Local history in an AI summarizer: what stays on your device
Reduz keeps your API keys and saved summaries in your browser. This covers what that means in practice, what still leaves your device, and how to keep a copy.
Allan Warsing
"Local" gets used loosely in AI tools. Sometimes it means the model runs on your computer. Sometimes it only means a settings file lives there. In Reduz it means something specific: your API keys and your saved summaries stay in your browser, and the summarizing itself happens at the AI provider you choose.
Knowing which half is which tells you what a provider sees and what you could lose.
What stays in your browser
Reduz is a Chrome extension with no account behind it. When you add a provider key, it is stored in the extension in this browser profile. When a summary finishes, it is saved to your local history, together with the source text it came from.
From history you can:
- search past summaries and reopen the source text,
- export a summary as Markdown, PDF, or DOCX,
- save Bullets and Post summaries as a PNG image,
- download your whole history as JSON or a Markdown ZIP.
None of this needs an internet connection. You can read and export old summaries on a plane. Writing a new summary is different, because that needs your provider's API.
What leaves your device
To summarize something, Reduz sends the extracted text straight from your browser to the provider you picked, such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google. The provider processes it under its own terms and bills your account. Reduz never receives your key or your source text, because there is no Reduz server in that path.
If you turn on source checking with a Jev key, the finished summary and the most relevant source passages also go to TypeSafe while the check runs. That is optional and off until you add the key.
The trade-off: you are the backup
Local history is private by default, and it is also easy to lose. It does not sync through your Google account. It does not move to a new laptop. Clearing site data for the extension, or uninstalling it, can delete it.
The fix is boring and effective. Before you switch machines, clear browser data, or remove the extension, download your history as JSON or a Markdown ZIP. Exports never include your API keys, so the file is safe to keep in a normal folder or a notes app.
Starting on a new device
Install Reduz, add your provider key again, and click Test. Your old summaries are in the export you saved, not in the new install. If you rely on a few summaries every week, it is worth keeping that export somewhere you already back up.