Offline AI Screen Recorder — No Internet Required

Most AI screen recorders have a dirty secret: they need the internet. Not just for updates — for core functionality. They upload your screenshots to cloud servers for OCR processing, run transcription through remote APIs, and store your data in someone else's database.

Cut the internet, and they stop working.

An offline AI screen recorder does everything locally. Screen capture, OCR, audio transcription, AI search — all on your hardware, all without a network connection. Here's why that matters and how to set it up.

Why Offline Matters

1. Reliability

Internet goes down. VPNs disconnect. Cloud services have outages. If your screen recording depends on a remote server, your capture has gaps exactly when something important might be happening. Offline recording never stops.

2. Privacy

Cloud-based screen recorders process your screenshots on remote servers. That means someone else's infrastructure has seen your passwords, your private messages, your financial information. Even "encrypted" doesn't mean staff can't access it.

Offline means offline. Your data physically cannot leave your machine because there's no network request to make.

3. Speed

Local processing is faster than round-tripping to a server. OCR on a modern laptop takes milliseconds per frame. Local search queries return instantly. No loading spinners, no "processing..." status bars.

4. Compliance

Many organizations require data residency — your data must stay in a specific jurisdiction or on specific hardware. An offline screen recorder satisfies the strictest compliance requirements because data never leaves the device.

The Best Offline Setup: Screenpipe + Ollama

Screenpipe is the only AI screen recorder that works fully offline with complete feature parity. Here's the setup:

What Runs Locally

• Screen capture — native OS APIs, no network needed
• OCR — local Tesseract or Apple Vision framework
• Audio transcription — local Whisper model
• Data storage — SQLite database on your disk
• AI queries — Ollama running a local model (Llama, Mistral, Phi)

Setup (10 minutes)

1. Install Screenpipe — download here for macOS, Windows, or Linux
2. Install Ollama — curl -fsSL https://ollama.ai/install.sh | sh
3. Pull a model — ollama pull llama3.2 (3.2B parameter model, runs on any modern laptop)
4. Configure Screenpipe to use Ollama as the AI backend
5. Disconnect from the internet — everything still works

That's it. Screen capture, OCR, transcription, and AI search — all running on your hardware.

Hardware Requirements

The hardware bar is lower than you'd think:

• Mac (Apple Silicon) — M1 or later handles everything smoothly. Apple's Neural Engine accelerates ML workloads. Best experience.
• Windows — any machine with 16GB RAM and a recent CPU. GPU optional but helps with larger AI models.
• Linux — same as Windows. Screenpipe is well-tested on Ubuntu and Fedora.

For the AI model specifically, 8GB RAM is the minimum for small models (Phi, Gemma). 16GB lets you run larger models (Llama 3.2 8B) comfortably.

Offline vs. Cloud Screen Recorders

	Screenpipe (offline)	Microsoft Recall	Limitless	Otter.ai
Works offline	✅ Fully	⚠️ Capture only	❌	❌
Local OCR	✅	✅	❌	N/A
Local transcription	✅	❌	❌	❌
Local AI search	✅ (Ollama)	⚠️ Basic	❌	❌
Audio capture	✅	❌	✅	✅
Cross-platform	Mac, Win, Linux	Windows only	Mac	Web
Open source	✅ MIT	❌	❌	❌

Microsoft Recall deserves a specific note: it does capture and run OCR locally, but it requires Windows 11 with a Copilot+ PC (specific NPU hardware), doesn't capture audio, has no API, and AI features need a network connection. Full comparison →

Use Cases for Offline AI Screen Recording

Air-Gapped Environments

Government, defense, and high-security facilities often operate on air-gapped networks. Screenpipe works in these environments because it has zero network dependencies.

Travel and Unreliable Connectivity

Planes, trains, remote locations — your screen recording shouldn't depend on having WiFi. Screenpipe captures everything regardless of connectivity and the AI search works instantly from local data.

Sensitive Professions

For lawyers, healthcare workers, and financial professionals, offline operation isn't a preference — it's a compliance requirement. Data that never touches a network satisfies the strictest data handling policies.

Developer Workflows

Developers working on proprietary code can use Screenpipe to capture their workflow without any risk of code being processed by external services. Pair it with Cursor integration for AI-assisted coding with full screen context — all local.

Beyond Offline: The Local AI Advantage

Running AI locally has benefits beyond just privacy:

• No API costs — no per-token charges, no usage limits
• No rate limits — query as much as you want
• Customizable models — fine-tune for your specific use case
• Consistent speed — no variance from server load
• No terms of service changes — your local model won't suddenly restrict what you can ask

For a deeper look at the local AI setup, see the local AI assistant use case and Apple Intelligence integration.

Getting Started

1. Download Screenpipe
2. Install Ollama and pull a model
3. Everything runs offline from here — no account needed, no sign-up, no cloud

Your screen recorder should work even when your internet doesn't.

Try Screenpipe →