CompareApple Intelligence

Khint vs Apple Intelligence,when the built-in isn’t enough

Apple's tools stop at Mail, Pages, and Notes. Khint runs the same AI shortcut in every other Mac app.

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The honest Apple Intelligence alternative. Khint rewrites text in any Mac app, not just Apple's.

KhintPalette
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Product team
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Not three tones, your own library

Writing Tools give everyone the same three presets. A Khint pack is a set of agents you wrote, and switching pack changes what the shortcut offers: a product owner's rows aren't a support agent's. Both surfaces here are the app itself.

Three ways in,
and none is a right-click

Type what you want, say it out loud, or point at something on screen. Every entry lands in the same palette and runs prompts you wrote yourself, in whatever app you happen to be in.

Every app you can paste in

Khint reads the selection through the system clipboard and pastes the answer back the same way, so it works in Electron apps, web wrappers and anything else your day runs on.

Your own prompt, not three tones

Friendly, Professional and Concise can't be edited and can't be added to. A Khint agent is a prompt you write, keep, rename and share with your team as a pack.

Five steps, and the last one files it

A rewrite is one action. A workflow runs up to five in series, and a parallel step takes two to four destinations from the same text, so one press writes the ticket, publishes the page and posts the update.

Apple’s stays on, and so does Khint

Nothing here competes with a right-click, and neither tool reads the other's output. Keep Writing Tools for Mail proofreading and run Khint everywhere else, on a key you chose.

Where the built-in wins

Apple Intelligence is free, already installed and has no usage cap. Those are real arguments and this page won't pretend otherwise. Here's the whole list, both ways.

See how Khint works
Writing Tools cost nothing and have no usage cap
Khint isn't built into macOS: it's an app you install
Khint free with 300 credits a month, then from €7/mo
Apple Silicon only, against macOS 13+ on any Mac and Windows
Every Khint agent is a prompt you can read, edit and share
Live Text reads images; Khint captures any screen region
An MCP server so Claude Desktop reads your live work session
No shared shortcut, and neither reads the other's output

Enough, or not enough

Apple Intelligence is free and already installed. That's a real argument, and it holds right up to the first app it doesn't cover.

Apple Intelligence is enough if

Writing Tools cost nothing, ship with macOS and have no usage cap. Three presets, in Apple's own apps, and on a lot of days that's the whole job.

  • Your day lives in Mail, Pages, Notes and Messages, and the preset Friendly / Professional / Concise tones cover it.
  • You want zero install and zero subscription: it ships with macOS on Apple Silicon and costs nothing.
  • You don't need custom prompts, chained actions, screen OCR or an MCP server.

You'll outgrow it when

Khint is the same shortcut in every other app, running prompts you wrote yourself. Chain up to five of them, capture any screen region, and let your AI client read the session you're in.

  • Your work is in Slack, Linear, Jira, Cursor, Notion, Obsidian, Intercom or Zendesk — none of which Writing Tools support.
  • You want your own prompts (“Turn into a Jira ticket”, “Explain this error”) or workflows of up to five steps, not preset tones.
  • You need an OCR shortcut for any screen region, or an MCP server so Claude Desktop reads your live work session.

Twelve capabilities,
two reaches

Apps supported, custom prompts, OCR, MCP, hardware. Including the two rows where being built into macOS simply wins.

Capability
Khint
Apple Intelligence
AI text rewrite shortcut
KhintCmd+Shift+K, any app
Apple IntelligenceRight-click in supported apps
Apps supported
KhintAny Mac app you can paste in
Apple IntelligenceMail, Pages, Notes, Messages, Safari
Slack / Linear / Jira / Cursor
KhintYes, same shortcut
Apple IntelligenceNo (third-party not supported)
Custom prompts
KhintYes, write your own per agent
Apple IntelligenceNo (preset tones only)
Prompt chaining
KhintUp to 5 agents in series
Apple IntelligenceNo
Shareable Packs
KhintYes (export / import / Teams)
Apple IntelligenceNo
Screen OCR shortcut
KhintYes, screen-to-text via palette
Apple IntelligenceNo (Live Text only on images)
MCP server
KhintYes, Claude Desktop / Cursor
Apple IntelligenceNo
Work session memory
KhintYes (compact context injection)
Apple IntelligenceNo
Hardware requirement
KhintmacOS 13+ (any Mac, Intel + Apple Silicon); Windows 10 22H2+ also supported
Apple IntelligenceApple Silicon only
Pricing
KhintFree + paid plans from €7/mo
Apple IntelligenceFree (built-in)
Free tier reach
Khint300 credits a month, every Mac app
Apple IntelligenceNo usage cap, ~5 Apple apps

See how Khint stacks up

Same product, four other lenses. Each page is the honest version, including what Khint doesn't do.

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Common questions

Why use Khint over Apple Intelligence Writing Tools?

Reach and control. Apple Intelligence Writing Tools live inside a handful of Apple apps (Mail, Pages, Notes, Messages, Safari). They don't show up in Slack, Linear, Jira, Cursor, Notion, Obsidian, Intercom, or Zendesk, which is where most knowledge work actually happens. Khint runs the same AI shortcut in any Mac app you can paste in, with prompts you write yourself, packs you share, and workflows that run up to five steps in a row. If your day is in Apple's apps, Apple's tool is enough. If your day is everywhere else, Khint covers it.

Does Khint work in apps that Apple Intelligence doesn't support?

Yes. That's the headline difference. Khint reads selected text from any Mac app via the system clipboard and pastes the AI output back through the same path. Slack, Linear, Jira, Cursor, VS Code, Notion, Obsidian, Intercom, Zendesk, and any Electron or web-wrapper app all work. The shortcut is the same everywhere: Cmd+Shift+K to open the palette, pick the agent, paste.

Can I write my own prompts in Khint?

Yes. Every Khint agent is a prompt you can edit. Apple Intelligence Writing Tools ship preset tones (Friendly, Professional, Concise) and you can't edit them or add your own. In Khint you write agents like 'Turn into a Jira ticket', 'Explain this error in 2 sentences then suggest the next debug step', or 'Translate to French keeping the technical terms in English'. Group them into packs, run them in workflows.

Does Apple Intelligence have OCR or MCP?

Apple ships Live Text (OCR on images and from the camera, in Photos and a few other apps), but there's no system-wide OCR shortcut for arbitrary screen regions. Khint adds an OCR capture from the palette: drag a region anywhere on the screen, get the text. Apple Intelligence doesn't expose itself as an MCP server; Khint runs a standalone MCP server (`khint-mcp`) so Claude Desktop and Cursor can read your active work session.

Is Khint compatible with Apple Intelligence on the same Mac?

Yes. They don't compete for the same shortcut and don't read each other's output. Many Khint users keep Apple Intelligence on for Mail proofreading and use Khint everywhere else: Slack drafts, Linear tickets, Cursor commit messages, Intercom replies. Both can run in parallel without conflict.

One shortcut for every Mac app

Apple Intelligence stops at Mail, Pages, and Notes. Khint runs the same AI shortcut in any Mac app, with custom prompts and workflows. Free, 300 credits a month.

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