Personal Knowledge AI · Mac & iOS · 3,000+ professionals

Think with your own knowledge. Without exposing your data.

Elephas automatically redacts sensitive information before AI processing. Work with your documents, notes, and files. Choose whether AI runs locally, through the cloud, or with your own provider.

Local-first processing

Sensitive data redaction

Optional offline mode

Cloud AI intelligence

Download for Mac (Free)

No credit card required · GPT-5, Claude & Gemini · Rated 4.6/5 · App Store

🧠

Strategy Brain

847 documents

PII redaction on

What did we decide about the Asia expansion timeline?

Elephas

Based on the Q3 board meeting notes, the Asia expansion was pushed to H2 2025 due to regulatory concerns in Singapore. The team agreed to prioritize Japan market entry first.

Board-Meeting-Q3.pdf, page 12

Trusted by 3000+ professionals worldwide

Rated 4.6 out of 5 by real users on Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice

The brains that you can create from information you have already created and then interact with, is one of the most brilliant features of any AI I have come across.

Edward - United States

I work across several fields (business, tech, non-profit development, start-ups, education, health, fiction writing, and a few more) and wanted a system that allowed me to quickly cross-connect without hiding things in folders and sub-folders festooned with tags.

Gil C - Executive Director

I like how easy it is to create specialized brains based on personal or professional files, documents, notes, and web pages in the application. I have personally created hundreds of reports over my career, and I can upload those and those of my colleagues to create a specialized brain.

Kevin- Professional Engineer, US

How Elephas works with your documents

Elephas keeps as much as possible local, redacts sensitive information before cloud requests, and gives you flexible ways to work depending on the task.

Add your documents into a Super Brain

Create focused workspaces for each project or client. Add PDFs, notes, contracts, research. Indexed locally on your Mac.

Elephas indexes locally and redacts sensitive information

Sensitive data is automatically detected and redacted before anything reaches a cloud AI model.

Use offline or redacted cloud AI depending on the task

Summarize, search, and generate insights. Every answer is grounded in your own files with citations.

PDFs

Notes

Notion

Zoom

Super Brain

847 documents

You asked:

"What did we decide about Asia expansion?"

Board approved phased approach starting Japan Q2...

Board Minutes, Mar 2024

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Where this actually matters

Elephas is built for documents and workflows that are too important to treat casually.

Legal research and contracts

Sensitive clauses, obligations, and client material.

Work without exposing confidential terms.

Private notes and journals

Personal ideas, reflections, and sensitive thoughts.

Use AI without giving up privacy.

Client and business documents

Internal reports, proposals, and strategy docs.

Keep control over what gets processed.

Research libraries

Large collections of papers, notes, and source material.

Search and synthesize with grounded answers.

Internal company knowledge

Proprietary processes, decisions, and IP.

Protect internal information while making it usable.

AI writing across your Mac

Emails, drafts, documents, and everyday writing.

Write with your own knowledge, not generic AI output.

Elephas vs ChatGPT, Claude, and NotebookLM

How Elephas compares when working with your own documents and sensitive data.

Most AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude are designed for general-purpose tasks. Elephas is built for working with your own documents, especially when dealing with sensitive or confidential information.

What matters for sensitive work	General AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude)	Notebook-style tools (NotebookLM)	Elephas
Works with your own documents	Limited / per chat	Yes	Yes, persistent workspace
Handles sensitive data safely	Not designed for it	Limited controls	PII redaction before processing
Control where AI runs	Provider-controlled	Cloud-only	Local, cloud, or your own API
Answers grounded in your files	Sometimes	Yes	Yes, with clear sources
Works across your system	Limited	Browser-based	Mac-native, works anywhere

If you're looking for a ChatGPT alternative for working with your own documents, Elephas offers a more controlled approach. With PII redaction, local processing options, and grounded answers from your files, it is better suited for sensitive workflows than general-purpose AI tools.

Learn more about sensitive data protection →

Super Command

AI writing assistant. In every app on your Mac.

Press one keyboard shortcut and Elephas appears in any app. Summarize, rewrite, translate, fix grammar, or draft from your own knowledge. Sensitive data stays protected.

✓ Works in Mail, Safari, Slack, Notes, and any app

✓ Summarize, rewrite, translate, fix grammar

✓ Create custom commands (Snippets) for your workflow

✓ Draft using your own documents as context

Elephas Super Command AI writing assistant - select text, rewrite professionally, fix grammar across any Mac app

Works across all your favorite apps

Elephas works across Outlook, Gmail, Notion, Mail, Slack, Teams, Reddit, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Discord and more

Testimonials

Trusted by Knowledge Workers

"If they take away Elephas from me I will lose my job. I use it for absolutely everything. From rewriting text to reminding me of facts I didn't even remember with Brain."

Gabriel Business Professional, Brazil

"The Super Brain function is brilliant. It's my daily driver. It can export results directly into Keynote—if you have a template ready, you can be set in 5 minutes."

Kamil Consultant, Poland

"The capability to handle more contact, deal with more emails and refine my content has been a real help as I set up my new company. It is intuitive and learns as it goes."

Sean Ireland

"The brains that you can create from information you have already created is one of the most brilliant features of any AI I have come across."

Edward United States

"King of AI clients. I've tried pretty much every local AI client on my Mac, but Elephas may be the best. Really centres on building knowledge bases."

Ben United Kingdom

"Game changer for your productivity. You can create brains, bringing your own data, and chat with it like some sort of Yoda character. By far the best app of its kind."

David Antonio Spain

Frequently Asked Questions

Got questions? We've got answers.

Elephas can redact common personal information (names, emails, phone numbers, and more) before your content reaches any AI model. Indexing happens locally on your Mac. You also control where AI runs: offline with a local model, through cloud providers (no training on your data), or with your own API key.
Elephas can automatically detect and redact common personal information before sending content to AI for processing. This includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other identifiable data, plus broader structured coverage for many legal, medical, and financial workflows. The redacted version is what the AI model sees, so sensitive details stay on your device. Your content is not used by Elephas or any connected provider to train AI models. See our sensitive data protection page and data storage article.
No. Elephas includes its own AI, powered by OpenAI and Anthropic models. You can also bring your own API key from 15+ providers including OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Groq, DeepSeek, and more. No separate account needed to get started.
Yes. Almost all features support all popular languages.
Yes. Elephas works out of the box with cloud AI. Local models are optional for users who want fully offline operation. You can also run fully offline by following this guide.
Super Command lets you use Elephas in any app on your Mac with one keyboard shortcut. Select text in Mail, Safari, Slack, or any app, then summarize, rewrite, translate, fix grammar, or run custom commands you create (called Snippets). It works everywhere without switching apps.

Learn more
Yes. Download Elephas for free and try all features. Upgrade to a paid plan when you're ready. No credit card required.
Due to Mac App Store sandbox restrictions, Super Command and all text writing features are not available in the App Store version. This means the App Store version cannot write or insert text into other applications. For the full Elephas experience with Super Command, smart replies, and AI writing across all your apps, please download the direct version from our website.
Yes. To sync your Elephas data across multiple Apple devices (Mac, iPhone, iPad), you need to use the same Apple account on all devices. This ensures your Brains, settings, and preferences are seamlessly synchronized across your Apple ecosystem.