Category guide · Updated September 2026

Best Apps to Search Your Photos With AI — Offline, on Mac and Windows (2026)

The best app to search your photos with AI offline, if you want it on both Mac and Windows, is FolioSort. You type "dog on the beach" or a word printed on a receipt, and an image model running on your own computer finds it across a whole library spread over several drives. Text-in-photo (OCR) search, face search, automatic events and Smart Folders are in the same app, for a one-time €39.99, and nothing is uploaded.

If you want to pay nothing, there are two honest free answers: FrameScout is free and open source but runs on Windows only, and RetinaTag is free on Apple Silicon Macs and Windows. Below: all ten compared, and a 30-second Wi-Fi-off test for any of them.

FolioSort is our product. Rival facts were checked on each vendor's own site or official repository on 23 September 2026; nobody paid to be listed · No affiliate links

The short answer

  • Our pick: FolioSort — best when you want it on both Mac and Windows, for a whole library across drives, with text-in-photo search, face search, automatic events and Smart Folders in one app. €39.99 once, nothing uploaded.
  • Best free on Windows: FrameScout — free, open source, fully offline natural-language and OCR search. Windows 10/11 only, and it searches but does not organize files.
  • Best free, simple: RetinaTag — free offline CLIP search and face clustering on Apple Silicon Macs and Windows.
  • Already on a Mac and your photos live in Apple Photos: Apple Photos — natural-language search with Apple Intelligence, already installed.
  • Self-hosted with phone access: Immich — CLIP, face and text search on a server you run, with phone apps.

Disclosure: FolioSort is made by an independent developer, Tiago Trindade, who also wrote this page. That is why every rival claim below is limited to what the vendor itself publishes.

The quick list

  1. FolioSort — best for a whole library on Mac and Windows · €39.99 one-time
  2. FrameScout — best free on Windows · free, open source
  3. RetinaTag — best free, simple · free
  4. Apple Photos — best if your photos already live in it · built in
  5. Microsoft Photos — only on Copilot+ PCs · built in
  6. Excire Foto 2027 — best for an AI-keyworded catalog · €229 one-time
  7. Mylio Photos — best for syncing phones and computers · $240/year
  8. Peakto — best for Mac users with several catalogs · subscription or lifetime
  9. Immich — best self-hosted with phone access · free, your server
  10. digiKam — best free catalog with local auto-tags · free, open source

Which AI photo search apps really work offline?

Ten apps, compared on the things people actually ask for: describe the photo, find the text in it, find a person, and do it with nothing leaving the computer.

App Runs on Price Search by description Text in photos (OCR) Face search Works with Wi-Fi off No account Organizes files into folders Duplicates
FolioSort macOS 14+ (Apple Silicon, Intel), Windows 10/11 €39.99 one-time (Elite); free 500-photo taster Yes, in 5 languages Yes Yes, from a reference photo or automatic Yes, models ship in the app Yes Yes, real folders by date, place or event Exact and visually similar
FrameScout Windows 10/11 only Free, open source Yes Yes Not listed Yes ("100% offline") — No, search only Clusters duplicates and near-duplicates
RetinaTag macOS (Apple Silicon), Windows x64 Free Yes (CLIP) Not listed Face clustering Yes ("100% offline") — On import from USB/SD, by EXIF date Not listed
Apple Photos macOS Built in With Apple Intelligence (not all Macs, languages, regions) — People album — — No, a library package Duplicates album
Microsoft Photos Windows 11 Built in Copilot+ PCs only — No (Photos Legacy only) Local index on Copilot+ PCs — No, manual —
Excire Foto 2027 macOS, Windows €229 one-time Yes Yes (signs, labels) Yes Yes ("runs locally") — No, a catalog Duplicates and similar
Mylio Photos macOS, Windows, iOS, Android $240/year or $25/month Yes ("AI Search") — Yes, offline — No, subscription account No, keeps your folders Duplicate Remover
Peakto macOS only Subscription or lifetime licence Yes (local AI) — Facial tagging "AI runs locally" — No, catalogs in place —
Immich A server you host (Docker) Free, open source Yes (CLIP, on your server) Yes Yes Needs your server reachable Account on your own server Server-side storage template —
digiKam Windows, macOS, Linux Free, open source No, local auto-tags and keyword search — Yes (local) Yes, runs locally — No, a database over your folders Similarity fingerprints

"—" means the vendor's own pages did not state it when we checked on 23 September 2026, not that the feature is missing. "Not listed" means the vendor's feature list leaves it out. Prices are what each vendor listed on that date.

Of the ten, FolioSort is the only one whose published features include all of these at once: native Mac and Windows apps, search by description, text-in-photo search, face search, and sorting and de-duplicating the files themselves into real folders.

How does on-device AI photo search work?

An image model looks at each photo once and turns it into a list of numbers that describes what is in it: a dog, sand, water, evening light. FolioSort uses a model called MobileCLIP2, running on your own processor.

When you type "dog on the beach", the same model turns your words into numbers of the same kind, and the app shows the photos whose numbers sit closest. That is why it finds a photo nobody ever tagged: it matches meaning, not file names.

Text inside photos is a separate step: an OCR engine reads the words printed in the image and stores them as searchable text. Both indexes live on your own disk, so after indexing no photo and no search term has to leave the machine.

What should "offline" actually mean?

"Private" and "secure" appear on every product page. Three questions separate apps that run on your computer from apps that send your photos somewhere to be looked at.

Does search work with the Wi-Fi off? Not "is my data encrypted", but "does it work with no connection at all". If the model runs on your machine, it does.

Does it need an account? An app that must sign you in before it searches is at least checking with a server. Sometimes for good reasons, such as sync, but that is not the same as local.

Is it billed per credit or per image? Credits are how you pay for someone else's computer. If the AI costs more the more photos you run through it, the work happens in a data centre.

The 30-second test: turn the Wi-Fi off and search

You do not have to believe this page, or any vendor's. Run this on any app in the list.

  1. Let the app index one folder of photos, with the connection on in case it downloads its model the first time.
  2. Turn the Wi-Fi off, or pull the network cable.
  3. Quit the app and open it again.
  4. Search for a scene you know is there: "dog on the beach". Then search for a word you know is printed inside one of the photos, such as the shop name on a receipt.
Results for both → the search and the OCR really are local.
Scene works, text does not → no local text recognition.
Sign-in prompt, "you're offline", a spinner or a credit counter → the AI is in the cloud.

FolioSort passes it on Mac and Windows: its models ship inside the app and there is no account to sign in to.

The ten apps, and what each one is best for

1. FolioSort — best for a whole library on Mac and Windows

OURS · MACOS 14+ (APPLE SILICON + INTEL) · WINDOWS 10 1809+ / 11 · ELITE €39.99 ONE-TIME · FREE 500-PHOTO TASTER

A photo and video organizer that works on your real folders, with no catalog and no import step. Its AI Photo Search indexes the folders and drives you add with an on-device MobileCLIP2 model and reads text inside images with local OCR (English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German). Queries in those languages are translated on your machine before matching, so they are not answered worse than English. It also proposes automatic events; Find a Person works from 1–3 reference photos and People groups faces without any. A Smart Folder is a saved search kept as a real folder on disk that fills itself after each import. One customer ran the search on 201,846 photos across 3 drives.

Reasons to choose it

  • The same app sorts by the real EXIF capture date, merges drives, removes exact and visually similar duplicates and repairs Google Takeout exports, so results can become folders, and every batch is undoable.
  • Native on Mac and Windows; one Elite licence covers 3 devices across both.
  • Models ship in the app, the index stays on your disk, no account.

Reasons to skip it: AI search is Elite only (Pro at €29.99 does not include it). Desktop only, with no phone app. Not an editor or a keyword-tagging catalog. If you only need search on Windows for nothing, FrameScout does that.

2. FrameScout — best free on Windows

FREE · OPEN SOURCE · WINDOWS 10/11 ONLY · v3.1.0 (22 SEP 2026)

A young open-source project that does this one job well: natural-language search, OCR text search, visual similarity, clustering of duplicates and bursts, and saved searches. Models are bundled (SigLIP 2 and EasyOCR on ONNX) and it runs 100% offline.

Reasons to choose it: free, open source, picture and text search, fully offline.

Reasons to skip it: Windows only ("no macOS/Linux yet"). It searches but does not move or organize files, and face search is not in its feature list. New and maintained by one person: the repository was created in August 2026.

3. RetinaTag — best free, simple

FREE · MACOS (APPLE SILICON) + WINDOWS X64

RetinaTag, from CatHead AI, calls itself "100% free — no subscriptions, ever". Local CLIP search, captions through Ollama (a local model runner), on-device face clustering, an encrypted vault, and import from USB or SD cards sorted by EXIF date.

Reasons to choose it: free, offline, on both Mac and Windows, with face clustering.

Reasons to skip it: Apple Silicon only on the Mac. Text-in-photo search is not in its feature list. Young project: repository created March 2026, last tagged release v1.1.0, no licence file.

4. Apple Photos — best if your photos already live in it

BUILT IN · FREE · MAC

With Apple Intelligence, Photos searches in natural language, including moments inside videos, and has the People album and a Duplicates album for merging copies.

Reasons to choose it: your library is already in Photos on a supported Mac.

Reasons to skip it: Apple says the feature is not on all Macs, languages or regions. Photos keeps everything in one library package, not Finder folders, so other drives must be imported first. No Windows version.

5. Microsoft Photos — only on Copilot+ PCs

BUILT IN · FREE · WINDOWS 11

Natural-language search in Photos works only on Copilot+ PCs, over locally indexed photos. Elsewhere it searches by file name, date, type and GPS location.

Reasons to choose it: you own a Copilot+ PC.

Reasons to skip it: most Windows PCs are not Copilot+. Face grouping is not in the new app, only in Photos Legacy. It organizes nothing on its own.

6. Excire Foto 2027 — best for an AI-keyworded catalog

ONE-TIME €229 · MAC, WINDOWS

The most complete paid local-AI catalog: automatic keywording, prompt search across content, faces, scenes, text and moods, face recognition, similar-photo detection and aesthetic rating. "Everything runs locally."

Reasons to choose it: you want AI keywords, ratings and culling inside a catalog.

Reasons to skip it: €229 against €39.99, and it is a catalog that does not sort files into folders. See FolioSort vs Excire Foto.

7. Mylio Photos — best for syncing phones and computers

SUBSCRIPTION · $240/YEAR OR $25/MONTH · MAC, WINDOWS, IOS, ANDROID · 7-DAY TRIAL

AI Search, SmartTags, offline face recognition and a Duplicate Remover, over your existing folders, with peer-to-peer sync between devices. Older Mylio price posts are out of date.

Reasons to choose it: one library on phone and computers, without a server.

Reasons to skip it: a subscription and an account. Text-in-photo search is not stated.

8. Peakto — best for Mac users with several catalogs

MAC ONLY · SUBSCRIPTION OR STANDARD LIFETIME LICENCE

Catalogs Lightroom, Capture One, Apple Photos and folders in one interface without moving files, with local natural-language search, facial tagging and keyword suggestions.

Reasons to choose it: your work is split across several catalogs on a Mac.

Reasons to skip it: Mac only; prices were not readable on its pricing page when we checked; text-in-photo search not stated.

9. Immich — best self-hosted with phone access

FREE · OPEN SOURCE · SELF-HOSTED SERVER (DOCKER) · v3.2.2

The self-hosted answer to Google Photos: phone backup, CLIP search, face recognition, "Text in images" search, a map, and a storage template for date folders on the server. Needs Docker and at least 6 GB of RAM.

Reasons to choose it: photos searchable from your phone, anywhere, without Google.

Reasons to skip it: you become the administrator, and phone search needs your server reachable. FolioSort pairs with it: the library in order on your computer, phone access on top.

10. digiKam — best free catalog with local auto-tags

FREE · OPEN SOURCE · WINDOWS, MAC, LINUX · v9.1.0

KDE's veteran photo manager: local face recognition, Auto-Tags generated by a local model, and a similarity database for duplicates.

Reasons to choose it: a full free catalog, including on Linux.

Reasons to skip it: no search by full description, only the tags it generated; a database to look after; a steep learning curve.

How to search your photos in plain language with FolioSort

  1. Download FolioSort for Mac or Windows from the download page and open AI Search. The free download searches your first 500 photos; Elite unlocks the whole library.
  2. Add the folders to index, other drives included. The index is built on your computer; your photos are never modified.
  3. Type what you remember: a scene ("kids at the beach"), a place and a month, or a word printed in the photo. Choose meaning, text or both, and narrow to one folder if you indexed a drive and its backup.
  4. Act on the results. Copy to Folder writes copies and leaves the originals in place. To narrow to one person, use Find a Person.
  5. Save the search as a Smart Folder if you will want it again. It becomes a real folder that fills itself with new matches after each import.

Every button on the search screen is explained in the AI Search help page. If faces are what you need most, see the best face-recognition photo organizers.

How we compared

We started from what people type: a desktop app that finds "a dog on the beach" or the text on a receipt, offline, with no cloud. Every rival fact comes from the vendor's own site, documentation, official repository or store listing, read on 23 September 2026. Where a vendor is silent, the table says "—" rather than guessing.

Google Photos is left out because it is a cloud service. Lightroom is left out because it is a subscription catalog and we could not confirm its AI search features on Adobe's own help pages this month. FolioSort, at version 4.9.9 and used in 80+ countries, is ours and listed first, as vendors' own lists always are; the 30-second test works on it exactly as on the others.

Questions people actually ask

Can I search my photos with AI without uploading them?

Yes. Several desktop apps run the AI model on your own computer: FolioSort (Mac and Windows), FrameScout (Windows), RetinaTag (Apple Silicon Macs and Windows), Excire Foto (Mac and Windows) and Peakto (Mac). Immich does the same on a server you run yourself. The index stays on your own disk and nothing is sent to a cloud service. Check it with the 30-second test: turn the Wi-Fi off and search.

What is the best free app to search photos with AI offline?

On Windows, FrameScout: free, open source, fully offline, with natural-language and text-in-photo (OCR) search. On an Apple Silicon Mac or on Windows, RetinaTag: free offline CLIP search plus face clustering. If your photos already live in Apple Photos on a Mac with Apple Intelligence, its built-in search costs nothing.

Can I search for the text inside photos, like a receipt, on my computer?

Yes, with an app that runs OCR (text recognition) locally. FolioSort reads text inside photos in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French and German, accent-insensitive, so a search for fatura finds Fatura. FrameScout and Excire Foto also list text search, and Immich does it on your own server.

How does on-device AI photo search work?

An image model turns each photo into a list of numbers that describes what is in it, on your computer. Your search words are turned into numbers of the same kind, and the app shows the closest photos. That is why a search for a dog on the beach finds a photo nobody tagged. Text inside photos is read by a separate OCR step. Both indexes stay on your disk.

Does FolioSort's AI search work with the Wi-Fi off?

Yes. The image and text models ship inside the app, the index is stored on your own disk, and there is no account or sign-in. Non-English queries are translated using your system's on-device translation; if that is not available, the query runs untranslated rather than failing.

Is there a private alternative to Google Photos search?

Yes. On your computer, FolioSort gives you plain-language, text and face search over ordinary folders on Mac and Windows, and can first import a Google Takeout export, restoring dates, GPS, favourites, people tags and captions from the JSON files. For Google Photos-style access from your phone, Immich is the self-hosted answer.

How much does FolioSort's AI photo search cost?

AI Photo Search is part of Elite, a one-time €39.99 for 3 devices across Mac and Windows, which also includes Find a Person, People, automatic events and Smart Folders. The free download includes a 500-photo taster. Pro (€29.99) does not include the AI features. There is a 14-day full refund, even after the licence key has been activated.

Does Windows Photos have AI search?

Only on Copilot+ PCs, over locally indexed photos, according to Microsoft's support page. On other PCs, Photos searches by file name, date, file type and location. Face grouping is not in the new Photos app; it exists only in Photos Legacy.

Find the photo by describing it, with the Wi-Fi off

Free to download for Mac and Windows, with a 500-photo taster of AI search, so you can run the 30-second test on your own photos first. Elite is a one-time €39.99 for 3 devices, with 14 days to change your mind. See pricing.

Download Free How AI Photo Search works

macOS 14+ and Windows 10+ · No account · Nothing leaves your computer

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