An offline Mac video editor opens no connections while it edits
A video editor works without internet on a Mac when both the editing and the AI features run on the Mac itself. The test is simple: run a real export with Wi-Fi off, or watch the app's network connections while it works. We did the second for Crisp. Across ten real jobs, including two AI upscales, it opened no connection to anything outside the Mac. It goes online for three things only: an update check, activating or releasing a licence, and the optional Max download.
What we measured
We watched every network socket held by the three processes that make up Crisp: the app, the engine that does the work, and the web view that draws the interface. The instrument sampled all three about 11 times a second for 100 seconds, which covered 55 seconds idle and then ten jobs on a short clip: Enhance at 2× and at 4×, speed, reframe to 9:16, crop, fade, GIF, a frame grab, compress and rotate. All ten finished.
| What | Result |
|---|---|
| Samples taken | 1,147 over 100 seconds |
| Connections to anything outside the Mac | 0 |
| Connections inside the Mac | The interface talking to the engine on 127.0.0.1 |
| Control: a real update check, same instrument | Caught: one HTTPS connection to crispvideo.app's host |
The control matters more than the zero. Our first two instruments missed that update check
entirely: a snapshot every half second, and macOS's own nettop once a second. A
check that can't see a real connection will always report none. The one we kept can, so its zero
means something.
It has limits, stated plainly. A connection shorter than about 90 ms could fall between two samples. The jobs were started through Crisp's local interface rather than by clicking, so anything a button does on its own was not covered. And launch-time checks sit outside the window. Tested on Crisp 1.0.1353, 23 September 2026.
When Crisp does go online
Reading the engine's code, three places can reach the internet, and each is a request for something small rather than an upload of your footage:
- Checking for an update, which fetches a small file describing the newest version. This is the one we used as the control.
- Activating or releasing a licence, when you press Activate or Deactivate. Day to day, Crisp reads the licence it saved on your Mac.
- Downloading Max, the optional generative restore, whose model is a separate download you choose to fetch.
The free tier needs none of the three to edit and export.
How to check any editor yourself
Marketing copy says "local" freely. Two checks settle it in a few minutes:
- Turn off Wi-Fi and run the feature you care about, end to end. Launching isn't enough. Plenty of apps edit locally and quietly send the AI enhance to a server. If the feature fails offline, it was never local.
- Watch the network while it exports. Activity Monitor's Network tab lists bytes sent per app. Update pings and licence checks are a few kilobytes. Your footage is hundreds of megabytes, and an upload of it can't hide in that column.
One more tell: if a tool requires an account before it will process anything, the processing probably isn't on your machine. Local software has no reason to know who you are.
Working offline isn't unusual among AI video tools for the Mac. Several others run their models locally too. What the checks tell you is whether the one you're looking at does.
Why it matters
A lot of video tools since about 2020 are web apps: you upload, a server processes, you download. For plenty of work nobody minds. For some it rules the tool out, and the list is longer than people expect:
- Anything under NDA, which is most commercial and corporate work.
- Legal, medical, insurance and investigative footage.
- Walkthroughs of a client's home. Real-estate video is the inside of somebody's house.
- Family archives. No breach policy is worth a stranger's access to your childhood.
- Anything where you'd have to read a retention policy before uploading. If you have to check, that is the answer.
Where offline loses
Two places. Collaboration is the first: if three people in three cities need to review one cut, a cloud tool with shared timelines and comments is the right choice. Model size is the second. A data centre can load models no laptop can hold, and for the hardest generative jobs that shows. For upscaling and cleanup, the models that do the job well are small enough to run on the graphics hardware already in a Mac.
The other meaning of "offline editing"
In post-production, offline editing means something older. When systems couldn't play full-quality footage in real time, editors cut small proxy copies (the offline edit), then an online session relinked the finished cut to the original media for colour and finishing. The workflow survives because proxies are still the fastest way to handle heavy formats.
Crisp's export works the same way. You edit against manageable media, and the upscale runs once, on the finished cut, at export. Running an AI upscaler live on every preview frame would make scrubbing unusable.
Offline editing questions
Can I edit video on a Mac without internet?
Yes, with an editor that runs on the Mac. Check that the feature you need, the AI one especially, still works with Wi-Fi off. Measured on Crisp: ten jobs, including two AI upscales, opened no connection outside the Mac.
Does Crisp need an internet connection?
Not to edit or export. It goes online to check for updates, when you activate or release a licence, and to download the optional Max model. Editing and upscaling run on your Mac.
How do I know if a video app uploads my footage?
Open Activity Monitor, choose the Network tab, and run an export. An upload of video shows up as hundreds of megabytes sent by that app. Update and licence checks are a few kilobytes.
What does offline editing mean in post-production?
Cutting with low-resolution proxy copies, then relinking the locked edit to the full-quality media in an online session for colour and finishing.