How Pro Cloud handles your data

Franz Pro Cloud is a managed cloud option for the AI features that benefit from server-side compute, such as the writing assistant and semantic search across mail. It exists for users who want speed without setting up their own provider key. This page explains what runs locally, what Pro Cloud is used for, and the boundaries that apply on every Franz tier. The Privacy Statement is the binding document for data handling.

What stays local on every tier

Most of Franz runs on your computer, regardless of plan. Service caches, workspace layout, notification settings, and the small on-device classifier that distinguishes newsletters from personal email all stay on your device on every tier.

The email intelligence panel is a Pro feature, available during the 14-day free trial. When it is active, it reads from a per-domain database stored on your device. That covers sender activity patterns, response ratios, dormant-thread surfacing, and sender enrichment from publicly available signals. The panel does not call a Franz server, does not call a third-party enrichment vendor with the sender's address, and the privacy architecture is identical on the Pro plan whether you use your own provider key or Franz Cloud.

What Pro Cloud is used for

Pro Cloud routes the heavier AI features through Franz-managed infrastructure when you invoke them. This applies to the writing assistant when you ask it to draft or refine a reply, semantic search when you run a query across years of mail, and similar features that depend on a larger model than the bundled local one. Each call sends only the content needed to satisfy the request: the prompt, the documents you select, and the metadata required to return a result.

If you prefer not to use cloud inference at all, the bundled local model continues to serve these features on Pro and on the free tier. Pro lets you point Franz at your own provider account; the request leaves your device for the provider you configure, not for Franz.

What Franz does not do

Franz does not use your inbox content to train models. Franz does not retain the bodies of messages or attachments after a Pro Cloud request completes, beyond what is required to operate the request and any short-lived caches that protect the service from abuse. Franz does not sell your contact data, and does not share your message content with advertising networks. The Privacy Statement describes the categories of data Franz processes, retention windows, and the legal basis for each processing purpose.

Choosing a mode

The Pro vs Pro Cloud article explains the practical differences between the two paid options. If your concern is specifically about cloud usage, both Pro (with your own provider key) and the free tier let you keep AI work on-device or on an account you control. Pro Cloud trades the convenience of managed inference for the assurances described above and in the Privacy Statement.

You can review and change your plan from your profile billing page.