v0.3.0 · Open Source · Free

A better way to manage your photos locally.

Name: Lap
Author: Lap

Browse, search and organize your photo library without uploading your memories to the cloud.

macOS·Windows·Linux·Open Source·Free·Local-first

Why Lap

Your photos. Your computer. Your privacy.

Lap is a privacy-focused alternative to cloud photo services — no forced upload, local AI search, and a folder-first workflow that respects your files.

Local-first by design — your photos stay on your own disk, with no required cloud account.
No library lock-in — work directly with your existing folders, not a closed database.
Private AI tools — search, similarity, tags and face features run locally on your machine.
Built for large collections — smooth browsing across libraries with 100k+ files.
Open source and free — no subscription, code you can inspect.

Lap calendar timeline view of a local photo library

Features

Everything you need to manage a photo library

Browse, search, organize and clean up — all in one local app.

Flexible library browsing

Timeline, folder, location, camera, lens, tag, favorite, rating, subject and face filters.

Smart Albums

Rule-based views with custom grouping, sorting and ordering.

Local AI search

Text prompts, visual similarity, subjects, face clustering and multilingual search in 50+ languages.

Apple Live Photos

Recognize paired HEIC/MOV Live Photos and keep sidecars together on move/copy/delete.

RAW + JPEG pairs

Group a RAW file with its JPEG/HEIC companion as one item.

Folder-first workflow

Multiple libraries, drag-and-drop import, filesystem sync, safe operations.

Explore all features

Lap AI photo search finding images by description

AI Search

Find photos by describing them

Type "sunset at the beach" or "red bicycle" and Lap finds the matching photos — using AI that runs entirely on your machine. Nothing is uploaded, ever.

Text search, visual similarity and subject detection
Face clustering and smart tags
Local processing — fully offline

Learn about AI search

Large Libraries

Built for 100,000+ photos

Most photo apps crawl once your library grows. Lap is engineered to stay fast across very large local collections — timeline, folders, map and filters all stay responsive.

Optimized for 100k+ file libraries
Location map for geotagged photos
Background indexing that doesn't block you

See how it scales

Lap photo organizer with tags and ratings

Privacy

No upload. No account. No cloud.

Cloud services want your entire photo history on their servers. Lap keeps everything on your own disk — the code is open source, so you can verify exactly how your data is handled.

Read our privacy approach

Open Source

Free, open source, and yours

Licensed under GPL-3.0. Built with Tauri, Rust, Vue and SQLite — inspect it, build it, or contribute.

Star on GitHub Learn more

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Is Lap free?

Yes. Lap is free and open source under GPL-3.0 — no subscription, no trial, no locked features.

Does Lap upload my photos?

No. Lap is local-first. Your photos stay on your disk and are never uploaded to a cloud account.

Does Lap work offline?

Yes. Indexing, searching and AI features all run locally, fully offline.

Does Lap support RAW photos?

Yes. Lap decodes 60+ RAW, photo and video formats, including CR2, NEF, ARW and DNG.

Can Lap manage large photo libraries?

Yes. Lap is optimized for libraries with 100,000+ files.

Which platforms does Lap support?

Lap runs on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel), Windows 10/11 and Linux.

Is Lap open source?

Yes. Lap is GPL-3.0 licensed and the code is on GitHub.