MacPaw Partners With Liquid AI to Bring On-Device AI Models to Developers and SetApp

August 5, 2026

Ukrainian app developer MacPaw has announced a partnership with Liquid AI to integrate locally hosted artificial intelligence models into its software products. The collaboration aims to power MacPaw’s internal applications and eventually provide an on-device AI infrastructure stack to third-party developers through its SetApp platform.

What Happened

Under the agreement, Liquid AI is developing an on-device inference engine called Elix, alongside a dedicated local memory system for MacPaw. This infrastructure will support a locally hosted version of Eney, an AI assistant that MacPaw unveiled last year.

MacPaw plans to eventually extend this local processing architecture to external creators who build applications for SetApp, its subscription-based app store that currently serves more than 150,000 paying users. In addition to local capabilities, MacPaw plans to integrate third-party cloud models, including those from Google, positioning SetApp as a unified resource for developers.

Key Highlights

On-Device Architecture: Liquid AI is constructing the Elix inference system and a local memory framework tailored for hardware efficiency and offline functionality.
Eney AI Assistant: MacPaw is transitioning its Eney assistant, first introduced last year, to run on locally hosted infrastructure.
SetApp Developer Tools: The local AI tech stack will eventually be made available to developers creating software for SetApp, which has over 150,000 paying users.
Credit-Based Pricing: MacPaw is testing a credit pricing model where user operations are metered based on task complexity and credit balances.
Cloud and Local Options: The platform will combine Liquid AI’s local model processing with cloud models from providers such as Google.

Why This Matters

Liquid AI co-founder and CEO Ramin Hasani stated that selecting hardware-tailored model architectures enables intelligence to run directly on devices, offering privacy and security benefits. Hasani added that Liquid AI is building a customization stack that allows models to adapt and improve over time using user input.

MacPaw CEO Oleksandr Kosovan noted that locally hosted models will allow users to run assistants and agentic workflows offline. While Apple already offers local models to software developers, Hasani maintained that Liquid AI’s models focus on performance across different capabilities.

What to Watch Next

MacPaw intends to finalize its local processing architecture with Liquid AI before making the technology stack accessible to third-party developers. The company is also continuing its trial of credit-based pricing on SetApp to evaluate how users execute AI operations based on task complexity.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of the partnership between MacPaw and Liquid AI?

MacPaw is partnering with Liquid AI to create locally hosted AI solutions, including an on-device inference engine named Elix and a local memory system, to support its Eney assistant and offer on-device tools to developers.

What is SetApp?

SetApp is MacPaw’s subscription-based application store, which currently has more than 150,000 paying subscribers.

Will the AI features function offline?

Yes. MacPaw CEO Oleksandr Kosovan stated that locally hosted models will enable users to run AI assistants and agentic workflows without an internet connection.

How will AI usage be billed on SetApp?

MacPaw is testing a credit-based model where users can run a specified number of AI operations depending on their credits and the computational complexity of the task.

Source: Information sourced from TechCrunch.