no subscription, no cloud
The best Cotypist alternative for Mac
Cotypist is a solid on-device autocomplete, and it's the rival most people compare against. But it's closed-source and moving toward freemium and subscription tiers — so the people who tried it keep asking the same question: is there a Cotypist alternative I can buy once and own?
sounds good, I'll take a look and report back.
Why people go looking
A typing assistant runs in the background all day. Paying a monthly fee for something that predicts the rest of your sentence feels off — and as Cotypist shifts to paid tiers, the recurring cost only adds up. The other concern is trust: when a tool reads the text around your cursor, you want to know it stays on your machine.
MacAutocomplete answers both. One payment of $125, no subscription ever, and every completion is computed by a local model on your Apple Silicon Mac — fully offline, nothing you type leaves the device.
What you actually get
You type in any standard text field and a greyed ghost suggestion appears inline at your cursor:
Just confirming our call for tomorrow — does 2pm still work on your end?
Press ⇥ Tab or → to accept the whole line. Keep typing and it disappears. It runs on the macOS text layer rather than inside one editor, so it works in every app — Mail, Slack, Notes, Messages, and most browsers. And because the model runs locally, you can verify zero outbound traffic with Little Snitch; password and secure fields are never read.
MacAutocomplete vs. Cotypist
| MacAutocomplete | Cotypist | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $125 once, lifetime | Moving to freemium / subscription |
| Runs on-device | Yes — local MLX model | Yes — on-device |
| Prediction unit | Whole sentences | On-device completion |
| Macs covered | 3 Macs included | Varies by tier |
Cotypist is also on-device — we're comparing pricing models and scope, not quality. For a fuller side-by-side, see MacAutocomplete vs. Cotypist.
Honest limits
Like any tool that reads the system text layer, MacAutocomplete stays quiet where there is no readable field — Google Docs and Sheets paint onto a canvas, and the same goes for some GPU/canvas editors and games. It needs Apple Silicon and macOS 14.2+. Everywhere else, it just writes alongside you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Cotypist alternative for Mac?
MacAutocomplete is the closest match for people leaving Cotypist: it's on-device like Cotypist, but it predicts whole sentences as ghost text at your cursor and costs $125 once instead of a subscription. It works in Mail, Slack, Notes, Messages, and most browsers and chat apps.
Is there a one-time-payment Cotypist alternative?
Yes. MacAutocomplete is a one-time $125 lifetime purchase that covers 3 Macs with no subscription ever. As Cotypist moves toward freemium and subscription tiers, paying once and owning the tool is the main reason people switch.
Is there a free Cotypist alternative?
Cotypist has a free tier, and there are free typing tools, but most are cloud-based or limited. MacAutocomplete isn't free — it's a one-time $125 purchase — but the local MLX model runs fully offline with zero outbound traffic (verifiable in Little Snitch), and secure password fields are never read.
Why switch from Cotypist to MacAutocomplete?
You switch to escape recurring subscription costs and to predict full sentences instead of short completions. Both run on-device, so quality and privacy are comparable, but MacAutocomplete is a single $125 payment for 3 Macs and needs Apple Silicon with macOS 14.2+. Note the dead zones: Google Docs and canvas-based editors have no readable text field.
get it
$125 — one-time, lifetime.
Pre-order — ships in ~1 week · lifetime · 3 Macs · runs on your Mac.
Lifetime · 3 devices · 14-day refund (95%).