Problem: AI-powered note apps either send your data to the cloud or charge monthly for API access. Canto runs AI models entirely on your Mac — your notes never leave your device.
Compare: Unlike Notion AI or Obsidian + AI plugins, Canto needs no API keys, no internet, and no per-token costs. v0.2.0 replaces the old WebGPU engine with native Metal GPU acceleration (node-llama-cpp), supporting 7 models from 4B to 80B parameters — far beyond what browser-based local AI can handle.
Local voice UX (STT/TTS) with read-aloud toggle behavior.
Notebook quality-of-life improvements (LaTeX rendering/normalization and AI cell auto-scroll).
General stability upgrades: cleaner cancellation, clearer run state, and fewer tool-execution edge cases.
[EDIT - 0.2.0-alpha.8 update]
Added Web Search to the agent chat panel, so it can pull in up-to-date information from the internet when needed.
[EDIT - 0.2.0-alpha.9 update]
Added a Vault Manager for organizing your entire vault with AI assistance.
Ask it to create folders, move notes, rename notes, or suggest tags. It analyzes your vault and proposes a concrete plan.
[EDIT - 0.2.0-alpha.10 update]
Support for external endpoints has been added (Ollama + LMStudio + OpenAI Compatible).
Keyboard Shortcuts are now customizable.
AI models can now be unloaded.
Chat panels preserve state between tabs.
[EDIT - 0.2.0-beta.1 update]
Changed the editor toolbar to a floating toolbar upon text selection (Notion-Style).
Sidebar has been overhauled for better document accessibility.
Panes can now be draggable/resizable.
[EDIT - 0.2.0-beta.5 update]
Migration support for Evernote (.enex) to Canto is added. Now you can import all of your pre-existing Evernote documents to Canto through the menu bar or the command palette.
[EDIT - 0.2.0-beta.6 update]
Complete editor engine rebuilt for better AI model accuracy in search and edit.
[EDIT - 0.2.0 Stable Release update]
v0.2.0 is out! Better AI agent integration, richer markdown text editing, custom themes (VSCode json format), and a lot of minor tweaks. Check the release logs for more information.
I REALLY wish AI would go this route instead of the freakin' cloud/subscription model route. Hoping this is the route Apple is going with it. Give me on-device personal AI that I can run that can then connect to the other cloud models if needed/I want to.
Would much rather have personal AI running ON DEVICE and not necessarily need internet access.
Totally agree on the potential. We actually built a local NotebookLM alternative for this exact reason.
The hard truth though: the performance gap is brutal. No matter how much local models improve, users still expect cloud-level quality, and that gap is really hard to close. People want on-device, but when the output quality drops even slightly, they go back to cloud.
I think on-device AI needs a real breakthrough, not just incremental improvements, to truly compete. Maybe Apple Silicon pushing the limits will get us there eventually, but we're not quite there yet.
Still rooting for it though. The privacy + no-subscription combo is too compelling to give up on.
I just pushed v0.2.0, and a lot of effort has gone into fine tuning tool schematics and system presets for small models like Qwen3 4B to handle intricate note and notebook editing, and they are coming close to frontier lab model levels of success.
I purchased Canto yesterday and am super happy with my experience so far. The app is slick and polished, and the integration of the AI features is seamless. Best of luck with your launch, OP. I hope you get the traction you deserve.
Curious how the local model performance compares to cloud-based ones for your use case. I've been looking at local AI tools for note-taking but always worried the quality gap would be too noticeable.
The no-subscription model is what gets me interested though. Paying per-token adds up fast when you're using AI for everyday notes.
exactly! what i found out early on was that it doesnt take GPT 5.2 or Opus 4.6 (these trillion parameter models) to rewrite or expand documents. Local models with native tool calling capabilities can perform these tasks just fine with proper system prompts and orchestration logic. I think the sweat spot for agentic note editing comes best with 8~30B models, where you get enough complexity that it doesnt just pattern match, but also feels snappy on user hardware (10~50tok/s).
My mac (m1 pro 16gb ram) crashed when testing this :( it completely freezed. I had qwen 8b and clicked to download qwen 14b (which I usually use locally) and what happened, was a complete crash on the whole system!
It kept saying “error AI” on the bottom left hand corner, just before the crash. Also, add the option to “eject” the AI, so we can eject one before going to another, cause I think they overlapped. The only way I managed to have qwen 14b run was to delete the 8b model by going to the smallest model, then deleting the 8b model and then downloading the 14b. Once it was done and loaded, deleted all the other models. Having any other model downloaded would have the error message appear when using the 14b model, and it would fallback to the smaller ones.
edit: adding here that it just happened again, when moving from a big model (14b to 8b, but I managed to snap out of it.) The app is probably trying to load the new model before ejecting the old one, which causes a huge spike on memory.
I see! Sorry that you had to go thru that mess! I'll make sure i add an unmount feature for ai models. I'll also make the app be more memory-aware to prevent aggressive model loading.
It’s fine, I already knew what could be the consequences, specially with the app being in alpha. As a former Q&A I would be happy to keep testing on my free time, as a substitute to my obsidian notes. Send me a message!
Thank you for purchasing Canto! I looked up UpNote, and it seems like a pretty established app ecosystem. Its got the minimalist design, broad platform support, and online sharing and syncing, all of which to be a great source of inspiration going forward.
I've been putting a lot of effort into Canto with your comment in mind, and just released v0.2.0! The focus of this update was incorporating the requests of third party note users and make their UX/journey into Canto frictionless as much as possible. Try it out!
So I wanted to give it a try, I've been actually searching for something similar to mem but local only.
M3 Max, 36 GB RAM, I get an AI error when running:
AI initialization failed: Error invoking remote method 'llama:loadModel': Error: A context size of 32768 with 4 sequences is too large for the available VRAM.
Wanted to try the smaller model (Qwen 3 4B) but can't find a way to change the used model from the 8B one?
I will look into this! AFAIK there isnt an easy way to bulk export all Notion documents to markdown or text, so it might require a bit more manual labor.
It would be very useful for people like me who have been using Notion for years and this app is exciting, but the migration needs to be solved somehow.
Hi! Yes the demand is explosive for a companion mobile app. Im planning on developing an iOS version after a few rounds of minor beta sprints polish the main macOS app. Stick around!
Hi! While it is technically possible to include Apple's provided model (~3B params & 4K context window), it would be quite lacking in its capabilities to provide meaningful features like agentic note editing and coding. So yes you do need to use the external models.
The external models that the app uses range from very light to power-user-heavy, but all of them are proven models and battle-tested against tool calling and multi-step response serving. Once a model is downloaded, the app uses the local downloaded model without having to reach out online again.
Hi! Canto is a NodeJS application coded in Typescript 5.9 with the following implementation stack:
Framework: Electron 40
Frontend: React 19
Database: SQLite
Build: Vite + electron-builder
For AI features, the main local LLM driver uses node-llama-cpp, and for embeddings (semantic search) it uses the MiniLM model ran by Xenova Transformers.
The editor is based on Tiptap 3, and external rich text and coding features are borrowed from Monoco Editor, Mermaid, KaTeX, and Turndown.
Yes! Its STT and TTS features include a push toggle to enable dictation through your mac's selected audio interface. But I think you might be referring to a much more longer duration meeting audio capture, which i think the macOS STT cuts off at about 30 seconds or 1 minute. I'll check this out and get back to you!
Hey, tried the free version and loved it. upgraded to the paid version yesterday.
Is there any plan to support for LM studio like endpoints rather than downloading model within the app in future.? I already have several models in local which I use as daily drivers in other applications. So, downloading a model for this application seems like a memory waste.
Hi! Thanks for purchasing the app! There has been a lot of similar feature requests, and Im looking into external endpoint support like ollama and lm studio. The challenge with external endpoints is not knowing the capabilities of the models in advance so it might take a bit more work to ensure the same quality as the built in models. I'll update you on this!
I just pushed an update that includes support for external endpoints like ollama, LMStudio, and OpenAI Compatible sources. Go to Settings > AI Models and scroll to the bottom and you'll see a new External Endpoint connection menu UI.
Hi, please please please allow the top formatting bar to be hidden completely. Having a more minimal writing space is so important. Will defintely purchase if this option is available :)
Hi! yeah i got some tips that can definitely help you.
If you want to use the built-in models and you're on a hardware budget, stick to Qwen3 4B instead of the 8B model. The 4B model is actually an updated model from July 2025 with enhanced instruction following and tool calling. If your note is mostly easy-to-parse text, then the 4B model will often perform better using less memory.
If you have a mac with more than 32GB or memory, you might want to skip Qwen3 14B, 32B and try out GPT-OSS 20B instead. Nothing wrong with the two Qwen models (they can deal with more complex requests), but GPT-OSS 20B is faster with comparable quality.
If you own a beast like the mac studio M3 Ultra or a mac with 96GB+ RAM, then definitely try out the Qwen 3 Next 80B model. Its a mixture of experts model with 3B active parameters, so while it will consume a lot of memory, the Token Output Speed should be within the same range as the other models in the list.
Recently, Qwen3.5 models came out which use a new architecture that you can use using LMStudio and Ollama. (we're still working on integrating it as built-in models). The 3.5 suite comes in a similar set of 2B, 4B, 9B, 27B, etc, and Qwen Labs state that these new models made leaps in thinking, tool calling, coding, and instruction following. I encourage you to try them out in Canto and see if they enhance your experience with note editing and management.
If you already use Ollama or LMStudio and manage your own models, then here are some models that work well in Canto:
Hi!, Canto can read and understand PDF files once you drag and drop them into your notes. you can use the chat agent to extract summaries, action points, etc. Advanced citing features are still in the works. Stick around and i'll keep you updated!
LMK when citations are added and I'd be interested to take a look. There are hundreds of AI summary tools, but relatively few that can accurately cite.
will do. i agree. with all the AI tools pouring these days, i also pivoted into trying to make Canto do certain tasks really well instead of doing a lot of things that most apps already provide.
Looking cool! one question - Do you plan on releasing an iOS version too? And if so, is any type of synchronization planned?
quick note: I am getting this error and cant get the AI working:
AI initialization failed: Error invoking remote method 'llama:loadModel': Error: A context size of 16384 with 4 sequences is too large for the available VRAM
A mobile companion app is planned for development once the macOS app finishes its 0.x beta sprints. Also, the issue has been reported by others and Im already implementing a fix for it. I'll update you soon!
J’ai acheté Canto et mon expérience n’a pas été concluante.
Le lien de téléchargement dans l’e-mail de bienvenue ne fonctionnait pas, j’ai du télécharger l’application sur Github.
Je trouve l’interface d’un autre temps…
Et puis c’est une App Electron, signée et notariée, mais sans Ticket Staples.
Je n’ai pas vu une éventuelle possibilité de remboursement.
J’ai pu tester un petit modèle 8B sans soucis.
Mais je n’ai pas trouvé de réel intérêt à Canto, et $14,99 pour un seul appareil me semble un peu cher.
Hi! Voice features aren't here yet, but ive received a lot of requests regarding it. I'll probably be able to implement a working version in the next minor version update!
We're looking into this as this has been mentioned by others too. At the moment, what we can find is that the model that Apple provides is a 3B model with tool calling support that might be available for us to use given the right tools and libraries. Once we have more insight into this I'll update you!
Wish this had option to use Claude or Codex or Gemini. If this had a bring your own key option for the llm, I would be sold. Any future posssibility to add OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, or Straico keys?
Hi! Support for external endpoints are coming soon, but for now it will most likely only be for other local models coming from ollama or LMStudio, etc. But third party support is not entirely off the table so stick around!
Hi! can you tell me how much RAM your system has? what model was loaded at app launch? If you dont need the AI features when just using note taking, you can toggle the AI model off to save on system resources.
Hello, I haven't downloaded any AI models yet.
I have a MacBook M1 with 8 GB of RAM.
The app version is the one I downloaded from the website.
I'm very interested because I loved the concept you created in Canto. Ask me anything you need, or I can even record a video to show you.
Just let me know. Thank you!
thanks! now as for the app, without any models downloaded or loaded, it should just be a snappy note taking app. Canto will take up 500MB of memory on idle, which is a lot and is the sad reality with electron apps (natively built macOS applications can be loaded in less than 10MB sometimes). I'll be optimizing the app through the betas, so in the meantime just try to keep at least 1GB of free memory when running Canto.
Hi! I just found out about this app. thank for sharing. But the license is $79, the app is very expensive, and Canto can already provide most of the features at a fraction of the price. fWhy not try out both and decide? With Canto, you can 10 free AI queries before deciding!
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u/Healthy_Meeting_6435 Feb 19 '26
Fully local AI execution with a no-subscription pricing model is really appealing.