Chatbox

Chatbox provides a desktop interface for AI conversations across supported model providers. It suits writers, developers, students and people organizing recurring prompts rather than building their own API client. It supports conversation management, streaming answers, a prompt/Copilot library, keyboard shortcuts, Markdown, LaTeX and highlighted code. Image generation, document handling, reasoning controls and tool features depend on the selected model, provider and edition.

Requirements and installation

The official Community Edition README lists macOS 11 Big Sur or later and both Intel and Apple Silicon support. Download the appropriate Mac build, open the DMG and install Chatbox.app in Applications. The exact 1.23.5 Apple Silicon DMG endpoint reports 161,141,372 bytes in HTTP Content-Length; the Intel build has a separate URL and size. This is compressed download size, not installed storage. The checked documentation does not state a numeric minimum RAM requirement. Local Ollama models need additional model downloads and hardware appropriate to their size; desktop-client compatibility does not establish local-model memory capacity.

Node.js 20–22 and pnpm 10 are documented source-development requirements, not prerequisites for installing the packaged application. Launch Chatbox and configure an AI provider in Settings. Cloud providers require network access and typically their own account/API key or a Chatbox AI subscription; local Ollama requires a separately running local service and downloaded model. Do not assume a paid ChatGPT or another provider's chat subscription includes API credits.

Models, images and tools

The official project lists providers including OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and Ollama. Recent releases document remote MCP OAuth authorization, refreshed tool lists, conversation compaction controls and model-specific reasoning settings. Work Mode and image-generation options vary with edition and provider. Tool servers can read or change resources according to their permissions; review their origin, OAuth scopes and requested actions before enabling them. Grant file or microphone permissions only for the features you intentionally use.

AI answers may be inaccurate, outdated or unsafe to execute. Check generated commands/code and important factual claims before relying on them. Attachments and prompts can contain credentials or personal information; remove sensitive material before sending it to a cloud model or external tool. Generated images also require appropriate rights and usage review.

Storage, privacy and network use

The publisher describes local conversation storage, but requests to a remote model leave the device. Its privacy policy says Chatbox AI online requests transmit the current conversation to its servers for response generation and are not retained there after generation; this is the publisher's stated policy, not an independent audit or a promise about third-party providers. Subscription/contact information and IP addresses may be handled for service operation and billing.

The privacy policy names analytics/error/billing services including Google Analytics, Sentry and Lemon Squeezy. The public project's analytics document additionally describes GA/Plausible and installation UUID/session/platform events, gated by the error-reporting/event-tracking consent setting. Check the installed edition's privacy preferences; local chat storage does not imply zero telemetry or completely offline operation. Back up/export conversations before removing application data, and protect local histories and API keys on shared Macs.

License and costs

The public repository is the GPLv3 Community Edition and says code is periodically synchronized with the pro repository. The distributed commercial desktop build and paid Chatbox AI service can differ from Community Edition; do not assume all features or commercial terms are identical. Provider API charges, image generation and local-model hardware costs are separate from installing the client. Review current provider and Chatbox plan terms before purchase.

The attached official repository UI image visibly demonstrates an older 0.10.0 interface; it is genuine historical Community Edition media, not a 1.23.5 screenshot. Official GitHub 1.23.5 notes combine changes also listed separately under 1.23.4 in the website changelog; the version summaries cite their precise sources.

Sources: Official Community Edition README, Official changelog, Exact 1.23.5 release, Privacy policy, Analytics consent documentation, GPL license.