VisionTagger: local AI photo tagging
If you have thousands of photos and can never find the one you want later, VisionTagger may be something for you. It’s a macOS app for Apple Silicon that generates searchable descriptions and keywords for photos fully on-device using local AI, so your library becomes easier to search. Compared with cloud keywording tools, your images and generated metadata stay on your Mac, and there’s no subscription or per-image pricing. It works with folders on disk and Apple Photos Library, and can write metadata to XMP, JSON, CSV, and TXT, plus Photos metadata and optional Finder tags. Requirements: Apple Silicon (M1 or later), macOS Tahoe 26, and at least 16 GB RAM. There’s a free trial for 100 images. Price is a one-time purchase: $34.99 / €29.99 Website: https://www.synendo.com/visiontagger Video walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIZ3BQHsUkY If you try it, I’d really like to hear what works, what doesn’t, and what would make it more useful. Transparency: I’m Marco Henkes, developer of VisionTagger at Synendo. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcohenkes/ Contact: apps@synendo.com Website: https://www.synendo.com Privacy Policy: https://www.synendo.com/visiontagger/privacy/ Terms of Service: https://www.synendo.com/visiontagger/terms/
Collected discussion
Developer disclosure: I’m the maker of VisionTagger.
Great app!!! Looking to try it on my screenshots, should work, right?
Sure, give it a try.
This app works marvelously almost all of the time. Totally recommend it. It has helped me a lot with keywords that would be very boring for me to add to my photos. Note: If it freezes on you, force quit it, reopen and it'll let you continue, even after a reboot.
Thanks, if there's a specific situation where it freezes please let me know, so I can see if I can reproduce it to fix it.
Is macOS Tahoe 26 a must?
Yes, sorry. Tahoe offers better options for local AI.
Is it better than the tagging in Inmich?
Sorry, can't tell. I've never used it (haven't heard from it before). But if you download the app you can decide for yourself. You can try out different models and finetune the metadata you need.
I was actually looking for something like that but wanted to be able to do that for google photos as well? any plans for this in the future? Looks nice!
Hi, thanks! Good idea. I did a quick look, there doesn't seem to be a way to update the metadata of photos via their API. So currently no plans for this feature.
This looks beautifully designed and exactly what I've been after. Just grabbed the trial and will test tonight!
Okay one question: does it require MacOS 26 or could it work on Sequoia too? Asking because I'm keeping my main machine there for compatibility reasons, but I can test on a macbook when I get home if 26 is a requirement, no worries.
Yes, sorry Tahoe (macOS 26) is the minimum version as it's better suited for the task.
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Yes, personally I wouldn't upload all my photos to a service, which may issue a statement in 12 months that they can use your uploads for machine learning or something. VisionTagger doesn't hold a databases of photos which were tagged. So you tag a batch of photos and then export it to XMP, Photos Library, CSV etc. The next time you select the same batch it will not know it has processed them before. I didn't want to build a photo management app, because this area is already crowded with very good software. So you have to 'manually' process photos or use a Shortcut action which does that for you.
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The default phonetic search inside of stock photos (I don't know which app you're referring to) is only possible when those photos were also tagged with metadata. This doesn't happen automatically.
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What do you think a fair price should be?
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Thanks for the feedback, I started with an intro price of $30. But as the app is kind of niche I think it appeals more to professional users than consumers. I compared it with what’d you pay when using a cloud service and other professional photography tools, and then I think it’s in the lower range. But I may adjust the price again in the future.
I think $15-$20. Note 10,000 x $15 is a lot more than 2,000 x $35. You can do a major upgrade every two years, for which you have to pay half of the normal price.