Your own private AI, on a USB stick.
Plug it into any PC* and talk to an AI that lives entirely on the drive. Ask about your documents, paste a photo, dictate a question. No account, no subscription, no internet needed. Nothing you say leaves the stick.
Windows 10 or 11, 8 GB of memory, one USB port. Nothing gets installed.
What it says on the box.
- One payment, no subscription
- You buy the stick. There is nothing to renew, and no account that can be closed.
- Works with no internet
- The model, your files and your conversations are all on the drive. A plane, a site office, a cabin: it works.
- Nothing to install
- Run one file. No installer, no admin rights, no sign-in. Pull the stick out and the PC is as it was.
- Private by construction
- In Offline Only mode, no part of the product makes a network connection. That has been checked, not assumed.
- Goes anywhere with you
- Home PC, work laptop, a friend’s machine. Your memory, notes and documents travel on the stick.
- Free updates, if you want them
- Knowledge Pack updates are free for life, and so are software updates. Nothing installs unless you approve it and it is signed.
What you can do with it.
Everything below runs from the stick on the PC you plug it into, with the drive’s contents and nothing else. Only Create Image uses a graphics card, and only when there is one.
- Chat
- Ask anything and watch the answer stream in from the model on the stick. Stop a reply the moment you have what you need.
- Ask about your documents
- Choose one or more files, or upload new ones, and have a conversation answered only from them. PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, text and Markdown. Short files are read whole; long ones are searched for the relevant passages. If the answer is not in them, it says so rather than guessing.
- Spreadsheets as data
- Excel and CSV files are read as tables, not as text. Ask which customers brought the most revenue, what the averages are by region, which rows are missing data, where the unusual values are, or what changed between January and February. The totals, groupings and comparisons are calculated on the PC and the AI explains them. Formulas are never recalculated and macros never run.
- Scans and photos of paper
- A scanned PDF, a photographed letter, an invoice or a receipt is read with the text recognition built into Windows. Read the text on screen, ask about it, or save it as a file. Pages are marked, unreadable parts are flagged rather than invented, and nothing is uploaded anywhere.
- Projects
- A folder per piece of work on the drive, with its own documents, notes, saved answers and conversations. A project’s conversations use its material first and never see another project’s. Rename any time; delete with confirmation.
- My Knowledge
- Notes the AI keeps in mind in every conversation: who you are, what your business does, how you like things written. Plain text files in a folder on the drive.
- Memory
- What The Stick remembers about you, in plain sentences you can read, add to, edit or forget at any time. Used to personalise ordinary conversations only, never as evidence when answering from documents or the web, and never sent to a search.
- World Knowledge
- A signed pack of facts newer than the model: who leads which countries and companies, current software versions, recent events. Every fact is dated and cited. The pack on the stick is current to 2 September 2026. Updates are small, optional, and free for life.
- Skills you describe
- Tell it what you want a Skill to do, in a sentence: turn messy meeting notes into a follow-up email with decisions and actions, say. The AI on the stick writes the Skill, you review it, and it is yours from then on, offline, as a plain file that updates never touch. Built-in Skills include Translate and document summaries.
- Assistants
- Nine personalities, each a plain text file. Add your own by dropping a file into the folder.
- Photos and screenshots
- Paste an image and ask about it: an invoice, a diagram, a whiteboard.Needs 12 GB of memory in the PC.
- Create Image
- Describe a picture and it is painted on the PC you are plugged into, from the drive, by an open model. About ten seconds on a PC with a graphics card, a minute or two on a strong processor. The first visit tests the PC and only offers the feature where it is fast enough. Pictures are saved on the drive; the description never leaves the computer.An optional 2.2 GB component. Faces and lettering are its weak points; scenes, objects and illustrations come out well.
- Voice, both ways
- Press Speak and the words appear as you say them, sentence by sentence, transcribed on the drive. A speaker button reads any answer aloud with a voice built into Windows, with pause and resume. Dictation in 26 other languages is an optional download.
- Internet, only when you say so
- Three modes: Offline Only, Ask Before Connecting, or Internet Enabled. Ask Wikipedia and Ask the Internet are conversations answered only from those sources, with the articles or pages cited under each answer. A search sends the search phrase and nothing else, and you see it before it goes. Live internet search is included for normal personal use; fair-use limits apply per internet connection.
- Save and export
- At the bottom of every answer: save it to your files or download it as PDF or Word. Export a whole conversation as Markdown. All of it lands in folders on the drive.
How it works.
Plug it in
Any USB port on a Windows 10 or 11 PC. A USB 3 port starts it fastest.
Run one file
Double-click Private AI on the drive. Your browser opens the interface. Nothing is installed and no account is asked for.
Wait for the green dot
The model loads into the PC’s memory, about 30 seconds on a typical machine. The dot at the bottom-left turns green.
Ask Away
Chat, choose a document, paste a photo. When you are done, close the window and pull the stick. It all leaves with you.
Nothing leaves the drive unless you say so.
Every network call in the product goes through one gate, and the gate asks your setting first. Choose a mode once; change it any time.
- Offline Only
Nothing connects, ever. Even an update you asked for is refused.
- Ask Before ConnectingDefault
Explains what it wants to send and why, waits for your yes, connects for that one thing.
- Internet Enabled
Permits the categories you switch on. The model on the stick still writes every answer.
Never sent, in any mode
- Your conversations
- Your memory and My Knowledge notes
- Your documents, or even their file names
- Your name, location or any identifier
What a connection carries
A live web search sends only the search query needed to perform that search, to The Stick AI’s search service and its commercial search provider, and you see the exact words before you approve it. Your documents, memory, My Knowledge and conversation history are not sent. Checking for an update fetches a signed list of versions with no identifier, no cookie and no query string; the stick compares versions locally.
Signed, or it does not install
Updates and knowledge packs are checked by size, hash and signature against a key on the stick. Your folders are off-limits to an update by design: a package that touches them is refused whole.
Checked on the real stick, watching every process: in Offline Only, a live-style question plus an approved update check produced no outside connection. Read the full privacy statement, including what Windows itself keeps.
Will it run on my PC?
What you need
- Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit
- 8 GB of memory, or 12 GB to ask about photos
- A processor with AVX, which is any mainstream Intel or AMD chip from about 2012 onward
- A USB port. USB 3 starts the model in about half a minute; USB 2 works but takes longer
- For Create Image: a graphics card with a current driver (about ten seconds a picture), or a processor with 8 cores and 16 GB of memory (a minute or two). Other PCs simply do not show the feature
The chat runs on the processor, not the graphics card, so it works on ordinary laptops. A simple question answers in seconds. A long document question can take a minute or three, and the screen shows a timer while it reads. Create Image is the one feature that uses a graphics card when the PC has one.
Windows only for now. A Mac version is coming soon.
What is on the stick
- A 128 GB or 256 GB USB 3 drive. The AI uses about 6 GB with every optional part installed, 3.6 GB without Create Image; the rest is free for your documents
- Ministral 3B language model, with vision and voice models beside it
- The llamafile runtime from Mozilla.ai; open source, no install
- Image generation: the stable-diffusion.cpp engine and the DreamShaper 8 LCM model, both open, as an optional component
- World Knowledge pack, current to 2 September 2026
- Nine assistants, built-in Skills including Translate, and folders ready for your notes, files and projects
- Text recognition and reading voices come from Windows itself; nothing extra to install
It is a small model that fits in a laptop’s memory, not a data-centre one. It will not match the largest cloud services on hard problems. It is yours, it is private, and it works anywhere.
The drive is not encrypted. Treat it like any other USB stick: keep it with you, and do not store passwords on it.
One payment. Yours for good.
Two sizes, the same AI on both. 2026 Edition. Shipping and any sales tax are shown at checkout.
128 GB
$149
Once.
The AI takes about 3.4 GB. The rest is free for your documents.
256 GB
$199
Once.
Twice the room, for a whole archive of documents and years of conversations.
Both sizes include
The only difference is how much room is left for your files.
- Every feature on this page, ready to run out of the box
- Free Knowledge Pack updates for life, so its facts keep pace with the world
- Free software updates, installed only when you choose
- No account, no subscription, no renewal, no per-question charge
- Use it on as many PCs as you like; it is one stick, so one PC at a time
Compare: a cloud assistant at twenty dollars a month costs more than the 128 GB stick within a year, and the conversations live on someone else’s computer.
Questions.
Does it need the internet?
No. The model, your documents, your notes and the interface are all on the stick. The default setting asks before it ever connects, and Offline Only refuses every connection. The internet is used for two optional things only: a live web search you approve, and updates you approve.
Is there a subscription or an account?
Neither. You pay once for the stick. There is nothing to sign into and nothing that expires.
How do weather and directions work?
The Stick resolves locations locally where possible, from a built-in list of cities, towns and airports. Live weather requires an internet connection and sends only the location needed to perform the request: the place’s coordinates go to The Stick AI’s location service, which fetches the latest forecast from MET Norway. Your documents, Memory, My Knowledge and conversation history remain on your Stick. Directions are not yet available. Weather data: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0). Place data: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) and OurAirports.
Is internet search unlimited?
Live internet search is included for normal personal use. Fair-use limits apply per internet connection to prevent automated or excessive use and keep the service reliable for everyone. If you use more than one Stick at the same home, office or other location, they may share the same internet connection and therefore the same fair-use allowance. Contact us if you regularly use multiple Sticks at one location.
Are updates free? Do I have to take them?
Free, and optional. Knowledge Pack updates are free for the life of the stick, and so are software updates. The stick checks for them only when you ask it to, and nothing installs unless it is signed and you approve it. Your files and settings are never touched by an update.
Where do my conversations go?
Into a folder on the stick, and nowhere else. Memory, My Knowledge notes, your documents and the search index are on the drive too. Pull the stick and they leave with it.
Can I use it on a work laptop?
Nothing is installed on the PC and no admin rights are needed, so usually yes. Some organisations block removable drives or programs that run from them; if yours does, ask IT before buying.
How good is the AI?
It is a compact model that runs in a laptop’s memory. It writes, summarises, explains and answers from your documents well. It will not match the largest cloud services on hard reasoning, and a long document question can take a minute or more on a laptop processor. In exchange it is private, yours, and works anywhere.
How fast is it?
It depends on the PC, because the AI runs on that PC’s processor, but on ordinary hardware it feels responsive. Typical figures from a mid-range desktop and a recent laptop: it is ready about fifteen seconds after you run it from a USB 3 port; a short question starts answering within a second or two and finishes in a few seconds; an email or a paragraph takes ten to twenty seconds; summarising a twenty-page report takes from half a minute to a couple of minutes, mostly spent reading it, with a timer on screen; dictated words appear as you speak; reading aloud starts at once; a picture takes about ten seconds with a graphics card or a minute or two without one. A laptop from the last few years lands in those ranges or up to about twice as long; an older machine is slower again but still works. Nothing waits on a network.
What file types can it read?
PDF, Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx and .xlsm, read as data with macros left untouched), CSV, PowerPoint (.pptx), plain text and Markdown. Scanned PDFs and photos of documents (PNG, JPEG) are read with the text recognition built into Windows. Older .doc, .xls and .ppt files need saving in the newer format first.
Can it make pictures?
Yes, on PCs that are fast enough. Create Image paints a picture from your description on the PC you are plugged into, from an open model on the drive. With a graphics card it takes about ten seconds; with a strong processor a minute or two; on other PCs the feature stays hidden. The first visit runs one trial picture to decide. Your description and the pictures stay on the drive.
Can it read answers out loud, and can I talk to it?
Both. A speaker button on every answer reads it with a voice built into Windows, with pause and resume. Press Speak to dictate: the words appear as you say them, transcribed on the drive. English is built in; dictation in 26 other languages is an optional download.
Does it work on a Mac?
Not yet. It is Windows 10 and 11 for now. A Mac version is coming soon.
What if it does not start?
There is a Diagnose file on the drive. Run it and it checks memory, the processor, the files, the USB speed and antivirus, then writes a plain-language report telling you what to do.