Your work stays on your Mac
Projects, footage, brand kits and exports are kept on your Mac. Dudedit reads footage where it lies and never uploads it to us. Subtitles are made on your Mac too.
Dude and your AI
Dude works through your own AI account: Claude (a Claude Code sign-in or an Anthropic API key) or OpenAI Codex (a ChatGPT sign-in or an OpenAI API key). What you ask Dude, and the project files and frames it looks at to answer, go to Anthropic or OpenAI under your account and their terms. They never pass through us. Your API key is kept encrypted in your Mac's Keychain.
Anonymous usage counts
The app counts which features are used so we know what to improve, sent to Google Analytics: things like the kind of project you start, comments and markups, messages to Dude, brand kits, exports, time spent in the app, light or dark mode, which AI you use and how it is connected, and the app and macOS version. Each Mac gets a random ID.
It never sends your files, file or project names, footage, brand assets, or anything you type. Turn it off any time in Settings → Share anonymous usage.
Licences
Purchases and licence keys are handled by Polar. The app checks your key with Polar, which sends the key by email when you buy.
This website
When you download, we record the time, version, your rough location (country, region, city) and which page you came from. We don't store your IP address. Page visits are counted with Vercel Web Analytics, which sets no cookies. The site sets no cookies either; its fonts load from Google Fonts.
Questions
Write to dudedit.support@gmail.com. Updated 2 November 2026.