Frequently Asked Questions

Collate is a privacy-first AI assistant designed for self-learners and knowledge builders. It lets you chat with, summarize, and extract insights from PDFs entirely offline on your Mac, perfect for building personal knowledge bases without uploading documents to the cloud.

No. After the initial download and setup, Collate works completely offline. All AI processing runs locally on your device, so you can use it anywhere without wifi or cellular connection.

Currently, Collate supports PDF files. We're working on adding support for additional formats like Word documents, text files, and more in future updates.

Absolutely. Collate processes everything locally on your device. Your documents, conversations, and insights never leave your Mac. We don't collect, store, or transmit any of your document data.

Collate supports both Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3) and Intel Macs running macOS 13.1 or later. The app is optimized for both architectures to ensure the best performance.

Collate uses a small Llama-based model for good performance on personal computers. It's great for learning, note-taking, and general document exploration, but we recommend verifying important information and don't suggest using it for critical decisions or professional work requiring high accuracy.

Collate supports English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hindi. You can chat with PDFs and get summaries in any of these supported languages.

Yes! You can export your summaries and chat conversations as PDF, rich text, or send them directly via email. This makes it easy to integrate with your personal note-taking apps and study workflows.

There's no limit to the number of documents you can process with Collate. You can organize unlimited PDFs in folders and search across your entire library.

Yes, Collate can handle large PDF files efficiently. The app uses advanced chunking and indexing to process documents of any size while maintaining fast search and chat performance.

Absolutely! Collate supports multi-PDF chat, allowing you to ask questions across multiple documents simultaneously. This is perfect for comparative research and cross-referencing information.

Currently, Collate is available exclusively for Mac. We're focused on delivering the best possible desktop experience with the full power of on-device AI processing.

Collate is completely free to download and use. There are no subscription fees, usage limits, or hidden costs. Once you download it, you have access to all features forever.

Collate is perfect for self-learners, students, and anyone building a personal knowledge base. It excels at helping you understand textbooks, research papers, articles, and learning materials. It's ideal for people who want AI assistance without uploading documents to cloud services.