Khint vs Raycast,side by side.
Raycast is a launcher with AI on top. Khint is an AI palette with OCR and MCP built in.
Twelve capabilities,
two palettes.
Pricing, AI access, OCR, MCP, extensions. The honest side-by-side.
When to pick Khint.
- You want AI text actions on selected text in any Mac app, with a free tier that includes AI (10 actions/day).
- You need a screen-to-text OCR shortcut and a Memory layer that injects your active work session into every AI prompt.
- You're an MCP power user: you want Claude Desktop or Cursor to read your active work context without copy-paste.
When to pick Raycast.
- You primarily want a launcher: fast window switching, calculator, clipboard manager, file search.
- You rely on the extensions ecosystem (1,500+ community-built extensions across dev tools, productivity, fun).
- You don't need AI today. Raycast is free for hot-keys and launcher, and you can add AI later via Pro+AI ($16/mo).
Can I use both? Yes, here's the setup.
Keep Raycast on Cmd+Space as your launcher. Keep Khint on Cmd+Shift+K as your AI palette and OCR trigger. They don't fight for the same shortcut, the same paste path, or the same use case. Many Khint users came from Raycast and kept Raycast for window switching while running Khint for every AI rewrite, summarize, translate, and ticket-from-notes flow. If you ever rebind, all three Khint shortcuts are user-changeable.
Common questions.
Is Khint cheaper than Raycast?
Yes for AI users. Khint Premium is €9.99/month for unlimited AI actions, with a free tier of 10 actions/day. Raycast charges $8/month for Pro and $16/month for the Pro+AI plan; Raycast's free tier does not include AI. If your only need is launcher hot-keys, Raycast is free for that, and Khint does not try to replace the launcher.
Does Khint do everything Raycast does?
No. Raycast is a launcher first: window switcher, calculator, clipboard manager, 1,500+ extensions. Khint does not ship those. Khint focuses on three things: AI text actions on selected text, screen-to-text OCR, and a work session memory exposed over MCP. If you want a launcher with extensions, keep Raycast. If you want an AI-first palette with OCR and MCP baked in, pick Khint, or run both.
Does Raycast have an MCP server?
No. Raycast does not expose itself as an MCP server today. Khint runs a standalone MCP server (`khint-mcp`) speaking JSON-RPC 2.0 over stdio with five tools (list_sessions, get_session, get_active_context, search_session_entries, add_session_entry). Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, and any MCP-compatible client can read Khint's active session context.
Can Khint and Raycast coexist on the same Mac?
Yes. They use different shortcuts by default (Raycast on Cmd+Space, Khint on Cmd+Shift+K) and don't compete for the same paste path. Many users keep Raycast as their launcher and Khint as their AI palette. Both are fully rebindable if you want different keys.
Which has better AI quality?
Both call hosted models, so output quality depends on the underlying model and your prompt. Khint runs Claude Haiku 4.5 for the fast path and lets you customize the prompt per Action, with optional session-context injection. Raycast lets you choose between several providers in its AI tier. If you write your own prompts, the gap is mostly about the price you pay per call rather than raw model quality.
Try Khint as your AI palette.
Free with 10 AI actions per day. No credit card. macOS 13+. Keep Raycast running on the side if you want; both can coexist.