You rarely remember the date or filename of a photo — you remember what was in it. Description search lets you find photos the way your memory actually works: "sunset at the beach", "red bicycle", "grandma's birthday cake". And with local AI, that search runs on your own computer, so your photos are never uploaded for analysis.
Traditional search matches filenames and metadata. Description search matches the content of the image itself — what's actually in the frame. Type what you remember seeing, and the search finds the matching photos.
Cloud-based image search uploads your photos to a server for analysis. Local AI search runs the model on your own hardware (via ONNX Runtime), so nothing leaves your machine — the privacy is the point.
Description search is most powerful combined with filters. Narrow to a date range or folder first, then search within the results — this is faster and more precise than searching the whole library at once.
When you've found one good photo, similarity search finds other photos that look like it — different angles of the same moment, or shots from the same shoot.
Local AI search isn't limited to English — Lap supports search in 50+ languages, so you can describe photos in whatever language you think in.
| Method | Finds | Requires upload |
|---|---|---|
| Filename search | Text in names | No |
| Metadata search | Date/camera/location | No |
| Cloud AI search | Image content | Yes |
| Local AI search | Image content | No |
Lap's local AI search (CLIP + ONNX Runtime) finds photos by text description, visual similarity and detected subjects — running entirely on your machine, offline, in 50+ languages.
No — the AI models run locally via ONNX Runtime, so search works fully offline.
No. All AI processing happens on your machine — your photos never leave your computer.
Lap supports search in 50+ languages.
Lap