What the AI does
| Feature | What it does | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Copy text | Turns the text in any part of the screen into text you can paste. | Your computer |
| Auto-redact | Finds emails, phone numbers, card numbers and API keys, and blurs them. | Your computer |
| Smart snap | The selection snaps to the button, panel or card under the pointer as you drag. | Your computer |
| Smart file names | Saves orderlist-typeerror.png instead of a timestamp, from the words in the capture. | Your computer |
| Ask | Explain an error, write a bug report, pull out a table or summarize, right on the capture. | The model you choose |
| Alt text | Writes a description of the image for accessibility and copies it. | The model you choose |
| Send to | Opens ChatGPT, Claude, Codex, Cursor or any app you add, with the capture pasted in. | The app you send to |
Where your screenshot goes
Most AI screenshot tools send every capture to their own cloud and sell you credits to pay for it. Glintshot doesn’t have a cloud. What happens to a capture depends only on what you set up:
- Reading text (Copy text, Auto-redact, smart file names) uses your system’s own engine: Apple Vision on macOS, Windows OCR on Windows and Tesseract on Linux. Nothing leaves your computer.
- A local model through Ollama or LM Studio answers questions on your computer too. Glintshot finds them on its own and lists the models you’ve installed.
- Your own API key sends the part you selected to the provider you chose, under that provider’s terms, and Glintshot says so before it does. The image is scaled to 1568 pixels on its long edge first.
- A command hands the capture to a command-line tool you already use and shows what it prints.
Until you pick one, Ask and alt text stay hidden. The privacy page lists every feature that sends anything anywhere.
Set it up
- Open Settings › AI.
- Choose Local, API key or Command. Local lists the models Ollama or LM Studio already has.
- Press Save and test. Glintshot sends a tiny sample image and shows whether the answer came back.
- Capture something and press Ask on the toolbar.
Free and Pro
Every AI feature is free with no daily limit, on as many computers as you like, and so are capturing, marking up, copying, saving and Send to. Pro is for what needs our servers, like AI with no key to set up: $29 a year (coming soon). See the full comparison.
Questions
Do I need an account or credits for the AI features?
No. Copy text, Auto-redact, Smart snap and smart file names run on your computer. Ask and alt text use a model you choose in Settings › AI. Glintshot has no AI service of its own to sell you.
Which models can I use?
A local vision model through Ollama or LM Studio (for example Qwen2.5-VL, Llama 3.2 Vision or Gemma 3), Claude or any OpenAI-compatible service with your own API key, or a command-line tool you already use, such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI or Cursor CLI.
Is there a free plan?
Yes. Every AI feature that runs on your computer, or with your own key or a local model, is free with no daily limit. Pro will add AI with no key to set up.