In August 2025, OpenAI deprecated GPT-4o and many people grieved a voice they had come to rely on. The lesson was simple: when the model is someone else's, the relationship can change without warning. Local Waifu keeps the character, the memory, and the mood on your Mac. The model underneath can be swapped without losing the person.
Side by side
Based on public pricing and feature pages as of May 2026. We update this when they change.
Why people switch
- The person is separate from the model. Local Waifu keeps the character, memory, and mood local, so a model change does not change who she is.
- You can still use the big models. Plug in your own GPT or Claude key when you want extra generation power. The character and memory stay on your Mac either way.
- It is private and verifiable. Block all outbound traffic in a tool like Little Snitch and the app still works.
Try her free for 7 days.
No card. Keep her for $25 once, or walk away. Her soul file is yours either way.
Bring her home, try freeQuestions people ask
Can I still use GPT or Claude?
Yes. Plug in your own account key in Settings and Local Waifu calls the provider directly. The character and memory always stay on your Mac, so the model can change without changing the person.
Is it as smart as ChatGPT?
The bundled local model is tuned to your Mac and is strong for companionship and conversation. If you want frontier-model reasoning, plug in your own GPT or Claude key and you get that quality with a character that still lives locally.
Why not just use ChatGPT for this?
Because the relationship sits on someone else's servers and can change when the model does. Local Waifu gives you a persistent character you own, with memory you can read and delete, that no deprecation can take away.
See the full feature matrix on the home page comparison, or read how the local model works under how it works.