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Ekko asks on first launch. You can change it later in Settings ▸ Privacy.

• On-device only: text never leaves your Mac. Uses Apple Intelligence or a local model. Works offline and costs nothing.
• Local network: text goes to a model server you run yourself, such as Ollama or LM Studio.
• Remote, your key: text goes to Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter or a compatible provider, which you pay directly.

Details are in the privacy policy.

Turn on Apple Intelligence in System Settings ▸ Apple Intelligence & Siri, then wait for macOS to finish downloading its models. Apple Intelligence isn’t available in every language and region. If it can’t be turned on, install a local model instead: it works without Apple Intelligence and still keeps text on your Mac.

Open Settings ▸ Local model and choose a model to download. Models are several gigabytes, so use a fast connection and make sure you have free disk space. Downloads come from Hugging Face, and no text you translate is sent with them. Once installed, the model runs entirely on your Mac, including offline.

1. Start the server and load a model in it.
2. In Ekko, set the privacy tier to Local network or Remote.
3. In Settings ▸ Providers, add an OpenAI-compatible provider with the server’s address. Ollama: http://localhost:11434/v1. LM Studio: http://localhost:1234/v1. No API key is needed for either.

A server on your own Mac or local network can use http://. Ekko refuses unencrypted http:// for addresses on the public internet, so use https:// for those.

Create a key in your provider’s dashboard, then paste it into Settings ▸ Providers and set the privacy tier to Remote in Settings ▸ Privacy. Ekko stores the key in your macOS Keychain and sends it only to that provider. Usage is billed by the provider, not by us. Ekko shows a cost estimate for each request and lets you set a monthly spending limit.

Yes, in two ways:

• Quick translate: press ⌥⌘T anywhere to open the quick panel.
• Services menu: select text in any app, then choose Services ▸ Translate with Ekko from the app menu or the right-click menu. If it doesn’t appear, enable it in System Settings ▸ Keyboard ▸ Keyboard Shortcuts ▸ Services.

Plain text (.txt), Markdown (.md), Word (.docx) and PowerPoint (.pptx) files up to 64 MB. Drop a file on the window or on the Dock icon. Old Office formats (.doc, .ppt) need to be saved as .docx or .pptx first. Password-protected files can’t be opened.

If a document is too long for the engine you’ve selected, Ekko tells you before it starts. Try an engine with a larger context, or split the document.

Detection is a guess, and short text is the hardest to guess. Choose the correct source language in the window. Ekko will use your choice from then on for that text.

In Settings ▸ History, choose Keep history, This session only (nothing written to disk) or Don’t record history. Switching to a stricter option discards history that was already saved. You can also clear saved history at any time with Clear all in the history list.

Yes, in Settings ▸ Activity. Ekko keeps a log of every outbound request, including failed ones: when it happened, where it went, which model, and the tokens and cost. The log contains no text and is cleared when you quit.