Browse the web and use ChatGPT even on terrible airplane WiFi
Trickle is a macOS app that monitors your connection, queues requests when you're offline, saves partial responses, and fires automatically the moment connectivity returns. No manual retrying. No staring at spinners.
Your connection drops. Trickle doesn't care.
You don't need to babysit your WiFi anymore. Trickle watches your connection at the OS level, and the instant a signal comes back — even for a few seconds — it fires your request.
⚡ Partial Response Saving
Every token is saved as it arrives. Even if you get 500 words and then lose connection, those 500 words are preserved. When connectivity returns, Trickle continues from exactly where it stopped. No duplicate text, no gaps.
🐢 Throughput-Aware Adaptation
On degraded connections, Trickle automatically requests shorter, more concise responses that are more likely to complete. It measures your actual throughput in real time — not just whether you're connected, but how well.
🔄 Intelligent Retry Logic
Exponential backoff with jitter. Circuit breakers that stop hammering failing providers. Retries are automatic but respectful — no wasted bandwidth on hopeless attempts.
Browse the internet on 2 KB/s
Loading a single web page costs 2-5 MB. On airplane WiFi, that's often impossible. But asking an AI to search the web? That's a 10 KB round trip. The AI searches, reads the pages, and synthesizes an answer — all server-side.
❌ Loading a web page
- Data transferred2-5 MB
- Network requests40-100+
- Time on 2 KB/s15-40 min
- Usually works?No
✓ Trickle web search
- Data transferred~10 KB
- Network requests1
- Time on 2 KB/s5-10 sec
- Usually works?Yes
What actually happens on airplane WiFi
| Browser | Trickle + Web Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Data to ask one question | ~2.5 MB | ~10-15 KB |
| Data to research a topic (3 sources) | ~8-15 MB | ~10-15 KB |
| Network requests | 40-80+ | 1 |
| Manual retries on flaky connection | 3-10+ | 0 |
| Partial responses saved | ❌ | ✓ |
| Works on 2 KB/s | ❌ | ✓ |
Bring your own API key
Use your preferred model. Web search, deep research, and extended thinking work through Trickle even on connections that can barely load a webpage.
Your conversations stay on your machine
No account required. No cloud sync. Conversations are stored in a local SQLite database and only exchanged with your LLM providers. API keys live in your OS keychain — not in a config file, not in a browser cookie.
Built for bad connections
Direct HTTPS, no browser engine
Rust's reqwest with rustls for TLS. No Chromium, no cookie jars, no CORS preflight. One TCP connection, one TLS session, one HTTP/2 stream.
Smart endpoint probing
Connectivity checks target the actual API endpoints via TCP SYN. When Trickle says you're connected, it means connected to the AI — not just a captive portal.
Passive throughput measurement
Throughput calculated from actual API response byte rates, not synthetic test downloads. No wasted bandwidth on speed tests.
Circuit breakers per provider
5 consecutive failures trip the breaker. Backoff: 30s → 90s → 270s → 5min cap, with ±25% jitter. Auth errors fail immediately — no point retrying a bad API key.
Frequently asked questions
Is Trickle free?
Yes. Trickle is free to use. You bring your own API keys from providers like Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google — you pay them directly for usage.
Do I need an account?
No. There's no sign-up, no login, no cloud account. Just download and start chatting.
Which AI models are supported?
Claude (Anthropic), GPT-4o (OpenAI), and Gemini (Google). More providers coming soon.
Does it work without any internet?
Trickle queues your messages when you're fully offline and fires them the instant connectivity returns — even if it's just a few seconds of signal. But it does need some connection to reach the AI providers.
Why not just use the browser?
Loading chatgpt.com or claude.ai costs 2-5 MB of bandwidth. Trickle makes a single ~10 KB API call. On a bad connection, that's the difference between working and not working.
Is it safe? macOS says it's not notarized.
Trickle isn't Apple-notarized yet (coming soon). You'll need to right-click → Open the first time you launch it. Your conversations and API keys stay local on your machine — nothing is sent to us.
Questions or feedback?
Send us an email at trickle@kiruna.ai — we read everything and typically respond within a day.
Get Trickle Beta
Free to use. Bring your own API key. No account required.