.
• Writing Tools (New): AI-powered text assistant that can proofread, summarize, or rewrite text in your designs, and even generate original text via ChatGPT integration – useful for things like creating lorem ipsum or getting copy ideas for a poster.

Beyond AI features, Pixelmator Pro is a full-fledged editor with layering, vector tools, painting, effects, etc., so you can fine-tune the AI results.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Fully native Mac app with smooth performance; one-time purchase (no subscription); a wide range of AI features that drastically cut down editing time (background removal and upscaling work impressively well). It’s beginner-friendly with templates and an intuitive interface, yet powerful enough for advanced edits. Integrates well with macOS (e.g., you can use it in Photos app extensions). And because most features run locally with Core ML, no internet or uploading images needed.
• Cons: It’s Mac-only (not a con for us, but Windows users can’t use it). Advanced Photoshop users might find some specific pro features missing (though Pixelmator Pro covers most needs). The AI-generated content features are newer – for example, the Image Playground generation may not be as advanced as Midjourney, and it requires a newer MacOS (Sequoia) and specific hardware support. Also, while the interface is clean, it can take a little time for completely new users to learn all the tools available.

Pricing: Pixelmator Pro is a paid app but very affordable compared to Adobe apps. It costs a one-time fee of $49.99 on the Mac App Store, and you own it forever (all the major updates for the past few years have been free). There’s a free 15-day trial available on their website if you want to test it. No subscription required, which is a big plus in our book. Considering it packs in photo editing, graphic design, and AI tools in one, it’s great value.

8. Descript

Overview: Descript is an AI-powered audio and video editing application that’s incredibly popular among podcasters, video creators, and anyone who works with voice recordings. We included Descript because it uses AI in unique ways: it can transcribe audio to text with high accuracy, allow you to edit the audio by editing the text transcript, remove filler words and noise automatically, and even clone your voice for overdubs. On Mac, Descript provided us a revolutionary way to edit videos – it’s like editing a Word document. If you create content (like YouTube videos, podcasts, tutorials) on your Mac, Descript can streamline your workflow big time with its AI features.

macOS Compatibility: Descript has a native Mac app (downloadable from their site) and it runs on macOS 13 (Ventura) or later. It fully supports Apple Silicon Macs – in fact, Descript added native M1 support which made it much faster for exporting and processing. We’ve run it on an M2 MacBook Pro and it’s smooth, especially for transcription and basic edits. Some heavy AI tasks (like voice synthesis) might take a little processing time, but nothing too bad. The UI is very Mac-like and they update it frequently. It does require an internet connection for some AI features (e.g., the transcript is done via cloud AI, and the voice cloning uses their server), but basic editing can be done offline once media is transcribed.

Core AI Features: Descript’s headline feature is text-based editing: it will automatically transcribe your audio/video into text with AI (pretty accurate, thanks to their use of a powerful transcription model). You can then edit the transcript – delete a sentence or word – and it will cut the corresponding audio/video. It’s mind-blowing to cut out “ums” and tangents just by editing text. Key AI features include:

• Overdub (AI Voice Cloning): Descript can create a clone of your voice (you provide a training recording) and then you can generate new voiceover just by typing text. If you forgot to say a word in a recording, just type it in – Descript will produce that word in your voice seamlessly.
• Studio Sound: An AI noise reduction and enhancement that makes your audio sound like it was recorded in a studio. It removes background noise and evens out voices.
• Remove Filler Words: With one click, find and remove all “um”, “uh”, and similar fillers from the audio.
• Dialogue Editing and Speaker Detection: It identifies different speakers in your recording and labels them. You can easily delete or tighten gaps in conversation.
• AI Video Tools: New features like AI green screen (remove or blur background without a physical green screen), AI eye contact (make it look like the speaker is looking at camera), and even generate short video clips or social posts from a longer video using AI.
• Transcription & Search: All transcripts are searchable, so you can search your recordings for a word and instantly find the spot in the video.

Descript basically combines transcription, audio editing, and some video editing, with AI at the core.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Hugely simplifies the editing process – edit videos by editing text! Overdub is amazingly useful for quick fixes or adding narration. The transcription is fast and pretty accurate, turning hours of audio into text in minutes. Great for collaboration as well (you can share projects and text scripts). Descript’s interface is friendly even for non-editors. They also have a free tier to get started.
• Cons: Descript does a lot, so it can feel a bit heavy compared to a simple editor. The free plan has limitations (like transcript hours per month, watermark on videos). For long-form or highly precise video editing, you might still need to round-trip to Premiere or Final Cut for polish. AI voice cloning requires clear training audio and, ethically, you should only clone your own voice. Some features like video generation or fancy AI avatars are newer and can be hit-or-miss. Also, processing long recordings can tax your Mac (it’s doing AI work, after all), though cloud offloading helps.

Pricing: Descript has a Free plan with limited usage (e.g. 1 hour of transcription per month, 720p video export with watermark, and limited use of some AI tools). Paid plans remove these limits: the Hobbyist plan is $16 per month (billed annually), which gives 10 hours transcription, 1080p export, some AI usage like filler removal and basic Overdub. The Creator plan is $24/month (annual) with 30 hours transcription and unlimited use of most AI features. There’s also a Pro plan ($30/mo) and Enterprise. Essentially, for most individual creators, ~$16-24 a month unlocks the really useful stuff, and we’ve found that to be a good value given how much time it saves in editing and cleanup.

9. Notion AI

Overview: Notion AI adds a powerful generative AI assistant into Notion, the popular all-in-one workspace app. We love Notion on Mac for organizing notes, documents, tasks, and wikis – and with Notion’s AI features, it can now help brainstorm ideas, summarize long notes, draft content, and even answer questions from your notes. Imagine having a research assistant and copywriter inside your notes app. Using Notion AI on our Mac, we were able to outline articles, generate meeting agendas, and get summaries of meeting notes with ease. It’s a huge productivity booster for knowledge work.

macOS Compatibility: Notion runs on Mac either via the Notion desktop app (which is an optimized Electron app) or in a web browser. The desktop app works fine on Apple Silicon Macs; it’s not a heavy app. Notion AI features are integrated into the app – just hit Space or click the “Ask AI” button in any page. Performance is good, though responses take a second since it’s querying their cloud AI (needs internet). As of 2025, ensure your Notion app is updated to access the AI features. We did find that you need a certain plan (Business plan or AI add-on) for full access, which is a consideration (more on pricing below).

Core AI Features: Notion AI is like an AI assistant that understands the context of your Notion pages and databases. Key capabilities include:

• Text Generation & Brainstorming: In any Notion page, you can ask the AI to generate content – for example, “Draft a blog post about Mac productivity” and it will create an outline or even paragraphs. Great for overcoming writer’s block. Brainstorm ideas, get list of pros/cons, or ask for suggestions right within your notes.
• Summarization: You can have Notion AI summarize a long page of notes or extract action items. We used this on meeting notes to get the key points quickly. It can summarize highlights of a research doc, or give you a TL;DR of a lengthy article you paste in.
• Translation & Tone Rewrite: It can translate text between languages or rewrite text in a different tone (e.g., make a paragraph more casual or more professional). Useful for polishing writing.
• Q&A on Your Notes: Perhaps the most powerful – you can ask questions about your content. For example, “What is the status of Project X?” and if you have that info in your workspace, it will try to answer from your pages. It’s like a personal knowledge base query.
• Automating Databases: Notion AI can fill in fields or generate content for database entries (like writing a task description from a title, etc.). And Notion is adding AI properties that can automatically update.
• Coding and Diagrams: It can generate snippets of code or even Mermaid diagrams if you ask (though it’s not as specialized as Copilot or a real IDE for code).

All these features are invoked through a simple command prompt in Notion. It uses a combination of OpenAI GPT-4 and Anthropic Claude under the hood, with Notion’s own context awareness (it knows your workspace structure for better answers).

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Native part of your note-taking workflow – no need to switch to ChatGPT for many tasks. Saves time in writing and summarizing content – extremely handy for meeting notes, documentation, and ideation. Contextual awareness means it can be more relevant to your info (e.g., summarizing your notes rather than generic). Notion itself is a great Mac app for organization, and AI makes it even better.
• Cons: Notion AI is no longer available on the free or cheap plans – they moved it to higher-tier plans, which is a downside. That means to use it extensively, you might need a Business plan ($15-20/month user) or an add-on fee. Also, for very recent info outside your notes, it won’t know (it’s not connected to the internet like Bing; it only knows what’s in its training or in your workspace). Some generated content can be generic, so you’ll usually refine it. Finally, heavy users might hit limits (Notion AI originally had a cap of responses per member, which can be extended on business plans).

Pricing: Notion AI used to be an add-on ($10/month) for Plus plans, but as of 2025 it’s included only in Business and Enterprise plans. Essentially, new Free or Plus users do not have access to Notion AI beyond maybe a trial.The Business plan is about $15 per user per month (annual billing) which includes Notion AI and other advanced features. This is a bit of a bummer for personal users on a budget. However, if you’re already using Notion for work or a team, upgrading for AI might be justified. We hope Notion brings back a personal AI plan, but for now, budget-conscious users might stick to copying text into ChatGPT as a workaround. For those who do opt in, Notion AI can genuinely save hours of work each week in summarizing and content creation.

10. Raycast (with AI Assistant)

Overview: Raycast is a productivity booster for Mac – essentially a supercharged app launcher and automation tool – and its latest addition is Raycast AI, an AI assistant integrated right into macOS. We included Raycast because it uniquely combines system-level automation with AI: you can open Raycast with a hotkey and ask the AI anything (like you would with ChatGPT), or use it to control your Mac with natural language. For example, we can hit Cmd+Space (Raycast’s shortcut), ask “Search my files for budget report” or “Summarize the text in my clipboard”, and the AI will do it. Raycast AI brings the power of GPT-4 (and many other models) to your fingertips without even opening a browser. It truly makes your Mac feel smarter and more personalized.

macOS Compatibility: Raycast is a native Mac application (built as a replacement for Spotlight/Alfred). It runs on macOS 11 Big Sur and above. It’s optimized for Apple Silicon, so it’s fast and low on resource usage. We tested the AI features on an M1 MacBook and they worked flawlessly – responses appear in the Raycast window in seconds. Raycast integrates deeply: it can use Mac’s clipboard, launch apps, run scripts, etc., so the AI can interact with your OS. Note: To use Raycast’s AI, you need to log in to a Raycast account and have the Pro subscription enabled. It requires internet to query the AI models.

Core AI Features: Raycast’s AI is essentially an AI chatbot plus Mac automation:

• AI Command Bar: Hit the hotkey and just start asking anything – it’s like a Spotlight search, but for AI answers. It can do general knowledge Q&A, draft text, or even write code snippets, just like ChatGPT. The twist is it’s always one keyboard shortcut away, anywhere on your Mac.
• Contextual Actions: Raycast can feed in context such as your clipboard content. For example, copy some text from a document, then trigger Raycast AI and ask “Summarize the clipboard text” – it will know to summarize what you copied. Or select a file and use a Raycast command to have the AI analyze it (for example, summarize a PDF’s text).
• Multiple AI Models: Raycast supports various models and providers. By default, it gives you a certain number of GPT-4 or other advanced model queries on Pro, and you can also plug in your own API keys if you want. This means you can access models like Claude, or even community models, through the same interface.
• Natural Language Mac Actions: You can type commands like “Toggle Dark Mode” or “Play some music” and if you have scripts/commands set up, Raycast can execute them. With AI, Raycast can understand more complex natural language to trigger these. (This feature is evolving, but it’s bridging Siri-like control with GPT understanding.)
• Translation and Other Utilities: Raycast AI includes quick translate functions (type a phrase and it can translate on the fly), and things like explaining code or regex you type, etc., as part of its default prompts.

Think of Raycast as both a Spotlight replacement and now a mini ChatGPT on demand. It truly increases productivity because you don’t need to switch context to get AI help.

Pros and Cons:

• Pros: Incredible convenience – AI is just a keystroke away, integrated with what you’re doing. Great for power users who live on the keyboard. Can incorporate live context (clipboard, selected text) easily, which web ChatGPT can’t do without extensions. Because it’s an app, you avoid the clutter of opening browser tabs for quick questions. Also, Raycast itself has many extensions and automations, and the AI can be combined with those (for example, you could have an extension that pipes AI output to a note). The base Raycast app is free and extremely useful even without AI.
• Cons: Raycast AI is a paid feature (Pro plan subscription) after the free messages quota. So while Raycast core is free, the AI assistant will cost (though you can alternatively use your own OpenAI API key in some capacity). Some users might already use Spotlight or Alfred and be reluctant to switch. And compared to a full ChatGPT interface, Raycast’s responses are in a small window – fine for short answers, but not for heavy chat conversations (you’d still use a full app for that). Additionally, since it can hook into system, one should be mindful of privacy (Raycast doesn’t log your data and the AI providers are external, but always good to review settings).

Pricing: The Raycast app is free for core usage. Raycast AI is part of Raycast Pro, which is $8 per month (billed annually) for individuals. The Pro plan gives you a set number of AI messages (they mention 50 free AI queries on the free tier, then unlimited on Pro with some advanced model access). There’s also a higher “Advanced AI” tier (which was about $16/month) that unlocks access to the most advanced models like GPT-4 with longer context, Claude, etc. They do offer a short trial of Pro. If you’re an avid Raycast user, the subscription might be worth it for the integration; if not, you could stick to using the free tier or an alt like just using the ChatGPT Mac app. For many of us, having that AI in-line has proven worth the cost.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Comparison List of Top Mac AI Software

Below is a quick comparison of all the AI tools we discussed, including their pricing models, compatibility, and key features at a glance:

• ChatGPT (OpenAI)
  • Pricing: Free basic use; Plus $20/month
  • Compatibility: Native Mac app (macOS 10.15+), Web (all browsers), Apple Silicon optimized
  • Key Features: Conversational AI chatbot for writing and coding; GPT-4 access with subscription; Mac app includes global shortcut
• Jasper AI
  • Pricing: Paid only – Pro ~$69/month (no free tier)
  • Compatibility: Web-based (Safari/Chrome on Mac); no native app required
  • Key Features: AI content generator for marketing and writing; 50+ templates (blogs, ads, etc.); team collaboration; GPT-4 powered outputs
• Grammarly
  • Pricing: Free basic plan; Premium from ~$12/month
  • Compatibility: Native Mac app + browser extensions; works on M1/M2
  • Key Features: Grammar and spell check; style and tone suggestions; GrammarlyGO for AI rewrites and drafts; integrates with most Mac apps
• GitHub Copilot
  • Pricing: $10/month (individual Pro); free trial available
  • Compatibility: IDE extensions (VS Code, JetBrains, Xcode) on macOS; Apple Silicon supported in editors
  • Key Features: AI code autocomplete and chat; supports multiple programming languages; suggests snippets and full functions; context-aware coding help
• Midjourney
  • Pricing: Subscription – Basic $10/month, Standard $30/month, etc.
  • Compatibility: Web & Discord (cloud-based); works on any Mac with internet
  • Key Features: AI image generation from text prompts; creates high-quality art and graphics; multiple styles and photorealism; no local GPU needed
• DiffusionBee
  • Pricing: Free (open-source)
  • Compatibility: macOS app (13.1+); optimized for Apple Silicon (runs on Intel slowly)
  • Key Features: Local Stable Diffusion generator; 100% offline use; text-to-image, image-to-image, upscaling, more; privacy-focused
• Pixelmator Pro
  • Pricing: One-time $49.99 (15-day free trial)
  • Compatibility: macOS app (10.14+), Apple Silicon native
  • Key Features: Advanced image editor with ML Enhance, ML Super Resolution, background removal, smart object removal; integrates macOS features; includes AI text and image generation tools
• Descript
  • Pricing: Free plan (1 hr transcript); Creator plan $24/month
  • Compatibility: macOS app (13+), Apple Silicon native; also on Windows
  • Key Features: AI-driven audio/video editor; text-based editing; Overdub voice cloning; filler word and noise removal; ideal for podcasts and video editing
• Notion AI
  • Pricing: Included in Notion Business plan ($15–$20/user/month); not in free plans
  • Compatibility: Notion Mac app (Electron, Intel & M1); also runs in browsers
  • Key Features: AI assistant built into Notion; generates content, brainstorms, summarizes; answers using your notes’ context; integrates with tasks and docs
• Raycast + AI
  • Pricing: Core Raycast free; AI Pro $8/month (annual), Advanced $16/month
  • Compatibility: macOS app (11+), Apple Silicon optimized; requires internet for AI queries
  • Key Features: Spotlight-like launcher with GPT assistant; instant answers and text generation via hotkey; integrates with clipboard and Mac commands; supports multiple AI models; enhances Mac automation with natural language

Each of these AI tools brings something unique to macOS. Whether you’re aiming to write smarter, code faster, create art, or automate tasks, there’s an AI app on Mac tailored to that purpose. By combining the strengths of a few of them (as we often do), you can transform your Mac into an intelligent productivity hub. Happy experimenting with AI on your Mac!