Ink & Key is a very small company. The support department is the CEO. Every message gets read, and real bugs get fixed. Write to support@inkandkey.app.
In the app: Settings → General → Diagnostics → "Export diagnostics…", then attach the zip to your email. The zip contains logs only — never your notes, files, or key. But if that makes you nervous, just write us an email.
Changed your mind? You get a full refund of any charge, renewals included, if you ask within 14 days of that charge. Request it through Paddle at paddle.net, or email support@inkandkey.app. The refund policy, in plain English →
Ink & Key is a Windows desktop app today. Mac, Linux and a companion phone app come in 2027. For now, your Library lives on your PC.
In a folder on your own disk. Notes are ordinary text files; documents keep their original names. You can open the folder yourself in your computer's file explorer any time (unless you decided to encrypt it) — it's yours, not ours.
By default, nothing — and that's a claim we prove rather than promise: see the proof. The things that touch the internet are the ones you start yourself: downloading the app and its updates, the AI download and its updates, saving a web page with the clipper, and — only if you turn it on — sync over your own Wi-Fi or through a cloud folder you already own. And if you share something into the Annex, whatever AI you point at that folder reads it — that’s the one door you open on purpose.
Once, at setup. The recommended AI model is a 6.6 GB download — you start it, it finishes, and after that nothing needs a connection except optional updates, which you can take whenever you like. Your notes, your files and your questions to the Librarian all work with the cable unplugged.
Nothing happens. The app never needed us to run, so it won't notice we're gone. Your files are on your disk in formats any computer can read, and you can export everything any time. In theory, the app will eventually break as Windows keeps changing underneath it — which, conveniently, is exactly what your subscription pays for.
Only the way your own eyes do — on your machine, to answer your questions, showing you the sources it read. It only sees what you've put in your Library, and nobody's model learns from your ink. The proof lives here →
Yes — better than before, actually. That's what the Annex is for: share chosen notes or files into the annex folder, point your AI at it, and it finally works with your material instead of starting from zero. What it writes back waits in an inbox for your yes. Be clear-eyed about the trade: whatever you put in the Annex, that AI reads. That's the point of the Annex — and not having to share anything else is the point of the rest of the app. See the Annex →
No. Ask it about your lease, not the news — it's a reader of your Library, not an oracle. When you want the AI that does chat about the world, the Annex is its door.
Back up your Library like you'd back up anything precious — Ink & Key has built-in backup and restore. One honest warning: if you turn encryption on, keep your recovery code somewhere safe. If you lose the computer and the code, nobody can open your Library. Not even us. That's the point of the key.
Yes — scanned documents become searchable, so the paper you feed your Library stops being write-only. We won't promise accuracy numbers, but we think it's pretty good.
Plain text and Markdown files, yes. A vault of linked Markdown notes from the popular local-notes apps, yes (one-way; attachments and tags don't come along). Your ChatGPT and Claude conversation exports, yes. That's the honest list today.
The big free notebooks keep your notes in their company's cloud, in a format only their app reads, with no private AI over your own material. If that trade is fine for your notes, keep it. Ink & Key is for the things where it isn't — and for wanting your files and notes in the same Library.
No. Encryption is a switch, not a requirement — plenty of people leave it off, and everything else about the app works exactly the same. Turn it on when you want your Library sealed under your key; turn it off again whenever you choose. The one rule: if it's on, keep your recovery code somewhere safe.
That depends on your computer. The AI runs on your hardware, not ours. We publish measured numbers, but every computer is different — see what to expect on your machine.
No — a license is for one person. Use it on up to five of your own devices, but no sharing and no team accounts, at least for now.
The app keeps working as it is, offline — nothing checks in and nothing gets switched off. But it's no longer supported: no updates, no fixes, and a future Windows update could break it with nobody to patch it. Your files are ordinary files on your own disk, so other apps can still read them either way.
Yes. Your notes and documents are ordinary files in ordinary folders, so you can point any other app at them — a text editor, a backup tool, a sync program. The one exception is encryption: an encrypted Library is sealed, readable only through Ink & Key with your key. But encryption is one switch — easy to turn on and off whenever you choose.