# Local AI and transcription

> What runs on your Mac and what runs hosted: Local AI for your footage, and transcription.

Formats Studio docs · Creative tools · https://formats.app/docs/local-ai · Updated 2026-09-28

## What runs where

| Feature | Runs | Cost |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Video understanding and scene search | On your Mac, with Local AI | Free |
| Transcription and AI captions | Hosted; clip audio is uploaded | 2 credits a minute, with Creator |
| Generation: images, video, music, voice | Hosted models | Credits with Creator, priced before you start |

> **Note:** Your source video stays in your workspace. Hosted features send only what they need, such as a clip's audio for transcription or a reference image for generation.

## Set up Local AI

- After sign-in and workspace setup, the app offers Local AI. Choose **Download Local AI** or **Set up later**; editing and imports work either way.
- The optional download is about 944 MB, with progress, cancel and retry. Completed files are reused.
- Come back to it any time with **Local AI** at the top of the **Media** tab.
- With **Prepare new footage automatically** on and Local AI downloaded, small imports (up to 10 visual files, 500 MB and five minutes) are prepared in the background. Larger batches ask first.
- Pause imports or analysis from Project media. Unfinished jobs wait for **Resume** when you reopen a project.

## Transcription

- Transcribe from the Media library or the **Transcript** tab. Formats sends the clip audio to its hosted speech service and returns an editable transcript with word-level timing.
- It supports 90+ languages. Choose the audio language, then whether captions keep the original script, keep English words, use Latin letters or translate to English.
- The transcript is saved with the project in your workspace and powers captions, search and filler-word removal.

> **Tip:** Transcribe early, fix the words in the transcript, then style the captions. See [Text, captions and subtitles](https://formats.app/docs/text-captions-subtitles).

## Manage the download

- Open **Local AI** in the **Media** tab to see whether the models are downloaded, and to download, resume or retry.
- **Cancel download** keeps the files already fetched, so the next attempt picks up where it stopped. You can keep editing while it runs.
- If your Mac cannot run Local AI, the dialog says so; **Check device** looks again. Keyword search over file names and transcripts still works.

> **Note:** Voiceover and other generated voices are hosted. See [Generate with AI](https://formats.app/docs/generate).

## Related

- [Scene browser and search](https://formats.app/docs/scene-browser): Analyze media locally to caption scenes, then search by keyword, meaning, or color.
- [Text, captions and subtitles](https://formats.app/docs/text-captions-subtitles): Add and style text clips, generate captions from a transcript, and import embedded subtitle tracks.
- [Generate with AI](https://formats.app/docs/generate): Images, video, music, sound effects and voice from hosted models, priced before you start and added to your project.
- [Plans and credits](https://formats.app/docs/plans): What is free, what credits pay for, what Creator adds, and how credits are granted, spent and topped up.