Perplexity Computer Goes Fully Local: the Agent Loop Now Runs on 36GB Apple Silicon Macs With Qwen 3.6 and No Cloud in the Loop

Perplexity announced on October 20 that its Computer agent can now run fully local on Mac: the model, the agent harness and the orchestrator all execute on the machine, with no cloud model in the loop. The feature is available now to Pro, Max and Enterprise subscribers on supported Apple silicon Macs, with 36GB of unified memory or more recommended; the company points to machines like the new Mac mini with M6 and M5 Pro chips.

In fully local mode, task planning, reasoning and file processing happen on the device. After user authorization, the agent can work across local files and native apps including Notes, Messages, Mail, Keynote and Numbers. Perplexity's example scenario: Computer reads recent messages and email, identifies deadlines and builds a to-do list in Notes without a single byte of that personal data reaching a cloud server.

The local model choices at launch are Qwen 3.6 and PPLX Pro, a version of Qwen that Perplexity has post-trained specifically for Computer workloads. The company has not disclosed which parameter size it ships, so the exact footprint remains unspecified. Code and tool execution run in isolated sandbox environments with controlled access to files and apps, using the same security protocols as the cloud version of Computer.

Local mode is deliberately not an airlock. Users can authorize escalation to the cloud when a task needs current information, browser use or connected apps, and the local orchestrator can call on more than 15 frontier models for harder reasoning. That escalation spends credits, which Perplexity frames as a benefit: the local default gives users direct control over credit spending instead of routing every task through metered cloud calls.

The release builds on Hybrid Compute, which Perplexity introduced at the start of September. That mode splits workloads in the other direction: cloud frontier models handle research and reasoning while a local model processes private files and flags personal information before anything reaches the cloud. Hybrid Compute works on Macs with as little as 24GB of memory, making it the fallback for smaller machines, and the two modes now cover a hardware spectrum from modest laptops to desktop workstations.

The significance goes beyond one product setting. Perplexity is among the first mainstream consumer products to ship a complete on-device agent loop rather than just an on-device model, betting that a Qwen-class model on a 36GB Mac is good enough to plan and execute multi-step tasks across native applications. For users handling client files, financial records or anything they cannot send to a third-party model, the agent economy now has a local answer, and the industry direction is clear: sensitive workflows are migrating to the device, with the cloud becoming an opt-in accelerator rather than the default.