Using Local AI for privacy

Some material is too sensitive to send to a cloud service — clinical notes, confidential case studies, private research. For these, Grout App offers Local AI.

What Local AI does

Local AI runs entirely on your own machine. When you use it, zero data leaves your device — your prompts and your documents are processed locally.

When to use Local AI

• Working with clinical or patient-related notes
• Confidential professional or legal documents
• Any material covered by privacy rules or agreements
• Any time you simply prefer your data stays offline

[SCREENSHOT: Selecting a Local AI model in the model selector]

Local AI and offline mode

Because Local AI runs on your machine, it works as part of Grout App's offline-first design — you can keep working with it even when your internet connection drops. See Working offline with Grout App.

Local AI for images

The same philosophy applies to image generation: Grout App's offline image generation models (Bonsai, Stable Diffusion, Flux, and custom GGUF) run entirely on your machine, with prompts and outputs never leaving your device. See Offline image generation: overview.

Cloud vs Local: which to choose

• Cloud models (300+): widest choice, best for comparing reasoning on non-sensitive material. Use Merits.
• Local AI: maximum privacy, best for sensitive data and offline work. No Merits consumed.