Another month, another AI subscription — none of them yours. Valence is a private AI that runs free on your own machine: buy it once, own it outright, and nothing ever leaves your disk unless you allow it.
Fig. 1 — One conversation, answered by a local model and then a cloud model.
It started as a little overlay for my son.
He'd be deep in something on his computer and have a question, and I wanted him to get an answer in one click — without leaving what he was doing. That was the whole app. Then it grew, each feature scratching my own itch: an AI that remembered our conversations, the freedom to switch between models and providers, controls to curate it all my way — things no single app put in one place.
But the more I learned about how my data was kept and used — even on the plans I paid for — the more it unsettled me. I had become the training material; so would my wife, my kids, my friends. So I went deep on local AI, and found something that surprised me: most everyday things can be done for free, in private, on a model running right on your own machine. Nothing leaving. Nothing harvested.
Then my 10-year-old daughter asked to talk to Gemini — to ask her a question. That stopped me cold. My kids needed somewhere built for them — honest, and clear that this is a tool, not a person with feelings. What I found out there for children was bleak: adult AI in impressionable young hands, and stories of real harm.
The forest in front of my children was vast and dark. I knew I had to be the light that lit their way.
That's where Kids Mode was born — a place I could make safer: where I stay in control, can spot concerning patterns early, and know that when my daughter talks with Botly, our Kids Mode guide, she's having a positive, age-appropriate experience.
I could have kept all this for myself — but most people don't have the time or the know-how, and I never wanted to become another web app sitting on everyone's data. So I made Valence for everyone: honest, private AI you own and run yourself. I'm still building it, and the best ideas keep coming from the people using it. Tell me what's missing — if it fits, I'll add it.
Underneath, it does a lot — run completely local, go pure cloud, use both, switch models mid-thread, memories you own, walled-off profiles, tools, Kids Mode, the list goes on. On the surface it stays calm, and it gets better every release.
Keep a free local model for anything private, and plug in OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and six more on your own keys. Switch between them mid-thread, or run the same prompt through two at once and compare.
Valence keeps a searchable memory of what matters across every conversation. Hundreds of saved threads, tagged and findable — and you can import your history from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini so it all lives in one place you own. Edit a memory, delete it, or add your own anytime. And if one keeps surfacing when it shouldn't, thumb it down — Valence learns to leave it out of similar prompts.
Each profile carries its own model, memory and rules — what your work AI knows, your family's never sees. Kids Mode adds age-aware guardrails the AI can't be talked out of, locks to the local model, and gives parents a dashboard that hides nothing. Not a babysitter — a safer, fully observable way for kids to use AI.
A few seconds of the real thing beats any feature list.
One prompt answered by a local model, then re-asked of Claude in the same thread.
Valence isn't the only way to talk to AI — it's the one built to be easy, all in one place, and yours. For people who'd rather use their AI than configure it.
ChatGPT is only OpenAI, keeps your history on their servers, has no parent controls, and bills monthly. Fine — until you want another model, real privacy, or one place for all of it.
Valence: all the major providers in one window, history on your disk, family controls — your key, pay per use.
Free runners and self-hosted front-ends are private, but they're local-only or fiddly to set up, barebones to use, and have no family features or support to fall back on.
Valence: one-click install, local and cloud, memory, profiles, Kids Mode — finished, not a weekend build.
Local agent tools chase autonomy — running tasks on their own — and are notoriously painful to install and wire up. They're a power-user workshop, not an everyday companion.
Valence: a calm companion you open every day — powerful where it counts, obvious from minute one.
Subscriptions are fine for some things — but you pay every month, forever, and the day you stop, the access stops. Valence is bought once. The local AI is free to run; I got tired of subscription-mageddon. Have you?
And that's just one — most people juggle two or three. It's real software you're paying for, but the day you stop, so does the access.
Buy it once. The local AI is free to run. For cloud, bring your own key and pay the provider per use — only for what you actually run, with no flat monthly fee.
7 days free — the whole app, no card. Buy once and it's yours forever: a key, no renewals, no extra fees. One subscription pays for Valence in three months — then it's free.
We won't pretend the cloud is private — instead we're precise about exactly what leaves, and we're never in the path.
A tool you own — not a service that owns you.
Use the entire app free for 7 days — no card, no account, nothing to cancel. Put it through a week of your real work, then decide. The only way to know if it's for you is to try it.
"I had my father-in-law put Valence through real work — a mountain of hydrogeological survey data to summarize, chart, and turn into a report for his lawyer. He got all of it done in one place, and the results were fantastic."
I'm Chase. I built Valence to fix my own daily frustrations with AI, and I use it every single day. A real human stands behind it — email me and you get me, not a ticket queue.
help@helixailabs.com →Valence is the first tool from Helix AI Labs — my independent studio.
Windows desktop today · Mac & iOS planned · works fully offline · $59.95 once, yours forever
Try Valence free for 7 days — no card, no account, no cloud required.
Valence 1.0.1 · Windows 10/11 (64-bit) · 791 MB · $59.95 once after the 7-day trial · works fully offline · no subscription · no refunds (the trial is your test drive)
Windows may warn that the publisher is unknown — that's expected for an indie app. Click More info → Run anyway. To confirm you've got the genuine file, check its SHA-256 matches below.
SHA-256: E69DE20CDDBCC4555010B9241BCEE5B4181915FCDC5218C7BACCEF7CDD2C39C2