100% on-device · no cloud

The format
your AI
reads.

The first step to link your thinking. Drop a PDF, Word doc, spreadsheet, email, screenshot or recording — Thunderegg writes clean .md straight into your vault, or beside the original if you would rather. The plain-text format LLMs understand best, and your notes link forever. Nothing uploaded. No account.

$19.95 once, forever · no subscription · nothing uploaded
Apple Silicon & Intel Works offline No telemetry
📄
report.pdf
⬇️
report.md
DRAG · RIGHT-CLICK · OR DROP IN A FOLDER → MARKDOWN IN SECONDS
01 — WHY MARKDOWN

The native language of LLMs

AI models are trained on Markdown. Feed them clean .md instead of PDFs and Word files, and you get sharper answers for fewer tokens — while your knowledge stays portable forever.

~30%
Fewer tokens than rich formats
13+
Formats in → one clean .md out
0
Vendor lock-in · open standard

Cheaper & faster context

Markdown strips the formatting bloat of PDF and DOCX. Same meaning, ~30% fewer tokens — lower API costs and more room in the context window.

Structure the model understands

Headings, lists and tables survive the conversion. That preserved hierarchy is exactly what models use to reason — clearer answers, fewer hallucinations.

Build a richer knowledge graph

Locked in a PDF, a document is a dead end. As .md it becomes a node — wiki-linkable in Obsidian, Notion or any vault, so every file connects to the rest of your thinking instead of sitting in a silo.

A knowledge graph is only as good as the notes feeding it. Thunderegg turns your PDFs, docs and emails into clean, linkable nodes — denser connections, fewer dead ends, and a second brain your AI can actually read.
02 — FORMATS

One tool for everything you read

Documents, spreadsheets, email, images and recordings — all converted to clean, LLM-ready Markdown.

📕 PDF 📘 Word .docx 📊 Excel .xlsx 📈 .xls 📙 PowerPoint .pptx 🌐 HTML 🔢 CSV { } JSON ✉️ Email .eml clean 📨 Outlook .msg clean 🖼️ Images — OCR Vision 🎙️ Audio — .m4a .mp3 .wav transcribed 🎬 Video — .mp4 .mov .mkv .webm transcribed

Email becomes a tidy header + body (attachments listed, never dumped as raw code). Screenshots & scans are read with Apple’s on-device Vision OCR. Audio and video are transcribed on this Mac — Zoom, OBS, Discord and browser recordings included.

03 — HOW IT WORKS

Four ways in

Whatever fits your flow — including a file you don’t have yet.

WAY 01

Drag & drop

Drop one or many files onto the Thunderegg icon in your Dock. Thunderegg converts them and shows you what it made.

WAY 02

Right-click in Finder

Select any files → Quick Actions → Convert to Markdown. System-wide, no app to open.

WAY 03

Watch folder

Drop files into your MarkItDown Watch folder and they convert automatically — originals tidied away for you.

WAY 04

Record a meeting

Hit record and Thunderegg captures the call itself — then turns it into notes. No file to find, nothing to upload. Recording needs macOS 15 or later.

04 — MEETINGS

Your calls, written up

Press record. When you stop, Thunderegg transcribes the whole thing on this Mac and writes the note you would have had to take yourself.

WHO SAID IT

Two channels, not one

Your microphone is recorded on one channel and everything your Mac plays on the other — so the transcript can tell your words from theirs without guessing, and without a second AI model.

WHAT YOU GET

A summary you can act on

Executive summary, action items with owner and due date, decisions, open questions, risks and the quotes behind them. Action items join your to-do list across the whole vault.

WHAT IT ADMITS

An Unclear section

Every summary has to say what it wasn’t sure of, and when the summary came from a small on-device model the transcript is kept underneath, so every line can be checked against what was actually said. Drop it when you’re happy.

Transcription runs entirely on this Mac — the audio is never uploaded. The written summary uses whichever model you choose; pick Local and the whole meeting stays on the machine.

05 — PRIVACY BY DESIGN

Your files never leave your Mac.

Most “convert to Markdown” tools upload your documents to a server. For contracts, medical records, financials, or anything under NDA, that’s a non-starter.

Thunderegg does all conversion and OCR on-device, via Apple’s built-in Vision engine. Pull the network cable and conversion still works. (Optional AI enrichment is off until you connect a provider — keep it local to stay fully on-device.)

  • No document uploads for conversion — no servers in the loop
  • No account to create, no tracking
  • Converts offline — one licence key, activated once and re-checked at most weekly
  • Safe for legal, medical & finance workflows
06 — VS CLOUD

Local beats cloud

Everything the online converters do — without the upload, the account, or the monthly bill.

FeatureThundereggCloud converters
Files stay on your MacAlwaysUploaded
Works offlineYesNo
Account requiredNoneSign-up
Pricing$19.95 oncePer-page / monthly
Image OCRApple VisionVaries
Record & summarise a meetingBuilt in · recording & transcription on-deviceSeparate subscription
Email (.eml / .msg)Clean parseRare
Where the Markdown landsYour vault — or beside the fileDownload
07 — PRICE

$19.95. Once. Forever.

One payment, no subscription, ever. Try it on 5 conversions first — no card, no account.

★ One time · no subscription

Thunderegg

Local Markdown converter for macOS
$19.95
PAY ONCE · YOURS FOREVER · UPDATES INCLUDED
  • 5 free conversions before you buy
  • Every format — PDF, Office, HTML, email, images & recordings
  • On-device Apple Vision OCR
  • Record, transcribe & summarise meetings on this Mac (recording needs macOS 15)
  • Drag-drop, right-click & watch-folder
  • One licence key, up to 3 Macs — free a seat any time from Settings → License
  • Optional AI enrichment — local model or your own key
  • 14-day refund, no questions asked
Download and try 5 conversions
Apple Silicon · Intel Mac? Download here
Already using Thunderegg from when it was free? That Mac stays free, forever. The installer detects the existing install on first launch and marks the machine — nothing to claim, no code to enter, and you will never be asked to pay for it.
08 — FAQ

Questions

Why Markdown instead of just keeping my PDFs? +
LLMs are trained heavily on Markdown, so they parse it more reliably than PDF or DOCX — and it carries ~30% fewer tokens for the same content, cutting cost and freeing context. It's also plain text: it drops into Obsidian, Notion or any vault, stays wiki-linkable and diffable, and never locks you into a proprietary format.
Is anything sent to the cloud? +
Your documents are never uploaded for conversion — every conversion, including image OCR, runs entirely on your Mac using built-in macOS frameworks, online or off. Three things can use the network, and none of them carries your files: activating your licence key after purchase (checked again at most weekly, cached so the app keeps working offline); the optional AI enrichment feature, which sends document text to your chosen provider only if you turn it on — pick the local model in Settings to keep even that on-device; and Check for Updates, which only runs when you press it.
What exactly does it produce? +
A Markdown file named after the document, not the format: report.pdf becomes report.md. By default it is filed into your vault; set Where converted notes go in Settings to Beside the original file and it is written next to the source instead. Two files that would claim the same name never overwrite each other.
How does image OCR work? +
Thunderegg uses Apple’s on-device Vision engine to read text inside images and screenshots. It extracts the text — it doesn’t describe photos. It’s built into the app — nothing extra to download or install.
Does it run on Intel Macs? +
Yes — Thunderegg runs natively on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, macOS 13 and later.
What does it cost? +
$19.95 once. That is the whole price — a perpetual licence, everything included, updates included, no subscription now or later. Before you pay you get 5 conversions free, so you can run it on your own files first.
What happens after 5 conversions? +
Thunderegg asks for a licence key before it converts anything else. Nothing you have already converted is touched or taken away — the Markdown is plain text on your disk and stays yours. Paste the key from your purchase email into Settings and the counter stops mattering.
What counts as a conversion? +
One file turned into a note. Drop a folder and each file inside it counts separately. A recording that turns out to have no speech in it still counts, because the transcription ran either way.
I already use Thunderegg — do I have to pay? +
No. Thunderegg was free until August 2026, and every Mac that already had it keeps it free, forever. The installer detects the existing install the first time the paid version launches and marks that machine — you do not claim anything, and you will not be asked for a key.
How many Macs can I use it on? +
Up to 3. One licence key, activated on each machine. Activation needs the network once per Mac; after that Thunderegg re-checks the key at most weekly, keeps working offline in between, and never blocks you when it cannot reach the server. Settings → License → Deactivate this Mac frees a seat when you retire a machine.
Why not just use the free command-line tools? +
You can — Thunderegg is built on excellent open-source foundations, and $19.95 buys the packaging rather than the parser. What Thunderegg adds is the zero-setup native experience: a signed app, right-click & watch-folder integration, on-device OCR, and clean email parsing, with nothing to install in a terminal.
Can I get a refund? +
Yes — 14 days, no questions asked. Email support@thunderegg.ai with your order number. Payments and receipts are handled by our payment provider, so Thunderegg never sees your card details, and your documents never leave your Mac.

Zero to Markdown. One drop.

Stop pasting documents into web tools. Try it on five files; it is $19.95 once after that.

Download — 5 free conversions