Questions and answers

Your own copy of the answers, for the day the cloud goes quiet. It's a US$29 download (NZ$49 in New Zealand, A$45 in Australia) that sets up a small AI on your own laptop, with English Wikipedia, WikiMed, a map pack and our outage playbook beside it. After setup it all works with the Wi-Fi off, with no account. It's the first product from Offline Brain.

Yes, and we credit every source. You could build it yourself: a model that fits in 8 GB of RAM, a program to run it, the right Wikipedia file, an offline map format that works on Windows and Mac. You're paying for us to choose it, set it up, test it and keep it updated for 12 months.

It's a small 4B model that runs on a laptop with 8 GB of RAM, so it's less capable than the big online ones. It can get facts wrong, sound sure when it's wrong and slip on maths. Every answer shows the Wikipedia or WikiMed article it used, so you can check anything important. We'll publish our own test results alongside the model's name.

A small business in New Zealand. We choose what goes into the Offline Brain, test it on Windows and Mac, and keep it updated. The download works anywhere in the world. The kit add-ons aren't made by us: they're sent from our suppliers overseas.

No. Nobody knows, and we don't claim to. What we can show is that online AI services post outages and partial problems on their own status pages, for example OpenAI's status history (more on AI Watch). This is a copy that doesn't depend on them.

No. It's a reference library and an assistant that work without the internet. That's all we claim.

Yes. The AI runs on your laptop with no account, so your questions never leave it. When you're online it checks for updates, and your questions are never part of that.

An email with the installer, setup guide, playbook PDF and licence file, straight after payment. The installer then fetches the AI, Wikipedia and WikiMed from their official sources, and your map pack from us.

Check your spam folder first. If it's not there within 10 minutes, email us with your order number and we'll resend it.

Within 30 days of buying, email us and we refund your payment to the card you used. No form, no questions.

No. One payment, with 12 months of update emails. After that it keeps working exactly as it is.

You pay securely at checkout. You can check out as a guest.

Essentials needs 25 GB free and takes about 30 minutes to download on a 100 Mbps line. Full, with every article and its images, needs 147 GB free and takes about 3 hours. The installer checks your space first.

No. Run the installer, wait for the download, open the start page. The setup guide walks you through it with screenshots.

Wikipedia does, through the free Kiwix app on Android or iPhone. The assistant and map pack are for laptops and desktops.

Email us. A person replies.

Not yet. We're gauging interest in a pre-loaded USB. Join the waitlist and you'll hear first if pre-orders open. No payment to join.

Optional extras for when the power's out too: a crank and solar radio and a backup power bank. They aren't sent to Australia yet. They're sent from our supplier overseas, delivery is included in the price, and the estimated delivery time (7 to 20 days) is shown before you pay. See all add-ons and extras.