local mode. DOCS

Running Unpaper
on your own machine.

Local mode keeps every letter in a folder you own. There is no account, nothing syncs anywhere, and we never see any of it because none of it reaches us.

before you start.

You need a reading key. Unpaper still has to read your mail, and in local mode that request goes out under your key, not ours. It costs a few cents a month.
One machine at a time. No sync, no household, and reminders only arrive while the app is open.
Backups are yours. If the disk dies and you have no copy, the mail is gone.

step one.01 / 05

Install the desktop app

Download the build for your system and open it. It is the same app as the website, running on your computer instead of ours.

macos.Apple silicon and Intel, macOS 13 or later

windows.Windows 10 or later, 64 bit

linux.AppImage and .deb

On first launch it asks whether to use local mode or sign in to the cloud. Choose local.

step two.02 / 05

Point it at any model you like

Settings, then reading model. Unpaper does not care who reads your mail as long as the answers come back correct. Pick a provider, paste a key, done. The key is stored in your operating system keychain and never leaves your machine.

openrouter.one key, hundreds of models. the simplest path

google.Gemini, direct. use a paid key, the free tier may train on what you send

openai.GPT models, direct

anthropic.Claude models, direct

anything else.paste any OpenAI-compatible address, key and model name

or run the model yourself.

Point Unpaper at Ollama or LM Studio on your own machine or home server and nothing leaves your network at all. No key, no bill, no provider. Pick a model that can read images, or let Unpaper lift the text off the page first and send that instead.

ollama.http://localhost:11434

lm studio.http://localhost:1234

home server.any address on your network

check it before you trust it.

Models vary, and a wrong due date is worse than no due date. Settings has a test your model button that runs six sample letters through whatever you picked and reports how it did, with amounts and dates scored separately. Run it once before you start scanning anything that matters.

Costs depend entirely on what you chose. A hosted model that reads images runs around a third of a cent per letter, so thirty letters a month is roughly ten cents. A model on your own machine costs nothing but electricity.

step three.03 / 05

Know where your mail lives

Everything sits in one folder. The database is a single SQLite file, the scans are ordinary image files beside it.

macos.~/Library/Application Support/Unpaper

windows.%APPDATA%\Unpaper

linux.~/.local/share/Unpaper

Settings shows the exact path with a button to open it in your file manager. You can move this folder to an external drive or a synced folder if you want, and point the app at the new location.

step four.04 / 05

Back it up, and move it

Copy the folder. That is the whole backup. There is nothing clever to learn and no proprietary format to get stuck in.

To another computer. Install the app there, copy the folder into the same place, open it. Everything is there.
To a drive or a home server. Point the app at a folder on the mounted volume. Keep one machine writing to it at a time.
Out of Unpaper entirely. Export to CSV and keep the images. They are normal files and they open in anything.

step five.05 / 05

Switching between local and cloud

Both directions work and neither is a trap.

local to cloud.sign in, choose upload my archive. it encrypts on your machine first

cloud to local.settings, download my archive. you get the same folder structure

what changes.sync, household and background reminders arrive or disappear

the honest trade.

Local mode is more private and more work. You own the backups, you own the key, and a dead disk is a real loss. Cloud is less work and costs money, and we hold a copy we cannot open. Pick the one that matches how much you want to think about it.