Pricing
Buy it once.
A local utility has no server to run, so there is no recurring cost to pass on to you and no subscription to justify.
One-time purchase
$22
- Every feature. There is no Pro tier and no add-on.
- Use it on every Mac you personally own.
- 14-day trial, fully featured, no account and no card.
- Free updates throughout v1.
- macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon and Intel.
Included
No Pro tier, no add-ons.
The price only makes sense if the product stays simple: one app, one licence, one local library.
Every featureOverlay search, Library, OCR, filters, smart collections, redaction, export, retention review and settings are all in the same licence.
Every personal MacThe licence is for you, not one machine. Install it on the Macs you personally use.
No recurring phone-homeActivation is a button press. Once activated, the licence is local and perpetual for this major version.
Free v1 updatesBug fixes and v1 improvements arrive through Sparkle, signed and notarized, when you choose to check for them.
What happens when the trial ends
Capture keeps running and search stops. Your screenshots continue to be collected off the Desktop and recognized, but the overlay, the Library and search are locked until you activate a licence — nothing is deleted and nothing is lost. We chose it that way deliberately: an unlicensed app that quietly stopped clearing your Desktop would pile files up with nothing on screen to explain why.
Status
CaptureWatching ~/Desktop
Watching
Text recognition1,284 of 1,284 processed
Up to date
Permissions
Granted
Quick controls
Pause automatic capture
Library location
Library folderOrdinary files you can open in Finder
Show in FinderRelocate Library…
Export backupImages, recognized text and metadata
Export Entire Library…
Questions
Is there a subscription, or an upgrade fee?
Neither, for v1. You buy once and it's yours. Activation is a single call made when you press the button, after which the licence is perpetual and this Mac never contacts the licensing service again.
If a v2 with substantial new work ever happens, it would be a separate paid upgrade — not a subscription, and never a retroactive charge for what you already bought.
Can I use it on more than one Mac?
Yes — every Mac you personally own. It's a licence for a person, not a machine. We don't count activations or run a device limit, because enforcing one would mean the kind of recurring phone-home this product exists to avoid.
What if it doesn't work for me?
That's what the 14-day trial is for, and it's the full app with nothing held back. If you buy and then change your mind, the refund policy is short and we honour it without an argument.
Does it change how I take screenshots?
No. Keep pressing ⌘⇧4, ⌘⇧5 or whatever you use now. Screenshot Inbox watches wherever macOS is currently saving them — it doesn't replace the system capture tool or put itself in front of it.
Where do my screenshots actually live?
In a normal folder inside
~/Library/Application Support, as ordinary image files indexed by a plain SQLite database. Settings has a button that opens it in Finder. Nothing is in a proprietary container, and you can export the lot — images, recognized text and metadata — in one click.What happens to the original on my Desktop?
Your choice, on the Capture settings page: move it into the library immediately, keep it where it is for a 24-hour grace period first, or leave a permanent copy in place. If you're unsure, start with the grace period.
What if a screenshot has no text in it?
That's a normal result, not an error, and the app says so explicitly. A diagram or a photo is still stored, still tagged with its source app and date, and still findable by every filter other than text.
I already have thousands of screenshots. Can I import them?
Yes — point the importer at one or more folders. It runs in the background with visible progress, and it's pausable, cancellable and resumable: progress is journaled to disk, so quitting mid-import loses nothing. Screenshots you take during the import are still indexed first.
Will it slow down my Mac or drain the battery?
Recognition runs on a background queue that never blocks the interface, and it pauses automatically in Low Power Mode. It's a native Swift app using Apple's own Vision framework — there's no bundled inference server, no Python runtime and no model download.
Is my data used to train anything?
No, and it structurally cannot be. Your screenshots never leave your Mac — there is no server to send them to and no code in the app that could. See Verify it yourself for how to verify that yourself.
Why is it cheaper than CleanShot X?
Because it does less, on purpose. CleanShot is a capture and annotation suite with scrolling capture, GIF recording and a cloud. Screenshot Inbox does one thing they don't: it makes every screenshot you have ever taken searchable by the text inside it, without uploading anything. If you want annotation, buy theirs — plenty of people run both.
Is it on the Mac App Store?
No. App Store sandboxing would break the thing that makes this app worth having — it could no longer find your screenshot folder by itself or clear your Desktop without you granting access by hand first. Buying direct also means the app can be updated the day a fix is ready rather than the day review finishes.