Questions about Collate.

Collate is a native Mac workspace for reading, organizing, questioning, summarizing, and highlighting PDFs. It supports Local AI on your Mac and optional OpenAI or Anthropic models using your own API key.

Local AI works offline after the app and a supported model have been downloaded. Model downloads, software updates, optional cloud providers, analytics, embedded website forms, and user-created share links require an internet connection.

In Local AI mode, document processing stays on your Mac. If you explicitly select a Cloud AI provider, Collate sends the content required for that request to the selected provider. Creating a web share link also uploads the selected answer, summary, or highlights.

The current reading and AI workflow is focused on PDF files.

Collate supports Apple Silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 13.5 or later. Local model speed and capacity depend on the Mac's available memory.

Collate offers different local model downloads. The recommended model is about 5.9 GB, while larger options can exceed 8 GB. An 8 GB Mac can run lighter models; 16 GB or more gives you more model choices.

AI output can be inaccurate or incomplete. Collate provides citations and keeps the source document nearby, but you should verify important information against the PDF and seek qualified advice for medical, legal, or financial decisions.

Collate includes translation and multilingual model options, but quality and language coverage vary by the model you select. Check the model details in the app before relying on a language for important work.

Yes. Depending on the content, Collate can save or share summaries, answers, highlights, HTML, PDF output, email drafts, and web links. Web share links upload the selected content, stop returning it after 90 days, and are removed by a daily cleanup task.

Yes. You can organize PDFs in folders, view a folder's PDFs together as one combined document, chat across every document in a folder, and export folder highlights grouped by document.

Collate does not impose an account-based document quota. Practical limits depend on available storage, memory, PDF complexity, and the model selected on your Mac.

The Mac app is currently free to download. Local models do not have per-request fees. If you use a BYOK cloud provider, that provider may charge your account under its own pricing.