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Offline mode

In offline mode, you work in the desktop application with an AI model running on your own computer (Ollama). This also lets you work without an internet connection, for example while traveling or in a place without Wi-Fi.

Turn on offline mode​

  1. In the sidebar, turn on the Offline mode toggle. You’ll find the same toggle in the local mode settings as well.
  2. The first time, you’ll briefly read what changes. Confirm with Turn on offline mode.
  3. A new chat starts. As long as offline mode is on, the toggle in the sidebar is highlighted.

The app remembers your choice and starts in offline mode next time. Turn the toggle off to work normally again.

One-time online sign-in

First sign in online once in the desktop application. After that, the app can also start in offline mode without internet, for up to 30 days after the last time the app was started online. After signing out, you must sign in online again first.

What stays on your computer​

  • The model runs in Ollama on your computer. Your questions and the answers do not go to a server.
  • New chats and messages are stored encrypted on this computer only, never in the cloud, and are not synchronized. So you will not see them in the web version or on another device. In the sidebar and history, you can recognize an offline chat by the crossed-out cloud.
  • The local model creates the chat title.
  • Reading and editing files in your chosen folder, creating Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files, and local commands all work normally. Commands run in the sandbox without network access. On a computer without a sandbox, the app asks for permission for each command.
  • Viewing a local development server in the built-in browser (localhost) also works.

What does not work in offline mode​

  • Cloud models. Only local models are shown in the model selection.
  • Internet search, weather, maps, image search or generation, Wikipedia, Wikiwijs, and SLO.
  • Uploading files or adding them from File Manager, and searching the manual.
  • Connections (such as Google and Microsoft 365) and MCP servers, including locally installed ones.
  • Voice, image, document generation, and workflows.
  • Continuing an existing cloud chat. You can open it, but turn off offline mode to keep working in it.

What can still connect to the internet​

Offline mode does not send the content of your chats to a server. If internet is available, the app may still exchange data without chat content, such as refreshing your sign-in or anonymous usage statistics. In offline mode, the app does not automatically check for updates; you can still check manually.

Ollama is not running or there is no model​

If the start screen reports that Ollama is not running, start the Ollama app (or run ollama serve in a terminal) and choose Check again. If there is no model yet, download one while you are online:

ollama pull qwen3-vl:4b-instruct

See Chatting with local AI models for installing Ollama and choosing a model.

Settings for administrators​

Offline mode is available by default. Administrators can disable it for the entire environment in the admin environment under Features, in the Desktop app card, with Allow offline mode. The app adopts that setting as soon as it goes online again and checks the policy. In closed mode, offline mode is never available, because there every message is logged on the server.

In offline mode, the app follows the extra instructions and the limits for context and response length from the AI policy, as they applied during the last online use. Access hours, usage limits, and budgets do not apply offline: local models cost nothing and the app cannot check them without a server. If you want to prevent that, turn off offline mode.

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