Your AI.
Owned, not rented.
No subscription. Free for life.
Fred runs on your own hardware. No cloud, no subscription, no data leaving your home.
Coming to macOS, Windows and Linux, with a mobile companion for iOS and Android.
What is Fred?
A modular AI that runs entirely on your hardware - and the software is free.
Fred's brain coordinates agents for memory, email, calendar, smart home, security, WhatsApp, media, web search, health and voice.
Fred - Free, Forever
Fred is software - a modular AI platform that runs on hardware you control. And it’s free. Not a trial, not a starter tier: the full platform. If you have a computer with a decent GPU, Fred is yours.
The Fred Box
Don’t have the hardware? The Fred Box is what we’re building next, a plug-and-play mini computer with Fred pre-installed. Plug it in, connect to your network, and you’re up and running. It’s still in development, and joining the waitlist tells us how fast to build it.
The Fred App
Available on iOS, Android, and web. Chat with Fred, browse the agent marketplace, install new capabilities, and see exactly what every agent does with your data. Full transparency. Nothing hidden.
The Marketplace
Generate images and videos, scan receipts and membership cards, control your smart home, manage email and calendar - all locally. Start with what you need, add more as you go. From creative tools to everyday automation, each agent is modular and transparent.
Why Fred is different
- 100% local - your data never leaves
- Modular - install only what you want
- Transparent - see what every agent accesses
- No subscription - free software, yours to keep
- Proactive - he speaks up when something needs you
- Works offline - the AI runs on your machine, not a data centre
- One brain - desktop, phone and voice share the same memory
- Swiss made - built by hand in Chur
Fred on every screen
Desktop app and mobile companion. Same brain, same data, all local.
One AI. Two ways to run it.
The software is free. The hardware is what we’re building next.
Fred
Free. Forever. On your hardware.
- The full AI platform, not a trial
- Runs on the computer you already have
- Core agents included, add more anytime
- Works with the Fred mobile app
- Your data never leaves your home
Free means free: no subscription, no per-message charges, nothing that expires.
The Fred Box
Plug-and-play Fred - help us build it
- A mini computer with Fred pre-installed and tuned
- Plug it in, connect to your network, start talking
- No hardware knowledge needed
- Pricing announced before launch
The Box is still in development. Join the waitlist and you’ll be first to hear when it’s ready. Want to help sooner? Support the project →
Fred vs. the rest
Not another chatbot. A modular AI platform that lives on your hardware and does what you tell it to.
| Fred | ChatGPT / Copilot | Alexa / Siri | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs 100% locally | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Your data stays home | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Modular - install only what you need | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Works offline | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| No subscription | ✓ | ✗ | - |
| Agents that act on your devices and services | ✓ | ✗ | limited |
| Remembers everything | ✓ | limited | ✗ |
How would Fred help you?
What would you build with Fred? Tell us your use case - it helps us decide which agents to build next.
Who’s behind Fred
Halil Bolukbashi
UX designer turned AI orchestrator · Chur, Switzerland
Fred is built by one person.
I basically wanted one app, and my privacy. Free AI models exist today, but for most people they’re hard to set up. That’s why I made Fred: to help me and everyone around me run AI locally. We don’t need to pay corporations monthly subscriptions for things we can do ourselves.
Fred is a one-click install. The more you talk to him, the more he learns about you. He’s proactive, and he’s constrained in all the right ways: he can’t delete what’s yours. And he lives entirely on your hardware, not on a cloud server in the middle of nowhere. Take back your data. It never should have left.
Questions? I answer every email: get in touch
Owned, not rented
There's a shirt, too
Hand-printed in Chur by the same hands that build Fred. Printed to order, black or white, ships worldwide.
CHF 29 · buy one
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Fred cost?
The Fred software is free. Not a trial, not a limited tier - the full platform, running on your own hardware. The Fred Box (plug-and-play hardware with Fred pre-installed) is in development; its pricing will be announced before launch, and reserving one is free.
Do I need technical skills to use Fred?
No. The Fred Box is plug-and-play. Connect it to your network, open the app, and start talking. Installing new agents is as simple as clicking a button. Some agents may need a bit of setup - like entering your email credentials so Fred can access your inbox - but it’s all guided, secure, and encrypted. What each agent needs depends on what it does.
What hardware do I need?
A computer with a decent GPU, a gaming PC, a home server, or a modern Mac. Install Fred on it for free, and all you need to chat is your phone. Don’t have the hardware? That’s exactly what the Fred Box is for: a plug-and-play mini computer we’re building, with Fred pre-installed. Join the waitlist below.
What is the ideal setup?
Fred sizes itself to your machine, so it runs on a lot of hardware and gets better the more you give it. Around 8 GB of memory runs the Fast model, which is fine for chat and everyday questions. At 16 GB you move up to Balanced or Sharp, and that is where Fred starts to feel properly capable. The sweet spot is a gaming PC with a dedicated graphics card carrying 12 GB of video memory or more, or an Apple Silicon Mac with 18 GB or more of unified memory. That unlocks the Powerhouse model: 26 billion parameters, but only 4 billion run per question, so it reasons like something much larger while staying quick.
Do I need a graphics card for images and video?
Not for chat. For image generation, 4 GB of video memory is the floor and 12 GB or more unlocks the highest quality models. Video needs 12 GB for short 480p clips, and 24 GB, an RTX 4090 or similar, for 720p. Fred checks what you have on first run and only offers what your machine can actually do, so nothing is dangled in front of you that will not run.
How does the mobile app work? Is it private too?
The Fred app (iOS and Android) is how you talk to Fred: chat, voice notes, photos, managing agents. At home, your phone talks directly to your Fred over your own Wi-Fi; nothing leaves your network. Away from home, the connection goes through a small relay service that simply passes encrypted messages between your phone and your box. The relay cannot read your messages: it sees only that two devices are talking, never what they say. It keeps none of your data, just the pairing codes that let your phone and your box find each other. And the relay runs in Chur, Switzerland, just like this website. Everything is hosted in Switzerland.
Can I build my own agents?
At launch, Fred comes with a growing library of agents built by us. We’re actively gathering use cases to expand what Fred can do - share your ideas below. Down the road, we want you to be able to build your own agents too.
Is Fred open source?
The agent framework will be open. The core platform is proprietary but runs entirely on your hardware. You always have full control over your data.
How is this different from ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a chatbot in a browser. Fred is a modular AI platform that lives on your hardware, controls your smart home, reads your email, manages your calendar, and remembers everything - all without sending a single byte to the cloud.
When will Fred be available?
Fred is in private testing and already running in early testers’ homes. Join the waitlist for early access, and we’ll email you the moment it’s public. The plug-and-play Fred Box is in development too, and the waitlist tells us how fast to build it.