
Renamer.ai
Renamer.ai reads what is actually inside your PDFs, scans, photos and Office files, then renames each one with a clear, structured filename. It runs in the browser or as a Windows and macOS desktop app with watched-folder automation.
What is Renamer.ai?
Renamer.ai is a file renaming tool built around a single idea: a filename should say what is inside the file, and software ought to be able to work that out on its own. Rather than applying rules to the name a document already carries, it opens the document, reads it with OCR and AI vision, and writes a new name from what it finds. A scan called scan_20260622_114502.pdf comes back as Meridian-Supply-Co_INV-88231_2026-06-22.pdf, and a camera file called IMG_2847.jpg is renamed after the scene it actually shows.
Coverage runs to more than thirty formats. PDF, DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF and TXT sit alongside spreadsheets, PowerPoint decks, EML email files, vector formats such as EPS, SVG and AI, and the usual image types including HEIC and TIFF. Individual files are capped at 100 MB, and a straightforward document is processed in roughly two to five seconds.
There are two ways in. The browser version needs no installation and suits a quick test or an occasional batch. The desktop application for Windows and macOS carries the full feature set: batch renaming with a preview step, custom naming templates assembled by drag and drop, and Magic Folders — watched directories that rename new arrivals automatically in the background, which is what turns the tool from a utility into a standing process. Every rename can be inspected before it is applied and reverted afterwards from the activity log.
Language is handled without configuration: a Smart Detect feature identifies the document language across more than twenty languages, and since version 4.6.0 the interface itself can be switched too.
The publisher, Futuristica d.o.o. of Maribor, Slovenia, is unusually plain about the boundaries of the product. It is a naming layer rather than a document management system, it is not a storage service, and it does not touch video, audio or archive files. Alongside the software the company also sells consulting work, for one-off clean-ups running into tens of thousands of documents and for custom API integrations.
What it does
- Read a file with OCR and AI vision, then name it after what it actually contains
- Rename a whole folder in one batch, with a preview before anything is applied
- Watch a folder and rename new arrivals automatically in the background with Magic Folders
- Pull the vendor, invoice number, amount and date off a scanned invoice
- Describe the visual content of a photo and turn that description into a filename
- Apply a custom naming template assembled by drag and drop, or a prebuilt one
- Detect the document language automatically across more than twenty languages
When to use Renamer.ai / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Renamer.ai is the right fit.
When to use Renamer.ai
- Accounting and accounts-payable teams buried in supplier invoices named by whoever sent them
- Law firms and legal support staff who need client, matter reference and date on every document
- HR and people-operations teams filing employee records by person, category and date
- Freelancers, consultants and small-business owners with nobody behind them to do the filing
- Research groups and academic teams organising multilingual papers and collaborator data
When not to use Renamer.ai
- Anyone renaming video, audio or archive files, none of which the tool supports
- Teams shopping for a full document management system rather than the naming layer in front of one
- Buyers who want a one-time licence, since every tier is a recurring monthly subscription
- Linux users, as the desktop application ships for Windows and macOS only
- Organisations that cannot let document contents leave the EU, because AI subprocessors in the United States read the files
How to use Renamer.ai
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Drop a few files straight onto the homepage uploader to see the renaming quality before creating anything
- Create an account from Get started — no credit card is requested
- Download the desktop application for Windows or macOS from the download page
- Install it, then grant the app permission to access your files when prompted
- Choose your mode: manual batch renaming by drag and drop, or a Magic Folder
- For a Magic Folder, pick the directory to watch — Downloads, a shared drive, a client drop point
- Toggle monitoring on and choose the naming pattern that folder should use
- Build a naming template by drag and drop from the available variables, or start from a prebuilt one
- Add context with Save Context so the AI reads your documents the way you intend
- Preview the proposed names, apply them, and revert from the activity log if anything looks wrong
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Reads the content of the file instead of pattern-matching the name it already has
- Broadest format coverage in its class: spreadsheets, presentations and email files, not just PDFs and photos
- Magic Folders give real background automation rather than on-demand processing only
- Permanent free tier of 25 renames a month, with no credit card required
- EU hosting on AWS Frankfurt, with a contractual guarantee that files are never used for model training
- Every rename can be previewed and reverted, so the operation is not one-way
- Human consulting service available for large clean-ups and custom integrations
Cons
- No one-time licence: every tier is a recurring subscription, a limitation the vendor acknowledges
- No video, audio or archive support
- Monthly credits are strict and do not roll over to the next billing cycle
- Document contents leave the EU for AI subprocessors in the United States, which may retain them up to 30 days
- Hard 100 MB ceiling per file, and no Linux client
- Accuracy degrades on handwriting and poor-quality scans, by the vendor's own admission
- No public API documentation and no published subprocessor list — both go through email
Pricing & Plans
A permanent free plan is available: the Starter tier costs USD 0 and covers 25 renames per month without requiring a credit card. The cheapest paid entry point is the Pro plan at USD 9.95 per month, with a 15% reduction on annual billing.
- Starter — USD 0 — 25 files per month
- desktop app for Windows and Mac
- batch rename
- Magic Folders
- normal support
- Pro — USD 9.95 per month — 200 files per month
- same feature set
- normal support
- Power User — USD 29.95 per month — 1
- 000 files per month
- priority support
- advertised as Save 40%
- Ultimate — USD 99.95 per month — 5
- 000 files per month
- priority support
- Custom plan on request — 10
- 000+ files per month with dedicated support
- Annual billing takes 15% off every paid tier
- extra credits can be topped up mid-cycle
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Renamer.ai handles your data.
GDPR overview
Implementation is concrete rather than declarative. Futuristica d.o.o. is established in Slovenia, inside the EU, so no Article 27 representative is required. The privacy policy dated 24 July 2026 maps every processing purpose to an Article 6 legal basis and separates the company's controller role (account, billing, usage data) from its processor role (file contents). It sets out the full list of data subject rights — access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability, withdrawal of consent — answered within one month at hi@renamer.ai, and names the Slovenian Information Commissioner as supervisory authority. Transfers to United States AI subprocessors rely on Standard Contractual Clauses plus EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework participation, and every subprocessor is bound by a data processing agreement.
Who owns the data?
You keep your files. The terms make you solely responsible for what you upload and require you to hold the rights to it, while Futuristica d.o.o. claims ownership only of the Service itself — its software, features and branding. For the material you submit the privacy policy places the company in a processor role, acting on your behalf; it is controller only for account, billing and usage data. It states plainly that file contents are never sold, shared or used for any purpose beyond producing your filenames, and that neither Futuristica nor its AI subprocessors may use them to train models.
Reuse rights
Nothing in the terms hands Futuristica d.o.o. a licence over your files, so your documents and the filenames generated from them remain yours to use, share, publish or resell without asking anyone. The company reserves rights over its own product only: its trademarks and trade dress may not be attached to another product or service without prior written consent. The obligations run the other way instead — you must hold the necessary rights to everything you upload, and you may not use the Service for unlawful purposes, to infringe someone else's rights, or to upload malware.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
Customer data is stored and processed on Amazon Web Services in the eu-central-1 region, Frankfurt, Germany, and the publisher, Futuristica d.o.o., is established in Slovenia inside the European Union. Files uploaded through the web platform stay on EU servers for at most 24 hours, purely so the renamed versions can be downloaded, and are then deleted automatically; files handled by the desktop application are processed transiently and never stored on the vendor's infrastructure. Two flows leave the EEA. File contents are transmitted to AI subprocessors in the United States, covered by Standard Contractual Clauses written into each provider's data processing agreement, with those providers also participating in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Cloudflare, the security and delivery provider, operates globally and may handle connection data elsewhere under the same clauses. Security measures listed include TLS 1.2+ in transit, AES-256 at rest, least-privilege access with multi-factor authentication, and infrastructure certified to ISO 27001 and SOC 2.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Renamer.ai.
- The full contents of your documents are sent to AI subprocessors outside the EU to produce the name, and may be retained there up to 30 days for abuse monitoring
- Sensitive HR, medical and legal material stays sensitive: a generated filename is readable by anyone who can see the folder, even when the document itself is protected
- A badly configured Magic Folder renames files in the background with no human confirmation, and the original names are gone once the batch is applied
- Around 95% accuracy means roughly one file in twenty is misnamed — enough to matter on an audit trail or an archive nobody reopens for years
- Trusting the generated name instead of the document can propagate a misreading silently through filing, search and compliance downstream
- Monthly credits do not roll over, so a spike in volume can stall a filing workflow mid-cycle
- Handing an entire naming convention to an automated service creates a dependency that is painful to unwind by hand if the subscription ends
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Very low. The browser version needs no account and no installation: drop files on the homepage and the renaming runs. The desktop app is a download, a double-click and one permission prompt to let it reach your files — no server, no configuration file, no connector to wire up. Setting up a Magic Folder takes four steps: pick the folder, switch monitoring on, choose a naming pattern, leave it running. Naming templates are assembled by drag and drop and prebuilt ones are supplied. Only the custom API route needs technical involvement, and that goes through the vendor's team.
Deployment
Supported languages
Behind Renamer.ai
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Alternatives
Tools that compete with or complement Renamer.ai.
Frequently asked questions
What does Renamer.ai actually do?
What does it cost?
Which file formats are supported?
What are Magic Folders?
Do I have to install anything?
Are my files used to train AI models?
How long are my files kept?
How accurate is it, and can I undo a rename?
Is there an API?
Is there an age limit?
Should you pick Renamer.ai?
Renamer.ai does one job and states its limits clearly, which is rarer than it should be. The premise — read the document, then name it — is genuinely different from the rule and regex engines it is usually compared against, and the breadth of formats is its strongest practical argument: spreadsheets, presentations and email files are handled alongside the PDFs and photos that every competitor covers. Magic Folders are what make it stick, because a watched folder turns renaming from a task somebody has to remember into something that simply happens.
The privacy posture is stronger than the size of the company would suggest. The publisher is established in Slovenia, customer data sits on AWS in Frankfurt, web uploads are deleted after 24 hours, desktop files are never stored, and both the vendor and its AI subprocessors are contractually barred from training on customer content. The retention table is specific rather than vague. The honest caveat sits in the same policy: document contents do leave the EU for AI subprocessors in the United States, which may hold them up to 30 days for abuse monitoring, and the itemised subprocessor list is only supplied on request.
The commercial model is the main friction. Every tier is a recurring subscription with a hard monthly quota, and unused credits expire at the end of the cycle, so occasional users pay for capacity they will not use while heavy months can stall. There is no Linux client, no video or audio support, and no public API documentation. For an accounting, legal, HR or research team with a steady inflow of badly named documents, the free 25-file tier costs nothing to test and the reasoning is easy to check against your own files.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.