PingAsk

Ask anything on your Mac,
without leaving what you're doing.

PingAsk is a Spotlight-style AI launcher for macOS. Press ControlP, type a question, read the answer, follow up. Then it's gone. Your keys, your models, your machine.

Download for Mac
curl -fsSL pingask.app/install.sh | sh

Apple Silicon & Intel · macOS 11+ · free, MIT

The PingAsk panel on macOS: an ask field above recent threads (notebook lm, aws t2 small vs t4g small, git copy commit) with the model picker in the footer
One panel. Ask, answer, and every past thread as a cheatsheet.

How it works

One keystroke, no window

ControlP opens the panel over whatever app you're in, and esc puts it away. Rebind it to anything in settings. Nothing in your Dock, nothing in your way.

Your key, any model

Paste an OpenAI, Anthropic or OpenRouter key, sign in with a ChatGPT or Claude subscription you already pay for, or point it at a local Ollama model. Switch per question.

Local and quiet

No PingAsk backend, no account, no telemetry. Threads and credentials sit in your app data directory. Requests go straight from your Mac to the provider you picked.

Follow-ups and history

Press Return to keep the thread going. Everything you've asked stays in the list underneath, so old answers work as a cheatsheet instead of vanishing.

Install

Download the app

Signed and notarized DMG. Drag PingAsk to Applications and press your shortcut.

Download DMG

Or one line in a terminal

Fetches the latest release, installs it to /Applications and tells you the shortcut. 

curl -fsSL pingask.app/install.sh | sh

Requires macOS 11 or later. Updates arrive in-app. Read the install script before you run it. You always should.

Common questions

Is PingAsk free?

Yes. MIT licensed, no subscription. You pay your model provider directly, or nothing at all when you run local models through Ollama.

Which models can I use?

OpenAI and Anthropic with an API key, ChatGPT and Claude with the subscription you already have, anything on OpenRouter, and any local model in Ollama.

Does it send my data anywhere?

Only to the provider you choose. There is no PingAsk server, no account and no analytics. Keys and threads stay on your Mac.

How is this different from Raycast AI or the ChatGPT app?

PingAsk does one thing: ask and answer, with your own key instead of a Pro plan, in a few thousand lines you can read. No extension store, no launcher platform.

Windows or Linux?

macOS only for now. The app is Tauri, so a port is possible; it is not built yet.