Elephas
A private knowledge workspace for Mac, iPhone and iPad that indexes your documents entirely on-device and redacts 28 types of sensitive data before any cloud call, with a full offline mode for confidential client work.
What is Elephas?
Elephas is a native macOS knowledge assistant published by Liberation Softwares LLP, a company founded in 2021 in Chennai, India. Its central building block is the Super Brain: a workspace where you gather PDFs, notes, contracts, web pages and transcripts by project or by client, then question them in plain language. Every answer is grounded in your own files and cites its source. What separates it from a general-purpose chatbot is where the work happens. Since version 11.6, indexing is 100% local: nothing leaves the machine while your library is processed, no credits are consumed, and it works with no internet connection. iOS supports fully local indexing too. The device holds the keyword search index, the extracted text chunks in a local SQLite database, and file metadata. When you ask a question, Elephas searches that local index and sends only the relevant passages to the AI provider you chose. Smart Redaction (v11.7 and later) anonymises personal information on-device first, covering 28 categories: names, organisations, emails, phone numbers, addresses, social security and tax identifiers, payment cards, account and sort codes, passports, legal case numbers and medical record numbers. You choose where the model runs: offline with a local model, the built-in cloud with zero data retention, or your own API key. The homepage names GPT-5, Claude and Gemini, and bring-your-own-key covers 15+ providers including OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq and DeepSeek. Super Command summons Elephas inside any Mac application, from Mail and Safari to Slack and Notes, with a keyboard shortcut, to summarise, rewrite, translate, proofread or draft from your own documents. It reads PDF, Word, Excel, Pages, Markdown and text files, and pulls from Apple Notes, Notion, Obsidian, DEVONthink, Zoom transcripts, web pages and audio transcriptions, with 20+ formats claimed on iOS. Elephas claims 500+ documents per Brain against the 50 sources per notebook of NotebookLM, 3,000+ professionals using it, and a 4.6/5 rating on Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice. The positioning is explicit: an answer to Shadow AI, the habit of pasting confidential material into general chatbots, with dedicated pages for consultants, lawyers, accountants, researchers, financial advisers, coaches and customer support. It requires macOS 13 or later, is optimised for Apple Silicon, and syncs across devices through iCloud and CloudKit, on by default and switchable off in Preferences > General.
What it does
- Index PDFs, contracts, notes and transcripts locally on your Mac
- Question your own documents and get answers cited back to the source file
- Mask 28 types of sensitive data on-device before anything reaches a cloud model
- Run the AI entirely offline, with no connection at all
- Summarise, rewrite, translate and proofread inside any Mac app with a keyboard shortcut
- Build custom commands (Snippets) for your own recurring workflows
- Consult your Super Brains from iPhone and iPad
When to use Elephas / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Elephas is the right fit.
When to use Elephas
- Consultants and independent advisers handling NDA-bound client work: proposals, deliverables and confidential briefing material
- Lawyers and legal teams working through contracts, sensitive clauses and contractual obligations
- Accountants and tax professionals building tax memos and audit preparation files from client returns and working papers
- Researchers and academics querying libraries of unpublished papers and peer-review material
- Financial advisers and Mac-based professionals keeping client portfolios, planning documents and personal journals indexed on their own Apple Silicon machine
When not to use Elephas
- Windows, Linux and browser-based users: the app runs only on macOS 13 or later and on iOS
- Android users, since no Android version exists
- Developers wanting to build on top of the product, as there is no public API
- Mixed-device teams: multi-device sync requires the same Apple account and free iCloud Drive space, and the Mac App Store build loses Super Command and every writing feature to sandbox restrictions
- Anyone expecting legal, medical, financial, tax or compliance advice, or a guarantee of complete redaction: the publisher explicitly disclaims both, and coverage is weaker on free-flowing prose than on structured identifiers
How to use Elephas
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Download Elephas from the website, or from the Mac App Store where sandbox restrictions remove Super Command and the writing features; seven days of Pro activate automatically, with no credit card
- Create one Super Brain per project or per client and add the PDFs, notes, contracts and research it should cover
- Select the local indexing option when you create the new Brain, so indexing runs entirely on your Mac
- Choose where the AI runs in the AI Provider tab of the settings: offline with a local model, the built-in cloud, or your own API key
- Ask your Super Brain questions in plain language; every answer cites the sources it drew from
- Trigger Super Command with a keyboard shortcut in any application to summarise, rewrite, translate or proofread
- Turn on Sensitive Data Protection so personal information is masked before anything is sent to a cloud model
- For mobile access, sign in to the same Apple account on every device and keep enough free iCloud Drive space
- Note that Brains created before v11.6 keep working but stay on the old flow; create a new Brain to get local indexing
- For sensitive work, prefer offline mode, or failing that redaction enabled plus your own API key, with one workspace per project
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Indexing is genuinely local and easy to verify: turn off the Wi-Fi and it still works
- No user content is stored on the publisher's servers, and the search index and text chunks never leave the Mac
- Sensitive data is masked on-device, across 28 categories, before any cloud call
- You keep a real choice over where the AI runs: local model, built-in cloud, or your own provider key
- Answers are anchored in your own files and cite the source they came from
- Works inside every Mac application through a keyboard shortcut, without switching windows, and allows 500+ documents per Brain with no artificial source cap
- Low barrier to entry: permanent free plan, seven days of Pro with no credit card, public pricing for all three paid tiers, a claimed 4.6/5 across three software directories, and a published company name, postal address and governing law
Cons
- Apple ecosystem only: no Windows, no Linux, no web version and no Android
- The Mac App Store build ships without Super Command and without any writing feature, and there is no public API
- No DPA is published or even mentioned, not even on the page aimed at IT and security teams, and no security certification is shown (neither SOC 2 nor ISO 27001)
- No Article 27 EU representative and no DPO, with a publisher established outside the EU and no hosting country stated for cloud processing
- No refunds under any circumstances, a single generic support address as the only contact, exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Bangalore, India, and a liability cap as low as USD 100 for a free-plan user
- The publisher itself concedes that redaction coverage is weaker on free-flowing prose than on structured identifiers, and guarantees nothing
- Multi-device sync depends on iCloud Drive and the same Apple account, and the Pro+ usage ceiling is subject to a fair use policy
Pricing & Plans
Elephas is offered on a freemium basis. A permanent free plan provides 20 credits per month on the built-in Elephas engine, and every new download automatically activates a seven-day Pro trial with no credit card required. The lowest paid entry point is the Standard plan at USD 19 per month, followed by Professional at USD 39 per month and Pro+ at USD 49 per month; annual billing is advertised as saving approximately 17%. Monthly credit allowances are 20 on Free, 100 on Standard, 500 on Pro and 1,000 on Pro+. Automatic indexing consumes no credits, one-off top-ups may be purchased, and usage is effectively unlimited when you supply your own API key. Payment is processed through Gumroad or the Apple App Store. No refunds are offered, and the publisher undertakes to give at least 30 days' notice of any price change.
- 20 credits per month on the built-in Elephas engine
- no credit card required
- USD 19 per month - AI chat and writing on the Mac
- basic document and note workflows
- PDFs
- notes and files
- zero-data-retention cloud AI
- automatic sensitive data protection
- and local indexing
- USD 39 per month - everything in Standard
- plus higher usage limits
- integrations (Apple Notes
- Notion
- Obsidian)
- Super Brain
- access to your Super Brains on iPhone and iPad
- and basic visibility over redaction activity and masked data types
- USD 49 per month - everything in Professional
- plus the full redaction inspector
- detailed per-message visibility
- advanced redaction configuration
- optional offline AI workflows
- maximum usage limits under a fair use policy (1
- 000 credits per month)
- a one-to-one onboarding call
- no public pricing
- a dedicated request form (tally.so) is provided
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Elephas handles your data.
GDPR overview
Elephas states plainly that it complies with applicable data protection laws, including the GDPR for European users, and lists the rights it honours: access, rectification, erasure, portability and objection. Privacy requests are answered within a stated five to seven business days. Beyond that, the implementation is thin. The publisher is established in India, outside the EU, with no European establishment shown, and has appointed no Article 27 EU representative and no Data Protection Officer; the only contact is a generic support address. The privacy policy, in force since February 2026, warns that collected information may be transferred to and processed in the United States and other countries where its providers operate, but names no standard contractual clauses and no adequacy decision. The minimum age is 13, and no data is knowingly collected from younger children.
Who owns the data?
You keep full ownership of everything you put into Elephas. The publisher, Liberation Softwares LLP, claims no ownership rights over your content. Your files, documents and Super Brain content stay on your Mac: the keyword search index, the extracted text chunks and the file metadata all live locally in ~/Library/Application Support/Elephas/, and no file is ever uploaded to or stored on Elephas servers. Only the relevant passages leave the device when you query a cloud model. Ownership comes with one duty on your side: the terms make you responsible for holding the right to use any content you process.
Reuse rights
Because you keep ownership of your content, you can reuse everything you put in, and everything Elephas produces from it, without asking permission. What the publisher collects is separate and limited: personal details you volunteer (name, email, contact information), technical information (operating system, version, device type), usage analytics, crash reports, your licence key and coarse location down to city and country. These serve service delivery and improvement, subscription management, communication, usage analysis, security and legal compliance. The publisher states it never trains AI models on your data and never shares your content with third parties for marketing. When you ask a question, only the relevant excerpts go to the AI provider, never whole documents, and file names, paths and workspace metadata are not sent. Built-in cloud requests travel through an Elephas reverse proxy that does not log, store or inspect them; with your own API key the request goes straight from your Mac to the provider. You can turn analytics off in the settings, switch to offline mode, unsubscribe from communications or delete your account.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
No hosting country or region is stated anywhere on the site. The model is local-first: the search index, the extracted text chunks and the file metadata sit on the user's own Mac, in ~/Library/Application Support/Elephas/, and no user content is stored on the publisher's servers. Sync between devices runs through iCloud Drive and CloudKit, so that data stays inside the user's own iCloud account, encrypted by Apple in transit and at rest, and end-to-end encrypted if Apple's Advanced Data Protection is switched on. Cloud processing is the only part that leaves the Apple perimeter: relevant passages are sent to OpenAI, Anthropic or Google through an Elephas reverse proxy that neither logs nor stores them. The privacy policy warns that collected information may be transferred to and processed in the United States and in other countries where its providers operate. The site's own IP address resolves to Frankfurt, Germany (AS16509, Amazon), but that is the marketing site's infrastructure, not a hosting location for user data.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Elephas.
- The Mac App Store build ships without Super Command and without any writing feature: check which download channel you are buying before you pay
- No refunds are offered, whatever the reason, so use the free plan and the seven-day Pro trial to test the product before committing
- Disputes fall under Indian law and the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in Bangalore, with liability capped at the greater of twelve months of fees paid or USD 100
- No DPA is published: if your professional obligations require a processing agreement you will have to request one, and there is no Article 27 EU representative despite the European audience the product targets
- The publisher states the software provides no legal, medical, financial, tax or compliance advice and guarantees no complete detection or redaction, with weaker coverage on free-flowing prose than on structured identifiers, so keep reviewing what you send
- iCloud sync is enabled by default: turn it off in Preferences > General if your work requires device-level isolation
- Pro+ credits are governed by a fair use policy, and Brains created before v11.6 still consume credits when indexing
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low for everyday use. Installation is consumer-grade: direct download or Mac App Store, no credit card, macOS 13 or later required. Creating a Super Brain and adding files takes a few clicks, and the built-in cloud needs no technical skill at all, with one user testimonial claiming a five-minute setup with a ready model. Two paths ask more: offline mode requires following a dedicated guide and installing a local model through Ollama, and bring-your-own-key means creating a provider account and pasting an API key. Multi-device sync needs the same Apple account and free iCloud Drive space.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Supported languages
Behind Elephas
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Elephas.
Frequently asked questions
How does Elephas protect sensitive data?
Do I need an OpenAI account to use it?
Can I use Elephas without sending anything to the cloud?
Is there a free trial?
Is there a permanent free plan?
What is missing from the Mac App Store version?
Which file formats and sources are supported?
Does Elephas train AI models on my data?
Can I reach my Super Brains on iPhone and iPad?
What does Elephas need to run on my Mac?
Should you pick Elephas?
Elephas answers a specific problem: how to use AI on material you are not allowed to paste into a general-purpose chatbot. Its answer is architectural rather than contractual. Indexing runs entirely on your Mac, no user file is stored on the publisher's servers, 28 categories of sensitive data are masked on-device before anything reaches a cloud model, and you decide where the model runs: offline with a local model, through the built-in zero-data-retention cloud, or with your own provider key. That claim is unusually easy to test, since you can disconnect the Wi-Fi and index a folder. Answers stay anchored in your own documents and cite the file they came from, and Super Command puts all of it one keyboard shortcut away inside any Mac application. The limits are just as clear. This is an Apple-only product, with no Windows, Linux, web or Android version, and the Mac App Store build lacks Super Command and every writing feature. On the contractual side there is no published DPA, no security certification, no Article 27 EU representative and no DPO, and the publisher sits in India with no hosting country disclosed for cloud processing. Jurisdiction belongs to the courts in Bangalore, the liability cap is low, and there are no refunds. For a regulated professional who needs paperwork rather than architecture, that gap matters. The natural buyer is therefore the Mac-equipped professional bound by confidentiality who wants technical guarantees they can verify themselves, rather than a procurement team collecting attestations. Trying it costs almost nothing: a permanent free plan of 20 credits per month, seven days of Pro on every new download with no card required, and public pricing from USD 19 per month if you stay. Test the offline mode before you commit, because refunds are not an option.
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