Everything you need to get set up, fix a scanned-file problem, or understand your license — in plain language.
Three steps, and you're done.
Drag your files into the box in the app (or click Browse Files to pick them).
ShrinkRay turns each file into a lean Markdown (.md) file — everything happens on your computer, nothing gets uploaded.
Open the new .md file, copy the text, and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, or any AI chat.
Each file shows two numbers, like 9,400 → 346 tokens. Tokens are small chunks of text that AI reads. A smaller number after the arrow means the file takes up less room in your chat — so you can fit more files, or more back-and-forth, before you hit a limit.
Each converted file saves as a .md file right next to the original, in the same folder. Want them somewhere else? Click Output Folder before you convert.
Catch identifiers before they reach an AI — you review everything first.
Turn on Scrub before send and ShrinkRay checks converted output for identifiers before anything is saved: emails, phone numbers, and SSN-style numbers (free), plus your own client list and detected names/organizations (Pro). Each one becomes a placeholder like [CLIENT-1] — the same placeholder everywhere it appears, so the AI can still follow the document.
Nothing is saved until you confirm in the review window. Scrub helps you catch identifiers — it isn't guaranteed to find everything, and name detection can miss unusual names. Put must-never-slip names in your project's client list; those are matched exactly. Always give output a final read before sending.
Your document's content still goes to whatever AI you paste it into — only the replaced identifiers don't. Scrub reduces what you disclose; it doesn't make a document private.
Paste the AI's answer into Restore names… — or load it with Open file… — and the placeholders swap back to the real values, locally. Copy the result, or use Restore & save file… to write a new _restored.md beside the original (your files are never changed in place). Each scrub run saves its own map (last 20 kept in your ShrinkRay data folder; delete them any time), and ShrinkRay warns you if any placeholders can't be matched — that usually means picking the map from the matching run.
Un-Shrink… turns a Markdown answer into a formatted Word document — headings, lists, and tables included. Save a letterhead as templates\default.docx in the ShrinkRay data folder once and every output inherits it.
Some files need one extra, one-time step.
A scanned PDF or a photo of a document is really just a picture. Your computer can't pull text out of a picture on its own. ShrinkRay uses a free tool called Tesseract to read that text. You only install it once.
Open Terminal and run:
brew install tesseract
Photos work best when they're flat, well-lit, and taken straight-on — not at an angle.
Free at home, licensed at work — one simple rule either way.
ShrinkRay is free forever for personal use — school, home, your own projects. If you use it for work that makes money (client files, business documents), you need a paid license: Pro for one person ($49/yr, or $199 once for two seats), or Team-5 / Team-10 for an office.
Free-tier output ends with one short line crediting ShrinkRay. It doesn't change your content — it's just a courtesy note. Any paid license removes it.
You keep every version you already have, forever — you just stop getting new updates until you renew.
Click the License button at the top of the main app window to enter your key, or to see your current license.
Non-commercial use. Convert everything; basic scrub of emails, phones and SSNs.
One person, business use, client list, Redaction Log, Restore, no attribution line.
Everything in Pro, two seats, no renewals ever.
Five or ten seats, one org, one key, one invoice.
The never-lose-access rule: every version released while your license is active is yours permanently. If you stop renewing, the app keeps working, you just stop getting new versions.
Common issues and quick fixes.
Free means free for personal, non-commercial use, with every feature. The business tiers fund development. If home users spread the word, that trade works for everyone.
Using ShrinkRay for work that generates income: client documents, work files, business research. Using it for your kid's homework, personal projects or your own household paperwork is personal use. We built the honor system in, and business audits keep companies honest.
No. Conversion, OCR, everything runs locally on your PC. ShrinkRay makes no network connections. You can run it with Wi-Fi off and confirm for yourself.
Measured results: a Word report shrank 96% (9,400 to 346 tokens), an Excel workbook 93%, web pages typically 80–94%, text PDFs 33–70%. Scanned PDFs become usable text that AI chat tools could not read at all. The app shows exact before/after numbers on every file.
You keep everything you have. Any version released during your license period runs forever. Expired licenses only stop new updates.
In development. Windows 10/11 today. Join the newsletter to hear when macOS ships.