- 01Do I need to buy anything to use Kanary?
- No. Command-based input switching, move-resize-and-snap gestures, one app hotkey, one app-specific input mode, and Enter Guard in one AI chat app are permanently free. So are recording, Live Captions, on-device transcription up to 1 hour 15 minutes per recording, 75 minutes of Live Captions translation per rolling week, and the default meeting summary. Upgrade only when you want unlimited hotkeys, unlimited input modes, Enter Guard across all AI apps, full-length transcripts, unlimited live translation, or iCloud Drive sync for recordings.
- 02Personal or Pro — which do I need?
- Personal ($2/mo) unlocks everything inside the Kanary app: unlimited hotkeys and input modes, Enter Guard across all AI apps, full-length on-device transcription and summaries, unlimited Live Captions translation, iCloud Drive sync, and five Macs with household sharing. Pro ($8/mo) is the automation tier — it adds full-length transcripts and summaries through the Kanary CLI, so agents and scripts can read your recordings at any length. Pick Personal for the menu-bar app; pick Pro if you drive Kanary from the command line or AI workflows.
- 03What counts as a household?
- It's a gentleman's agreement: immediate family sharing a home. We enforce the five-device limit, not a bloodline check. Use your slots for your own Macs, your partner's, your kids', or a shared home Mac.
- 04Is my audio uploaded to your servers?
- No. Recording, transcription, Live Captions, and Live Captions translation run on your Mac. Audio files and transcripts live under your user library and never leave the device unless you export, copy, or explicitly enable iCloud Drive sync yourself. Free or paid, the local-first promise is the same.
- 05How does Live Captions translation work on Free?
- Live Captions themselves are free and unlimited. Translating those captions is included for 75 minutes per rolling week on Free; Personal removes that weekly translation limit inside the app, and Pro includes the same app access.
- 06Can I copy or export my Live Captions transcript?
- Yes. On Free, Copy Text and Download as SRT cover the last 75 minutes of the live session; Personal and Pro export the full transcript. The whole session stays in memory while the window is open, so if you upgrade before closing it, you can immediately copy or export everything from the start. Cue (the AI assistant) follows the same boundary.
- 07What happens if my recording is longer than 1 hour 15 minutes?
- The full audio is always saved — there’s no recording cap. Free transcribes the first 1 hour 15 minutes; for longer recordings (workshops, long interviews, podcasts), Personal transcribes the full length in the app (or Pro through the CLI). You can upgrade later and re-transcribe the same audio without re-recording.
- 08What happens to my full-length transcripts if I cancel?
- They stay. Anything Kanary has already written to your Mac — including the full-length transcripts you generated on a paid plan — remains readable, copyable, and exportable forever. Cancelling stops new full-length work from being generated; it never locks you out of work that already exists.
- 09What happens when my subscription ends?
- Kanary keeps working. You fall back to the free tier: your first app hotkey and first app-specific input mode stay active, and Enter Guard falls back to a single AI app of your choice, while any additional items you saved are disabled until you renew. Voice keeps recording and transcribing up to the free limits; any full-length transcripts you generated while on a paid plan remain fully accessible.
- 10Do you offer refunds?
- Our free tier lets you try Kanary on as many Macs and for as long as you like, so we don't offer refunds. You can cancel anytime and keep access until the end of your current billing period.
- 11Is there a team plan?
- A team plan at the same per-seat price is on the roadmap. The personal plan is what we recommend until then; contact us if you need to deploy Kanary across a company now.
- 12What Macs does Kanary support?
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later, Apple Silicon. Intel Macs are not supported. Voice features require macOS 26 or later.