Local first storage for journalists
A local first notes app that works offline
Work with no wifi and no worry.
Grape keeps a story file in a database on your own machine, so an hour before filing a dead connection changes nothing about what you can open.
Writing, reading, organising, drawing and recording all work offline
You pick where the database file sits
Export any note, or the whole library, as Markdown, HTML or PDF
Run the AI locally through Ollama or LM Studio if you prefer
No account to start
Download, open, write. Accounts only matter for the paid plans.
Your choice of AI provider
OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Groq, DeepSeek, OpenRouter, Ollama and more.
Export whenever you want
Markdown, HTML or PDF, one note at a time or the whole library.
You pick where the file sits
Point the database at any folder on your machine, and move it later.
The plane, the tunnel, the cabin
Writing, search, drawing and recording all work with no connection.
Local models if you want them
Run the AI through Ollama or LM Studio and nothing leaves the machine.
The lede
Three things that stop costing you the afternoon
No feature tour. What changes between the interview and the filed copy.
Without Grape
The quote is on a recording you have not had time to transcribe.
The story you dropped in March is in a folder you no longer open.
The documents are in four apps and the copy is in a fifth.
With Grape
The quote is text before you are back at the desk
Record on the phone, get the transcript in the note, and pull the line you need straight into the draft.
Reopen a story you dropped in March
Ask your notes what you had on a subject and get the answer with the note attached.
Keep the background in the same place as the copy
Documents, PDFs, links and your own notes sit in one folder rather than four apps.
On the job
What that looks like for journalists
Three points in a story where the app saves the hour.
In the field
Record, tag the note with the story slug, and move on to the next call.
Back at the desk
Read the transcript, mark the usable quotes and draft in the same note.
Six months later
Search the archive by what happened rather than what you named the file.
The rest of the app
What Else Grape Does
Every part of the app is built around the same idea: keep what you write, and hand it back when you need it.
Questions
Questions Before You Install It
The rest of them live in the help center.
- How protected are my notes and sources?
- Grape keeps everything in a local database on your device unless you switch sync on. It is not a secure comms tool and it makes no legal claim about source protection, so treat it the way you would treat any notebook you carry.
- How accurate is transcription?
- Good enough to work from and to search, not good enough to publish without checking. Always listen back before you quote.
- What is Grape, in one paragraph?
- Grape is a note app for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone and Android with AI built into the middle of it rather than bolted on the side. You write, record and collect things the normal way, and then you can search by meaning, ask questions about your own notes, and turn any note into a summary, a set of flashcards, a quiz or a mind map.
- What makes it different from other note apps?
- Most note apps treat AI as an extra panel. In Grape the agent works on your workspace: it can read, create, edit, move, tag and delete notes, and every answer points back to the note it came from. Semantic search, voice transcription, flashcards, quizzes, mind maps and the drawing canvas all live inside the editor rather than in separate tools.
- Where do my notes actually live?
- On your device, in a local database, and you can choose where that file sits. Nothing needs to leave your machine for the app to work. If you turn on sync with a Sync or Pro plan, your notes are also stored in the cloud so your devices can stay in step. On Lifetime they sync through your own Dropbox or Google Drive instead, and Grape never sees them.
- Do I need an account to use it?
- No. Download the app and start writing. You only need an account for the paid plans, which is where cross device sync and built in AI come in.
File the story the same day.
Transcripts, background, quotes and the thread you have been pulling for months, all searchable by meaning while the deadline is still hours away.
macOS
Windows
Linux
iPhone
Android