Viro AI for Mac: Free AI App That Runs Apple Intelligence Locally

Every time you ask an AI a question, a data center somewhere does the work. It draws power from the local grid, runs fans and chillers to keep its chips cool, and often evaporates water to do it. Multiply that by billions of questions a day and you get the data center boom everyone is arguing about.

There’s another option sitting on your desk. If you have a recent Mac, it already contains a capable AI chip and a built-in AI model from Apple. Viro for Mac lets you use it: pick Apple Intelligence and your Mac becomes the data center.

We call it bring your own data center.

The short version

Viro for Mac is a free Mac app for Viro AI, the eco-friendly AI app. Same account, same chats as the web and your phone.
On an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 26 or later, you can choose Apple Intelligence, which answers on your Mac. Nothing goes to a server while it thinks, and it works offline.
No data center means no data-center electricity and no cooling water for that answer. Viro counts each one as 0 Wh.
When you need a bigger brain, switch to Viro AI, ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini in the same chat.

Get Viro for Mac, free.

What “bring your own data center” means

A data center is just a building full of computers that run AI models for other people. Your Mac is a computer that can run an AI model for you.

When you use Apple Intelligence in Viro, the whole answer is computed by the chip inside your Mac:

	Cloud AI	Apple Intelligence in Viro for Mac
Where the answer is made	A data center, often hundreds of miles away	Your Mac
Electricity	The data center’s grid, plus cooling overhead	A few seconds of extra work for your Mac, on your own plug
Cooling water	Many data centers evaporate water to cool their chips	None: your Mac’s fan is enough
Your words	Sent to the provider’s servers	Stay on your Mac while the model works
Internet	Required	Not needed
Cost	Free with limits, or a subscription	Free, no limits

There’s a nice side effect: you choose the power source. If your home is on a renewable electricity plan, or you have solar panels on the roof, your AI runs on that too. No data center can promise you that.

The honest caveats:

Your Mac still uses some power. Far less than you’d think for a short answer, but not zero. When Viro says 0 Wh, it means zero data-center energy.
The model was trained in a data center. Like every AI model. That one-time cost is shared across hundreds of millions of devices.
Some extras go online. If you ask Apple Intelligence about today’s news or your calendar, Viro runs that one lookup online and the model answers from the result on your Mac.

Why this matters right now

AI’s energy use is no longer a niche worry. The International Energy Agency expects data-center electricity use to roughly double by 2030, and new AI data centers are running into fierce local opposition over power bills, water and land. We wrote about that in AI data centers: what makes one clean.

We think the answer has two parts. When AI has to run in a data center, it should run in a clean one, and Viro’s own model does: in Iceland, Norway, Finland and Ireland, on grids powered by hydro, geothermal and wind. And when a question is small enough to answer on the device you already own, it shouldn’t need a data center at all.

Most everyday AI requests are small: rewrite this email, summarize these notes, give me ideas for dinner. A small on-device model handles those well. Sending them to a giant model in a data center is like driving a truck to buy milk.

What Apple Intelligence is good at in Viro

Apple’s on-device model is small and fast, so it shines at short, private, everyday tasks:

“Rewrite this message so it sounds friendlier”
“Summarize these meeting notes in three bullet points”
“Give me five quick ideas for a vegetarian dinner”
“What’s on my calendar tomorrow?”
“What’s the latest score in the Warriors game?” (it runs a web search and answers from the results, with sources)

It can also read your files in Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox and ask your connected apps, like Notion, Slack or Todoist. Only that one request leaves your Mac; the thinking stays on it.

For long research, images, or careful reasoning over a long document, switch to Viro AI, ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. You can do it mid-conversation. Use the smallest model that does the job and save the big ones for big questions.

If you want to know more about the model itself, read Apple’s Foundation Models, explained.

What you need

For the Viro Mac app: any Mac on macOS 12 or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
For Apple Intelligence: a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) on macOS 26 or later, with Apple Intelligence turned on in System Settings. Not sure? See which devices support Apple Intelligence.

On a Mac that can’t run it, Viro shows you why, and all the other models still work.

How to get started

Download Viro for Mac from ai.viro.app/mac. A file called Viro.dmg lands in your Downloads folder.
Open Viro.dmg and drag Viro into Applications. It’s signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings.
Sign in with Google, Apple, Microsoft or email. Your chats from the web and phone are already there.
Open the model menu in the message box and choose Apple Intelligence. It says On this device.
Ask something. The answer comes from your Mac.

To make it your default, open Settings and set Default AI Model to Apple Intelligence.

What else the Mac app does

Viro for Mac is the full Viro, in its own window:

Its own Dock icon, Cmd + Tab, and keyboard shortcuts (Cmd + N for a new chat, Cmd + F to search your chats)
Notifications on your Mac
Updates itself in the background
Every Viro feature: research, images, Notebooks, Personas, 40+ connected apps and the energy meter on every reply

It’s free, and your chats sync across your Mac, iPhone, Android and the web.

Privacy

With Apple Intelligence, your message and the answer stay on your Mac while the model works. Viro then saves the conversation to your Viro account like any other chat, so it shows up on your phone too. Apple doesn’t see it, and Viro never sells your data or uses your chats to train AI models.

For the bigger picture on privacy and energy, read is on-device AI more private and eco-friendly?

The bottom line

The greenest data center is the one you don’t need. For small questions, your Mac can do the job itself, on your own power, with no cooling water and nothing leaving your desk. For big questions, Viro sends them to clean data centers or matches their energy with new renewables.

Download Viro for Mac and bring your own data center.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a Viro AI app for Mac?

Yes. Viro for Mac is free. Download it from ai.viro.app/mac, open Viro.dmg and drag Viro into your Applications folder. It runs on macOS 12 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel Macs, and it's signed and notarized by Apple.

Can I run AI locally on my Mac?

Yes. In Viro for Mac, pick Apple Intelligence in the model menu and the answer is generated on your Mac's own chip, with nothing sent to a server while the model works. You need a Mac with Apple silicon on macOS 26 or later, with Apple Intelligence turned on.

Does local AI on a Mac use a data center?

Not for the answer. The model runs on your Mac, so no data center electricity or cooling water is used for it. Only optional extras, like a web search or reading your calendar, send that one request online.

Is running AI on my Mac eco-friendly?

It's the lightest way to use AI. Your Mac does a few seconds of extra work on power you already pay for, with no data center, no network round trip and no evaporative cooling. If your home runs on clean electricity, so does your AI. Viro counts these answers as 0 Wh of data-center energy.

Is Apple Intelligence free in Viro?

Yes, on every plan including Free, and it doesn't count against any fair-use limits because it runs on your own device.

Does Viro for Mac work offline?

Apple Intelligence itself runs without a connection. The rest of Viro, including Viro AI, ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, needs the internet like any cloud AI.

Sources

Viro for Mac, Viro Help Center
Apple Intelligence in Viro, Viro Help Center
Apple Intelligence, Apple, checked November 2026
Key Questions on Energy and AI, International Energy Agency, 2026

Cover photo by Iewek Gnos on Unsplash

Viro for Mac: Bring Your Own Data Center With Apple Intelligence