Perplexity Computer can now run fully local on Apple silicon Macs

Perplexity released a fully local mode of Perplexity Computer on 20 October 2026 for Apple silicon Macs. The model, the harness and the task execution stay on the machine. With permission, Computer works across local files and apps including Notes, Messages, Mail and Numbers. The post’s examples also use Excel, Keynote and Outlook.

The Mac app has two modes. Hybrid Compute starts in the cloud and uses a local model for private files. Fully local starts on the Mac, so planning, reasoning and file processing stay there. The local models are Qwen 3.6 and PPLX Pro, which Perplexity describes as a post-trained version of Qwen. A user can still authorise the cloud for current information, browser use or connected apps, and the local orchestrator can call one of 15+ frontier models for harder reasoning.

Code and tool runs sit in isolated sandboxes, with controlled access to files and apps. Perplexity says the same controls apply to the cloud version. The mode is for Pro, Max and Enterprise subscribers. Perplexity points to Macs such as the Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro, and recommends 36 GB of memory or more. It does not publish a full list of supported machines. Aravind Srinivas’s post says a local run uses no cloud inference and can work without Wi-Fi.