DraftKey: On-Device AI Autocomplete for Every Mac App ($4.99 Lifetime)

DraftKey is a Mac app that suggests the next few words as you type, in almost any app, using an AI model that runs entirely on your Mac. Nothing you type goes to a server. It costs $4.99 once, with no subscription, and you can get it at getdraftkey.com.

Disclosure up front: I built DraftKey. It's made by Aura Technologies, my small indie studio. This post is a straight description of what it does, who it's for, and where it falls short, so you can decide in two minutes whether it's worth five dollars.

What DraftKey actually does

You type in Mail, Slack, Notes, Linear, a browser text box, or your editor's commit message field. DraftKey reads the text around your cursor, runs a small language model locally, and shows a short gray suggestion. Press Tab and it's inserted. Keep typing and it goes away.

That's the whole product. It's not a chatbot, it doesn't rewrite your paragraphs, and it doesn't open a side panel. It's autocomplete for prose, system-wide.

Why I built it

I write a lot of short, repetitive text: support replies, ticket descriptions, release notes, PR summaries. Cloud writing assistants were good at it, but I didn't love pasting customer emails and internal tickets into someone else's server, and I didn't want another monthly subscription for something this small.

Apple Silicon Macs are fast enough to run a compact model locally with low latency. So DraftKey ships with one and does everything on-device.

What you get for $4.99

• System-wide suggestions in most apps that use standard macOS text fields.
• Fully local inference. No account, no cloud API calls for completions, works offline (on a plane, on a locked-down corporate network).
• One-time purchase. $4.99, lifetime, no subscription.
• Small footprint at rest. It lives in the menu bar and stays out of the way.

Honest limits (please read before buying)

I'd rather you skip DraftKey than buy it and feel misled.

1. There's no free trial. You pay $4.99 to try it. I know that's a real ask for an unknown indie app, which is why this list exists.
2. Apple Silicon and macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later only. Intel Macs and older macOS versions are not supported. The local model needs Apple Silicon to be fast enough.
3. It downloads a ~1.12 GB local model. That's the price of keeping everything on-device. If disk space is tight, factor that in.
4. It depends on the macOS Accessibility API. You have to grant Accessibility permission. Some apps expose their text fields poorly or not at all: certain Electron apps, some terminal emulators, custom-drawn editors, and secure fields. In those, suggestions may be missing or placed oddly.
5. It is not GPT-class. The model is small so it can run locally and quickly. It's good at finishing sentences and common phrasing in your context. It is not going to write a strong essay from a one-line prompt, reason through a hard problem, or match a frontier cloud model on quality.

If any of those is a dealbreaker, DraftKey isn't for you, and that's fine.

Who it's a good fit for

• Developers and indie founders who write lots of short text (tickets, support emails, PR descriptions, Slack updates) and want it a bit faster.
• People who work with sensitive text and don't want it leaving the machine.
• Anyone tired of stacking $10–$20/month AI subscriptions for small conveniences.

Who should skip it

• If you want a full rewriting or chat assistant, a cloud tool will do more.
• If you're on an Intel Mac or pre-Sonoma macOS.
• If you mostly type in apps with weak Accessibility support.

Other pay-once options

DraftKey isn't the only non-subscription AI writing tool on the Mac. Charm and RewriteBar are both worth a look if you prefer a one-time purchase. They lean more toward rewriting and transforming selected text, while DraftKey focuses on inline, as-you-type autocomplete with a local model. Depending on how you write, one of them may suit you better, or you may want one alongside DraftKey.

Privacy, briefly

Completions are generated on your Mac. DraftKey doesn't need an account and doesn't send what you type to a server to produce suggestions. The Accessibility permission is what lets it read text near your cursor in other apps; that's a macOS requirement for this kind of tool, and you can revoke it anytime in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility.

Getting started

1. Buy and download DraftKey from getdraftkey.com ($4.99 lifetime).
2. Open it and grant Accessibility permission when prompted.
3. Let it download the ~1.12 GB model once.
4. Start typing in Mail, Notes, or Slack and accept suggestions with Tab.

Feedback

DraftKey is a small product from a small studio, and I read every piece of feedback. If an app you use doesn't work well with it, tell me which one through the contact link on getdraftkey.com, and I'll look at what the Accessibility API exposes there.

If private, pay-once autocomplete that works across your Mac sounds useful, DraftKey is $4.99 at getdraftkey.com.