System requirements
Updated July 2026
BeaconFind runs the AI on your own machine, so a bit of it depends on your hardware. The short version: it works on any modern Windows PC and on any Apple Silicon Mac, and on Windows it goes faster if you have a dedicated graphics card. Here is the detail so there are no surprises.
The macOS build is available now for Apple Silicon. Its requirements are further down, so you can check whether your Mac is a fit. One license covers both platforms.
The essentials on Windows
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 11 (64-bit) |
| Processor | Any modern 64-bit CPU | 4+ cores |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | None required (runs on CPU) | NVIDIA GPU for the fastest AI |
| Disk space | ~2 GB free (light tier) | ~8 GB free (full tier), plus room for your index |
On a Mac
The macOS build is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens without a Gatekeeper warning.
| Minimum | Recommended | |
|---|---|---|
| Operating system | macOS 12 Monterey | macOS 13 or newer |
| Processor | Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) | Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) |
| Memory | 8 GB unified memory | 16 GB or more |
| Graphics | Built in, the Apple GPU is used through Metal | Built in, no separate card needed |
| Disk space | ~2 GB free (light tier) | ~8 GB free (full tier), plus room for your index |
Two things worth knowing. Intel Macs are not supported, the build is Apple Silicon only. And because a Mac shares one pool of memory between the app and the system, BeaconFind sizes its AI tier by total memory rather than by graphics card: on an 8 GB Mac it recommends the light tier, which keeps the machine responsive while indexing.
The first-run download
The installer is about 209 MB, because it bundles the Microsoft WebView2 runtime so it installs completely offline with nothing extra to download during setup. The AI models are downloaded once, the first time you run the app, and then everything works fully offline. How much it downloads depends on the tier BeaconFind picks for your machine:
| Tier | Roughly downloads | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Light | ~0.8 GB | Any PC, including CPU-only laptops |
| Balanced | ~4 GB | Most desktops with a modern GPU |
| Max | ~6 GB | Higher-memory GPUs, for the strongest AI answers |
No graphics card? Still works
BeaconFind detects your hardware and picks a tier that fits. On a laptop with no dedicated GPU it runs the light tier on your CPU. Search stays fast, and the AI features still work, they just take a little longer to think. On battery, it automatically eases off background indexing so it doesn’t drain you.
Storage for your index
Beyond the models, BeaconFind keeps a search index on disk. As a rough guide, a 100 GB folder of documents produces an index of a few hundred MB. It is encrypted, and it stays on your machine.
Not sure if your PC is a fit? The 14-day trial is free and needs no card, so the surest test is to try it.
Download BeaconFind