Run it on a computer you own
Instead of a private server in the cloud, your assistant can live on hardware in your own home — a Raspberry Pi, a spare Linux machine, a Windows PC, or a Mac. You may see this called BYOD — bring your own device. Everything else about your assistant works exactly the same.
What you can run it on
Four options, all supported. The requirements below are real minimums, not suggestions.
Raspberry Pi 4 or 5
4GB of memory or more. The one we recommend — quiet, cheap to buy, and it sips power, which matters for something that stays on.
A spare Linux machine
A desktop or laptop running Linux, 4GB of memory or more, from roughly 2013 onwards.
A spare Windows PC
Windows 10 (2020 update) or Windows 11, 8GB of memory, from roughly 2013 onwards. Your files and Windows stay exactly as they are — your assistant runs alongside them.
A spare Mac
Any Mac on macOS 14 (Sonoma) or newer with 8GB of memory. As with Windows, macOS and your files are untouched — your assistant runs beside them.
On Windows and Mac there is a one-time setup of about ten minutes before the install — switching on a piece of the operating system that is already there. We walk you through it step by step.
What changes
No cloud server bill
The standard setup runs on a server in your own DigitalOcean account, at about $12 a month paid to them. Host it yourself and that bill goes away. Your subscription with us does not change — this is not a cheaper plan, it is a different place to run it.
The machine is in your house
Your assistant's data sits on hardware you can see and physically unplug. If that distinction matters to you, this is the option that makes it literal.
Setup is one command
We give you a single line to copy and paste into your computer once. You don't need to understand it, and you won't need to touch it again.
What you're taking on
- It has to stay powered on and connected. An assistant on a machine that gets shut at night is an assistant that doesn't answer at night. Plan on the computer being dedicated to this and left running.
- Back up anything important first. Setup installs and configures software on the machine. On a Mac or Windows PC it runs alongside your files rather than replacing anything — but back up first anyway, as you would before any install.
- The hardware is yours. If a drive dies or a power supply gives out, replacing it is your job. With a cloud server, that is somebody else's problem and it is included in the price.
- Your home internet is now part of the product. An outage at your house is an outage for your assistant.
What stays exactly the same
- Every capability. Telegram, WhatsApp, email, calendar, pictures — all of it works the same way on your own hardware.
- Dex looks after it. Updates, backups, monitoring and troubleshooting carry on exactly as they do on a cloud server.
- We still hold no keys to your machine. Your assistant checks in with us; we have no way to reach into it. That was already true of the cloud setup.
- Your subscription. Same price, same plan. Hosting it yourself is a different place to run your assistant, not a different product.
This is also the door to running your own AI model
A cloud server can't reach an AI model running in your house, so hosting the assistant yourself is the first step towards replies that cost nothing per message and never leave your network.
Your hardware, your house, your assistant
You choose this when you create an assistant, not afterwards — an assistant already running in the cloud stays there. If you'd rather not own a machine that stays switched on, the standard cloud setup is one click and we recommend it without apology.