Perplexity Computer fully local: how to run it on a Mac
2026-10-22 · 4 min read
To run Perplexity Computer fully local, you need a paid Perplexity plan (Pro, Max or Enterprise), the latest Perplexity Mac app, and an Apple silicon Mac, ideally with 36GB of memory or more. You download one of two local models inside the app, then pick the fully local option for a task, and the model and the agent both run on your machine.
What Perplexity posted
The announcement came from the company account on Tuesday. @perplexity_ai wrote that "Perplexity Computer can now run fully local on your Mac," and said it can work with native Mac apps and local files without sending sensitive data to the cloud. The post came with a video demo and said the feature is live in the Mac app now.
This builds on Hybrid Compute from early September, which we covered in Perplexity's AI now decides what never leaves your Mac. Hybrid starts each task in the cloud and hands only the private-file steps to a small model on your Mac. The new mode flips that: the task starts on your Mac and stays there unless you say otherwise.
What runs where
According to Perplexity's blog post, the Mac app now has two modes, and you choose per task.
| Fully local | Hybrid Compute | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the task starts | On your Mac | In the cloud |
| Planning and reasoning | On device | Cloud frontier models |
| Private file processing | On device | On device |
| Models | Qwen 3.6 or PPLX Pro | 15+ cloud models plus a local model |
| Memory advice | 36GB or more | Works with 24GB (per MacRumors) |
| Plans | Pro, Max, Enterprise | Pro, Max, Enterprise |
PPLX Pro is Perplexity's own post-trained version of Qwen. Code and tool steps run in isolated sandboxes either way, the same setup the company stress-tested with nine models earlier this fall in Perplexity let 9 AIs try to escape.
Fully local doesn't mean offline forever. If a task needs current web information, browser use or a cloud-connected app, Computer asks you before anything leaves the machine, and the local orchestrator can call a cloud model for harder reasoning if you allow it. Perplexity also pitches the local mode as a way to control credit spend. It hasn't published what a local task costs in credits, so check your own usage after the first few runs.
How to set it up
- Update or install the Perplexity Mac app and sign in with a Pro, Max or Enterprise account.
- Follow the in-app prompt to download a local model. Qwen 3.6 is the stock model and PPLX Pro is Perplexity's tuned version of it.
- When you start a task, choose fully local.
- Grant access to the apps you want it to touch. The core list is Notes, Messages, Mail and Numbers, and Perplexity's examples also use Excel, Keynote and Outlook. If you're unsure what to allow, our piece on macOS Full Disk Access for AI agents is a good primer.
Perplexity's own example tasks show the sort of thing it's built for. Here is one you can paste in almost word for word:
Review my recent Messages and Mail, find any requests and deadlines, make an action list in Notes, and draft follow-up replies for me to review.
Their other examples include turning confidential discovery notes and an internal rate sheet into a client proposal with an Excel budget and an Outlook cover email, and checking a private portfolio against investment guidelines before updating a Keynote deck.
What to expect in practice
The 36GB figure is a recommendation, not a hard floor, but it matters. Local models are slower than cloud ones, and a long agent run on a laptop costs battery. In the MacRumors comments, one reader with a 64GB M5 Pro said a PowerPoint task ran for 50 minutes and produced nothing. That's one anecdote, but it's a good reason to start with short, well-defined jobs like the inbox triage above before you hand it a whole proposal.
My read is that the choice of model matters less than the mode itself. Most owners won't care which Qwen variant is running. What they will care about is that client files, payroll numbers and patient notes can be processed by an agent without leaving the office machine, and that someone has to approve before anything goes out.
What this means for a small business
For an accounting firm or a clinic, "where does the data go" has been the main objection to agent tools. A local mode on a recent Mac answers it for a lot of everyday paperwork. The hard part hasn't changed: picking which tasks to hand over and writing down the steps so the agent does them the same way each time. If you want help sorting that out, New Face Design offers a free process audit that maps where an agent like this would actually save you hours.