GraySoft
GraySoft is an independent one-person software studio shipping eight AI and developer products, led by guIDE, a local-first AI code editor that runs language models on your own GPU with no usage caps.
What is GraySoft?
GraySoft is an independent software studio, and unusually for a catalogue of this size, it is the work of one person: Brendan Gray, a Computer Information Systems undergraduate at the University of Maine who started building seriously around 2024. The homepage states the arithmetic plainly — eight live products, one developer. The site is both portfolio and platform: alongside the project showcase, graysoft.dev itself hosts a private chat, a browsable library of more than 524,000 Hugging Face models, a model comparison tool, cloud benchmarks and a game-asset browser.
The flagship is guIDE, an AI-native code editor built local-first. It pairs a Monaco editor and LSP servers with GGUF inference through node-llama-cpp, running on an NVIDIA GPU via CUDA or Vulkan, or on CPU alone. The pitch is explicitly a reaction to metered rivals: run the model on your own hardware and there is no quota to exhaust. Crucially, guIDE is not an extension — the browser, file tree, terminal, Git, persistent memory and a code runner covering 50+ languages all sit inside the agent's toolkit, described as 69 tools with zero configuration. Ask, Plan and Agent modes, Composer multi-file edits, RAG codebase search, sub-agents, checkpoints and Whisper voice input round it out, with browser automation switchable between Playwright and a bundled Tor Browser.
The rest of the catalogue extends the same local-first idea. Pocket guIDE puts the agent in a browser tab with no install. Dax builds and schedules always-on agents across 500+ integrations. Forge is a browser game engine with 70,000 assets. Graysoft Media Center generates video and images on your own NVIDIA GPU using WAN 2.2, Flux, SDXL, Hunyuan and Stable Video Diffusion. FileShot handles encrypted file sharing, and Secrypt offers private, uncensored chat.
Local inference is free and unlimited; paid tiers buy only hosted cloud messages. guIDE currently carries an Alpha label and ships updates almost daily.
What it does
- Run large language models locally on your own GPU or CPU, with no rate limits and no account required
- Drive a full agentic coding loop with 69 built-in MCP tools covering files, terminal, Git, memory and code execution
- Automate a browser from inside the editor, using either Chromium via Playwright or the bundled Tor Browser
- Search and browse a library of more than 524,000 Hugging Face models, then compare them and read cloud benchmarks
- Generate video and images locally on an NVIDIA GPU with WAN, Flux, SDXL, Hunyuan and Stable Video Diffusion
- Build and schedule AI agents that run around the clock across more than 500 integrations
- Build browser-native games with a Three.js engine, a 70,000-asset library and export to standalone HTML
When to use GraySoft / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if GraySoft is the right fit.
When to use GraySoft
- Developers who keep hitting request quotas on subscription-based AI coding tools and want inference that never throttles
- Anyone working under NDA, on proprietary code or on government projects, who needs a fully air-gapped local mode
- Owners of an NVIDIA GPU who want to run both coding models and local video or image generation on their own hardware
- Solo developers, freelancers and students who need a permanently free tier rather than a monthly commitment
- Bring-your-own-key users who prefer plugging their own provider credentials into an editor instead of paying per token
When not to use GraySoft
- Teams that require contractual guarantees: no DPA, no GDPR statement and no SOC 2 or ISO certification appear anywhere on the site
- Enterprise procurement, which will find no full legal entity name, no postal address and no published SLA
- macOS users who want guIDE specifically, since the FAQ lists Windows 10+ and Linux only, with macOS described as planned
- People on modest hardware, given that an NVIDIA GPU is recommended, 4 GB of VRAM is the floor for the WAN 2.2 preset and model weights run from 2 to over 30 GB
- Anyone who needs a settled, stable product: the download page still carries an Alpha — Actively in Development banner and ships updates almost daily
- Open-source contributors, since none of the products are open source at present
How to use GraySoft
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Try it without installing anything by opening the hosted chat at graysoft.dev/chat, or the browser agent at pocket.graysoft.dev — neither requires an account to start
- To install the desktop editor, go to the download page and pick your operating system: Windows or Linux today, with macOS announced for a later release
- Choose the build that matches your machine — Standard, NVIDIA CUDA for GPUs on CUDA 12 or later, or the lighter guIDE Lite
- On Windows, expect a SmartScreen prompt on first run while the certificate builds reputation: click More info, then Run anyway
- Launch guIDE and let it detect your hardware; it will recommend GGUF models that fit, and local inference needs no account at all
- Create an account through the register page — by email and password, or with Google or GitHub sign-in — if you want the free allowance of 30 cloud messages per day
- Add your own provider API keys if you prefer bring-your-own-key access to the cloud models
- Switch the agent's browser engine under Settings then Agentic Behavior, choosing Chromium via Playwright or the bundled Tor Browser
- Subscribe from the pricing page if you need more cloud headroom, and manage or cancel billing from your account dashboard
- For local video and image work, install Media Center, run its one-time setup wizard, then pull models from the in-app Get Models catalogue
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Local inference is genuinely free and unmetered, and needs no account whatsoever
- Local mode is fully air-gapped: the privacy policy states your code, prompts and responses never leave your machine
- Ownership of your code and AI-generated output is stated without ambiguity in the terms
- Cloud pricing undercuts the market sharply — 4.99 and 9.99 USD per month, against the 20 USD Cursor price the site itself cites
- A 14-day free trial on both paid tiers, with no charge if you cancel during it, and flat-rate billing rather than per-token metering
- A wide choice of cloud providers with automatic failover, and support for your own API keys
- The privacy policy is short, readable and unusually explicit about what is not collected
Cons
- Continuity risk: the studio is one person, a fact the homepage advertises rather than hides
- guIDE is openly in alpha and described as not the final version, with features still being built
- No postal address, no full legal form and no incorporation date are published anywhere
- No GDPR mention, no DPA and no security certification such as SOC 2 or ISO appear on the site
- The hosting location of account data is never disclosed, and macOS support for guIDE is still pending
- The Windows installer is unsigned, triggering a SmartScreen warning, and the certificate fundraiser stood at 0 of 300 USD when checked
- Figures contradict each other between pages — 69 versus 82+ tools, 17 versus 26 cloud providers, 3.2M versus 524,000 models — and the FAQ still describes a per-machine licence that the subscription terms have replaced
Pricing & Plans
A permanent free plan is available. guIDE Desktop is free forever with local models, and local inference is unlimited and requires no account; the free tier additionally includes 30 cloud AI messages per day. The lowest paid entry point is the Pro plan at 4.99 USD per month, which raises the allowance to 500 cloud messages per day on flat-rate billing. A 14-day free trial applies to the paid tiers, and cancelling during the trial incurs no charge. Payments are handled by Stripe, subscriptions renew monthly, and no refunds are issued for partial months.
- full guIDE desktop IDE
- unlimited local model inference
- agent tools
- editor
- terminal and git
- GraySoft Cloud free tier with 30 cloud messages per day
- and web chat
- everything in Free
- 500 cloud messages per day
- GraySoft Cloud with bundled providers
- desktop and web chat
- no per-token billing
- everything in Pro
- unlimited cloud messages
- priority access to new models
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how GraySoft handles your data.
GDPR overview
There is no mention of the GDPR anywhere on this site — none of the fourteen pages collected contains the word, and the same is true of the CCPA and of any data processing agreement. No Article 27 EU representative is designated and no data protection officer is named. That said, several rights that the regulation would require are offered in practice, simply without any legal grounding attached: the privacy policy lets you request a copy of your personal data, request deletion of your account and everything tied to it, export your data from the dashboard, and opt out of cloud AI altogether by using local models only. Requests go to privacy@graysoft.dev or through the contact form. The publisher is based in Maine, United States, with no European entity.
Who owns the data?
The terms draw a clean line. GraySoft keeps every right to the guIDE software, its branding and the website content, while your code, your files and anything the AI generates for you remain yours: the vendor states it claims no ownership over what you create with its products. The privacy policy backs this up on the collection side, saying it does not collect, store or transmit your source code, files or project data. Locally, guIDE Desktop keeps settings, chat history and files on your own machine, and Pocket guIDE keeps session data in your browser's local storage and IndexedDB rather than on a server.
Reuse rights
Because you retain ownership of your code, your files and your AI-generated output, you may reuse, publish, sell or relicense that material without asking GraySoft for permission — the terms record no licence-back, no reuse clause and no attribution requirement in the vendor's favour. The one caveat the vendor does raise is quality rather than rights: AI output may be inaccurate, incomplete or inappropriate, so you are responsible for reviewing and validating anything the model produces before you use it, and GraySoft accepts no liability for the consequences. Restrictions apply only to GraySoft's own property, not yours: you may not reverse-engineer the compiled applications, nor share, resell or redistribute your account credentials or API keys.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
GraySoft does not disclose where its data is hosted. No country and no region appear anywhere on the site; the privacy policy says only that account data — your email, hashed password and subscription status — sits in a database on "secure infrastructure", which identifies no jurisdiction. Everything else stays with you by design: guIDE Desktop keeps settings, chat history and files on your own machine, Pocket guIDE keeps session data and files in your browser's local storage and IndexedDB with nothing sent to a server, and local inference sends no data anywhere at all. When you use cloud models, prompts pass through GraySoft Cloud to the provider you chose, and that provider's own hosting and data policy then governs them. One observable technical detail, not a vendor statement: the domain is served behind Cloudflare on an anycast address. The publisher is based in Maine, United States, and no EU entity is mentioned, so a European buyer should assume US jurisdiction until told otherwise.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting GraySoft.
- Single-person dependency: with one developer behind eight products, an interruption in his availability would stall support, security patches and the roadmap at once, and no legal entity is published to fall back on
- Alpha software on real work: guIDE ships updates almost daily and says outright it is not the final version, so treat it as a tool that can change or break under you and keep your work backed up elsewhere
- An unsigned Windows installer trains a bad habit — clicking through the SmartScreen warning is exactly the reflex attackers rely on, so verify you are downloading from the official domain every time
- No contractual protection: without a DPA, a GDPR statement, a security certification or a disclosed hosting jurisdiction, putting regulated or client data through the hosted cloud tier exposes you with no recourse
- The privacy promise is mode-dependent, and it is easy to forget which mode you are in: local inference is air-gapped, but one switch to a cloud provider sends your prompts to a third party under that provider's own policy
- Unlimited free local inference removes the friction that normally makes you think before asking, which makes it easier to lean on generated code you have not read — and the vendor itself warns that AI output may be inaccurate and that reviewing it is your responsibility
- Secrypt is marketed as an uncensored chat product, so consider carefully whether it belongs in a workplace or a household with younger users, given the stated minimum age of 13 across the account system
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Low to moderate, depending on the route. Trying it costs nothing technically: the hosted chat and Pocket guIDE run in a browser with no account and no install. The desktop path is a normal installer — pick your OS and build, then let guIDE detect your hardware and suggest models that fit. Two frictions are worth knowing: Windows shows a SmartScreen warning you must click past, and serious local use wants an NVIDIA GPU with model weights running from 2 to over 30 GB on disk. Nothing needs self-hosting, and the built-in tools require no configuration.
Deployment
Integrations
Behind GraySoft
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement GraySoft.
Frequently asked questions
Is guIDE actually free?
Do I need a GPU to use it?
Is my code private?
What does the cloud subscription cost?
Which operating systems are supported?
Which AI models can it run?
Who is behind GraySoft?
Is there a minimum age to use it?
Are the products open source?
How do I contact support?
Should you pick GraySoft?
GraySoft offers something the AI tooling market rarely does: a complete stack you can run offline, on your own hardware, without a quota to exhaust — and when you do want hosted models, at a price that undercuts the obvious rivals several times over. The technical credibility is real. Eight products ship and work, the feature depth in guIDE is unusual for an editor built outside a funded company, and the privacy policy is refreshingly specific about what is never collected. Ownership of your code and output is stated plainly in the terms, with no licence-back hiding in the small print.
The reservations are equally real, and they are structural rather than technical. This is one person's work, advertised as such. guIDE carries an alpha label, the Windows installer is unsigned, macOS is still pending, and the published figures disagree with each other from page to page. More consequentially for any organisation, the commercial surface is close to nonexistent: no postal address, no full legal entity, no DPA, no GDPR mention at all, no security certification and no disclosed hosting jurisdiction. There is no published incorporation date either, and the domain itself is only months old.
The verdict therefore splits cleanly by who is asking. For an individual developer, a freelancer or a student — particularly one on capable NVIDIA hardware, or one whose work is covered by an NDA and cannot travel to someone else's servers — this is a generous and genuinely interesting proposition at essentially no cost. For a company with a procurement process, it is not yet purchasable in any meaningful sense. Worth watching for the macOS release, a signed installer and some tightening of the documentation.
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