Ask first, route anywhere

Summon instantly with a hotkey, write your question, and choose: stream an in-app BYOK answer, or route to web AI, desktop apps, and CLI agents in 1 click or automatically with a decision model.

Work with selected text

Highlight text in any macOS app to translate, explain, summarize, polish, or bring directly into chat from the inline action bar.

Bring your own AI service (BYOK)

Access keys stay on this Mac and go only to your provider — no middle server, no telemetry.

Lightweight & pure native

Pure Swift/AppKit, zero Electron runtime, keyboard-first with Esc-to-close, and instant cold launch.

What is SpotAsk

SpotAsk is a free, open-source Mac menu bar AI assistant for quick questions, built on a simple premise: "Ask first. Decide where it goes after."

Press one hotkey — ⌥ + Space by default — and a focused question window appears instantly over whatever you are doing. Write the question while it is fresh, then choose:

In-app quick answers (BYOK): stream a reply in the window using your own API key and direct provider connection.

External Ask routing: send the question to a web AI (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Grok), a desktop app, or a local CLI agent — in 1 click, or automatically with a decision model. See how to reproduce the ChatGPT + CLI hotkey workflow.

Selected-text actions: highlight text in any macOS app to translate, explain, or summarize with the Selection Assistant (⌥ + ⇧ + Space).

Looking for a free, open-source ChatGPT Mac alternative for quick questions? SpotAsk focuses on instant questions, selected-text lookups, and fast hand-offs rather than managing long workspace conversations.

No account, no telemetry, nothing between you and your provider. Press Esc and SpotAsk is gone.

Free software, open source, and API costs

SpotAsk is free software licensed under the GNU AGPL v3 on GitHub, with no app purchase fee, no account requirement, and no telemetry.

To stream in-window answers on ⌥ Space, you connect your own provider API key (BYOK) or a local endpoint like Ollama. Token usage is billed directly by your chosen provider according to their API pricing; consumer subscriptions like ChatGPT Plus or Claude Pro do not include developer API access. If you prefer not to configure an API key, External Ask offers a separate workflow that routes your prompt to web AI or local CLI tools without spending API tokens.

SpotAsk focuses strictly on instant questions, selected-text lookups, and fast hand-offs. It is built as a focused menu bar companion rather than a local model runner, agent execution sandbox (shell, files, or MCP), document workspace, or complete system launcher. Teams managing persistent multi-threaded chats or project workspaces can keep those dedicated tools and pair them with SpotAsk for keyboard-first quick access.

SpotAsk conversation window showing model selector with deepseek-v4-flash and prompt presets

Figure: SpotAsk floating conversation window displaying on-the-fly model selection across configured BYOK providers.

Next steps

Getting Started — install SpotAsk, connect a service, and ask your first question.

Explore SpotAsk — the capability map for questions, selection, routing, models, attachments, prompts, and shortcuts.

Guides — provider setup, then per-feature how-to pages and use cases.

Troubleshooting — connection, model, permission, and shortcut problems.

One hotkey. Any AI.