Using Monotonic for yourself: a private AI for your own work and life

5 min read · Updated November 2026

You don't need a team or a technical background to get something out of Monotonic. This guide is for one person with their own files, notes and email, who wants answers from them without handing them to a public AI.

What it's good for

Monotonic answers from what you give it, and shows where each answer came from. People use it for things like:

• Your own paperwork: leases, warranties, insurance policies and manuals. Ask "when does my warranty end?" instead of searching a folder.
• Your notes and research: years of notes, saved articles and drafts, searchable by asking a question.
• Your email: connect Gmail and ask about a booking, an order or what someone said last spring.
• Your writing: turn on learning and it picks up how you write, so drafts sound like you.

It isn't a replacement for a public AI when you want general knowledge or news. It's for questions about your own material.

Setting it up

Setup asks a few plain questions: what it's for, who it answers (choose just you), and how it should sound. Every choice can be changed later in Settings.

You also choose how it works:

• Search my documents: answers come from your files, with their sources. Nothing is trained.
• Search, and learn my style: it also learns how you write from files you choose.

Either way, facts always come from your own documents. If you're not sure, start with search only. You can turn learning on later.

Adding your things

Upload files from your computer or phone: PDF, Word, CSV, plain text, Markdown and JSON, up to 100 MB each. Or connect a source once and let it keep up:

• Gmail
• Google Drive
• Microsoft 365
• Notion

When files arrive, they're checked for personal details such as names, phone numbers and ID numbers. You choose what happens to what's found: review it yourself, hide it automatically, or keep it as it is.

Asking questions

Open Chat in the browser on any device, your phone included, and ask the way you'd ask a person. Each answer lists the documents and passages it used, so you can check it.

Your chats are kept, one per conversation, until you delete them.

If you'd like it to remember things you tell it, turn on memories. It then keeps what you say in your own chats for your future answers. You can read, edit or delete each memory, and turning memories off deletes them all.

Using it from Claude or ChatGPT

If you already use Claude or ChatGPT, you can add Monotonic to it as a connector. They can then ask your Monotonic model when a question needs your documents.

Know what that means before you do it: the answer your model gives goes to that company, under its terms. Nothing is sent anywhere until you connect it.

Keeping it private

• Files travel over an encrypted connection and are encrypted under your account's own key as soon as they reach us.
• Your documents answer only for you, and they never train anyone else's model.
• Every answer is written inside Monotonic. We never pass your questions to another AI company.

Sharing with your household

Starter is for one person. If you want to share with people at home, Pro includes up to 5 people. Everyone signs in with their own email and has their own space, called Me, as well as a space you all share.

One thing to know: the account's Owner and Admins can open any space in the account, so only make someone an Admin if you're happy for them to see yours.

Taking it with you

You can download your files and conversations at any time, or delete everything from Settings at once. Backups expire within 14 days. If you cancel, your data and model are kept for 30 days in case you come back, then deleted.