BoltAI
Verified Oct 16, 2026 ActiveNative Mac client for 300+ models on your own keys
Listed on EffectHub ·
Pricing
- Pricing model
- Paid
- Paid options from
- $79 once
- Billing
- One-time purchase
One-time licences with a 14-day free trial: Essential $79 for one Mac, Pro $99 for two desktops plus one mobile device, Pro+ $199 for three desktops plus two mobiles, and Team $99 per seat from five seats. Each includes one year of updates and Cloud Sync, renewable at a discount afterwards; provider API usage is paid separately.
Use tool ↗About BoltAI
BoltAI is a macOS application that connects to OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Mistral, Azure, Bedrock and local Ollama models using API keys you supply, so there is no subscription layered on top of provider usage. It works inline inside any Mac app through global shortcuts, stores chats locally with optional passphrase encryption, and supports MCP servers, custom agents and a prompt library. Licences are one-time purchases that carry a year of updates rather than recurring plans.
- API
- Not confirmed
- Last verified
- Oct 16, 2026
Verified sources
- Pricing page: Essential $79 (1 device), Pro $99 (2 desktop + 1 mobile), Pro+ $199 (3 desktop + 2 mobile), Team $99 per seat with 5-seat minimum and optional $79/seat/year renewal; one year of updates included; Windows marked coming soon (15 October 2026)boltai.com ↗
- Pricing page: try everything free for 14 days; Cloud Sync, mobile access and new updates require renewal after the first year; 30-day money-back guarantee (15 October 2026)boltai.com ↗
- Bootstrapped indie product by Daniel Nguyen, started 2023, mobile app in betaboltai.com ↗
- Developer Daniel Nguyen is based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnamindiehackers.com ↗
Is BoltAI legit?
We don’t label tools safe or unsafe. Below are the records we checked ourselves, each with the date we read it.
- Domain registered
- Apr 25, 2013 (13 years ago)Registry record (RDAP), registrar Cloudflare, Inc., looked up Sep 6, 2026
- TLS certificate
- Issued by Google Trust Services, valid until Jan 11, 2027Seen in our own connection to the site on Oct 16, 2026
- Last checked
- Oct 16, 2026The site answered
- On the market since
- 2023The vendor's own material, read by us
Pros & cons of BoltAI
The best-value option for heavy Mac users who already hold API keys and resent paying a third $20 monthly subscription. If you do not want to manage keys and top up provider credit, an ordinary chat subscription is less friction.
Pros
- One-time $79 licence instead of an open-ended subscription
- Own-key model means you pay provider rates with no markup
- Local chat storage with optional passphrase encryption
- MCP server support and custom agents built in
Cons
- Licence covers only one year of updates, then you renew or freeze
- Provider API usage is billed separately on top of the licence
- Windows is advertised on the pricing page but still marked coming soon
- Mobile app is beta and single-maintainer development is a real continuity risk
Best for
- Developers and power users with existing OpenAI or Anthropic keys
- Getting AI inline in any Mac app via a global keyboard shortcut
- Privacy-conscious users who want chat history stored locally
Not for
- Non-technical users unwilling to handle API keys and billing
- Windows users, where the build is still unreleased
- Organisations needing centralised admin, SSO and audit logs
Watch out: The one-time price includes just twelve months of updates, so staying current means paying an annual renewal despite the perpetual-licence framing.
Alternatives to BoltAI
BoltAI head-to-head
Side-by-side fact sheets against the competitors our research or their makers name — pricing, platforms, API and both verdicts on one page.