The best Raycast AI alternatives for Mac

Koi is voice first. Tap Fn + ⌘ once and ask out loud; Koi answers out loud, and you go back and forth until it hangs up after seven quiet seconds, or you tap the keys again. It looks at your screen with the question, so “what does this error mean?” just works. It circles the button you need, highlights the sentence it means, or sketches a diagram over the screen. Select text in any app and say “make it shorter”; the changed words are highlighted and ⌘Z takes it back. Say “open YouTube and search for lo-fi” and its own pointer does it.

Rather type? Tap Control twice for a chat box that sees your screen, and “/” sends one of your saved prompts, a lot like an AI Command. Tap Fn + ⌥ for dictation that runs on your Mac, offline and unlimited on every plan. Koi also records calls without a bot, keeps documents on your Mac, and remembers what you tell it, there too.

Where it falls short of Raycast: no model picker, no API keys of your own, no local model for the assistant, and talking to Koi needs the internet. No extension store, no schedules. Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day trial that needs a card, and Lifetime is paid once, from $59. It runs on macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel, so Intel Macs and macOS 14 are fine.

Alter lives in the notch. It takes voice and dictation, uses what's on your screen and in your apps, and has more than 80 built-in actions plus your own. It records meetings with speaker names, picks among 50+ models for each task, and runs local models through Ollama or LM Studio. Its site says chats stay local and encrypted.

Every feature is free with your own API keys or local models. Local+ is $29 a year, Pro $240 a year with its own cloud models and 2,000+ connected services, and Lifetime $720 (Alter pricing). Every plan allows one active device at a time. Its site lists macOS 14 in one place and Ventura 13 in another.

BoltAI is a Mac chat app for power users: projects, forked chats, saved agents, a prompt library, an overlay on a global shortcut, inline edits in any app, dictation and a screenshot-to-answer command. It takes local and remote MCP servers, and runs local models through Ollama or LM Studio. Chats are kept on your Mac.

It's bought once: $79 for one Mac, $99 for Pro and $199 for Pro+, with a year of updates and renewal at 40% off (BoltAI pricing). It includes no AI credits, so you pay your providers too. macOS 13 or later, Intel or Apple silicon, with a 14-day trial. More in BoltAI alternatives.

HeyClicky sees your screen when you press its hotkey, answers out loud and draws on the screen to point the way. Its agents take tasks off your hands, and dictation comes with every plan.

Free gives 25 talk and 25 agent messages a month. Pro is $20 a month with unlimited talk, and Max $100 (HeyClicky pricing). macOS 14.2 or later, with a Windows waitlist. See HeyClicky alternatives.

VoiceOS pairs dictation in 100 languages, with styles and your own words, with an Agent Mode that searches the web, sets reminders, uses screen awareness and your own MCP servers, and asks before it acts.

Pro is $11.99 a month billed yearly, after a 7-day trial that needs a card, and there's no free plan (VoiceOS pricing). Mac and Windows. Our Koi vs VoiceOS page compares the two.

Apple says Siri AI, in beta on macOS 27, answers questions about what's on your screen and acts on it. Command-Shift-Space picks a window to ask about, Command-Shift-6 a part of the screen. It needs an M1 Mac or later, or the MacBook Neo, and speaks English to start.

It's built in, with daily limits on features that use Apple's servers, and Apple says expanded access will cost a fee later. No Intel Macs. Our Siri vs Koi page goes deeper.