FAQ
First run
Section titled “First run”What do I actually say to Pia to get started?
Section titled “What do I actually say to Pia to get started?”Anything, in plain language — Pia picks the tool. See What to Ask Pia for a working prompt for each part of the app.
There’s a banner saying “End-to-end encryption setup required to sync your data.” What is it?
Section titled “There’s a banner saying “End-to-end encryption setup required to sync your data.” What is it?”This device is signed in to an account that uses end-to-end encryption but doesn’t hold the key yet, so nothing syncs. Click Set up now and either approve this device from another device that already has Pia, or enter your recovery code. Pia still works locally in the meantime. See Cloud Sync.
Pia disappeared — it’s not in my taskbar. Where did it go?
Section titled “Pia disappeared — it’s not in my taskbar. Where did it go?”Closing the window doesn’t quit Pia; it hides to the system tray. Press Ctrl+Alt+P for an Assistant window or Ctrl+Alt+O for Optimize, or double-click the tray icon. Right-click the tray icon and choose Exit to actually stop it. See The Pia Window.
Can I use Pia in German or French?
Section titled “Can I use Pia in German or French?”Yes. Settings → General → Application → Interface Language offers English, German and French, and the app switches immediately. On first run it picks up your Windows language.
How do I add a reminder? There’s no button on the Reminders screen.
Section titled “How do I add a reminder? There’s no button on the Reminders screen.”Reminders are created by asking — “Remind me to send the invoice tomorrow at 9.” The Reminders screen shows and manages what already exists (snooze, dismiss, disable, delete); it has no New reminder button by design.
How do I start over completely?
Section titled “How do I start over completely?”Settings → General → Application → Reset Application → Reset & Restart erases settings, providers, conversations, memories and downloaded models, and puts Pia back to its first-launch state. It cannot be undone.
General
Section titled “General”What is Pia?
Section titled “What is Pia?”Pia (Personal Intelligent Assistant) is a Windows desktop AI assistant that supports multiple AI providers, local speech processing, cloud sync with end-to-end encryption, and self-hosting.
Is Pia free?
Section titled “Is Pia free?”Pia has a free Community tier for self-hosted usage and a Free cloud tier with basic features. Pro and Enterprise plans offer additional features like E2E encryption and team management.
What platforms does Pia support?
Section titled “What platforms does Pia support?”Currently Pia is available for Windows 10+ (x64). macOS and Linux support is planned for the future.
AI & Privacy
Section titled “AI & Privacy”Which AI providers does Pia support?
Section titled “Which AI providers does Pia support?”Pia Cloud (server-proxied), OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter, Mistral, Ollama, any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, and vLLM. See the AI Providers Guide.
Can I run Pia entirely on my own machine?
Section titled “Can I run Pia entirely on my own machine?”Yes. Add an Ollama provider pointing at localhost and make it your default, and no prompt leaves your computer. Speech-to-text and text-to-speech already run locally, as does the memory vault. See AI Providers.
Are my conversations private?
Section titled “Are my conversations private?”Yes. When using a direct API key, conversations go straight from your device to the AI provider. With Pia Cloud + Pro plan, conversations are end-to-end encrypted before leaving your device.
Does Pia send data to your servers?
Section titled “Does Pia send data to your servers?”Only if you opt into Cloud Sync. Local-only mode sends nothing to Pia servers. Your API keys are always stored locally.
Does my personal data reach the AI provider?
Section titled “Does my personal data reach the AI provider?”Not by default. PII tokenization is on out of the box: names, emails, phone numbers and similar details are swapped for anonymous placeholders before a request leaves your machine, and swapped back in the reply. It applies to every provider at once. You can add your own words under Settings → General → Privacy → private keywords. See Privacy.
What in Pia costs extra tokens?
Section titled “What in Pia costs extra tokens?”Two optional settings, both off by default: Show follow-up suggestions (an extra request per turn, to produce the follow-up chips) and Auto-generate chat titles. Everything else spends tokens only on your actual question. See Assistant Chats and History.
Technical
Section titled “Technical”Can I self-host Pia?
Section titled “Can I self-host Pia?”Yes. See the Self-Hosting Reference for Docker Compose setup instructions.
How do updates work?
Section titled “How do updates work?”Pia uses Velopack for auto-updates. It checks for new versions on startup and applies delta updates automatically.
Where is my data stored locally?
Section titled “Where is my data stored locally?”Pia stores data in %APPDATA%/Pia/ including your local database, settings, and Whisper models.
Features
Section titled “Features”Can I organize tasks in Pia?
Section titled “Can I organize tasks in Pia?”Yes. Pia has a built-in Kanban board with drag-and-drop reordering, columns, priority levels, and voice input. See the Todos & Kanban Guide.
What is the Memory feature?
Section titled “What is the Memory feature?”Memory lets you store structured personal knowledge — contacts, projects, notes — that the AI assistant can reference during conversations for more relevant responses. See the Memory Guide.
What are @ commands?
Section titled “What are @ commands?”In the Assistant chat, type @ to point Pia at one specific thing. An autocomplete popup helps you pick a domain and then the item. There are five domains: @Memory, @Todo, @Reminder, @Routine (routines) and @Files (the last only while the assistant’s file access is switched on). Quote titles containing spaces with double quotes — @Todo:"Call mum".
Tagging also narrows the turn: only the tools for the domains you tagged are loaded, so a turn tagged @Todo can work on todos but not write files. See the Memory Guide for details.
Can Pia work on something by itself?
Section titled “Can Pia work on something by itself?”Yes — flip the Chat | Agent lever under the message box and what you type becomes a goal instead of a message. Pia writes a plan, works through it step by step, and shows you every tool it touches. You approve the plan first and can pause, re-order steps, or detach it to the background. See Agent Runs.
Can Pia do things on a schedule?
Section titled “Can Pia do things on a schedule?”Yes. A routine runs a research question or a full agent run daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, and delivers the result as its own chat. Jobs run on your device while Pia is open; if it was closed at the time, Pia offers to catch up on the next launch.
Can Pia transcribe a meeting or a call?
Section titled “Can Pia transcribe a meeting or a call?”Two ways. Pia can join a Microsoft Teams meeting as a silent attendee, or use Live Transcription to capture your microphone and this device’s audio for anything else — a phone call, a room, another video app. Both transcribe locally on your machine.
Does Pia ever change my files without asking?
Section titled “Does Pia ever change my files without asking?”Not by default. Anything that writes, changes or deletes shows an approval card first, and you decide whether that answer covers one call, the session, or every future call. Two settings can widen that — a standing Always allow grant and the Agent autonomy switch (off by default). See Tool Permissions.