Annotate images. Train better models.

A focused macOS app for building object-detection datasets: bounding boxes, polygons, and model-assisted labeling, all on your Mac. No accounts. No cloud. No Python dependencies. Fully offline.

Download on the Mac App Store Requires macOS 15.0 or later · Universal (Apple silicon and Intel)

yaAnnotator main window showing a grid of annotated images

What it does

Everything you need to label a dataset well

PRECISION TOOLS

Draw it exactly the way you mean it

Boxes, polygons, and rotated boxes on a fast AppKit canvas with zoom, pan, and snapping. Drag handles, add and move polygon vertices, combine annotations, and undo anything, all without leaving the keyboard.

Select, Box, Polygon & Smart Select tools
Per-annotation label + confidence in the inspector
Full undo/redo and review flags

Drawing a polygon annotation on the yaAnnotator canvas

Model-assisted detection proposing bounding boxes in yaAnnotator

MODEL-ASSISTED LABELING

Let the model do the first pass

Built-in YOLOv3 and Apple detectors get you started instantly. Bring your own Core ML detectors (including RF-DETR raw tensors) with class mapping and confidence tuning. Or click to segment with SAM2 Smart Select.

Built-in YOLOv3 object detector
Built-in Vision detectors
Built-in SAM2 click-to-segment box output
Download and use Custom Core ML & RF-DETR detectors

DATA QUALITY

Know your dataset before you train

The Analyze Annotations report surfaces class balance, rare-class flags, geometry charts, validity checks, and duplicate images caught by perceptual hashing, even across splits. Every chart is clickable and filters the image list.

Class balance & rare-class detection
Duplicate & cross-split leakage detection
Clickable Swift Charts that filter your images

The Analyze Annotations report showing class balance in yaAnnotator

Round-trips with the rest of your stack

Import and export COCO, YOLO, CreateML, CVAT, and Pascal VOC, as full datasets or per-split.

COCO YOLO CreateML CVAT Pascal VOC

Yours, and only yours

Sandboxed and fully offline, with no accounts and no telemetry. Images are referenced in place by security-scoped bookmark. Never copied, never uploaded.

Offline Sandboxed No telemetry Accessible · VoiceOver

Pro

Shape bigger, better datasets with Pro

Every part of labeling is free: importing, annotating, the Report, and exporting to every format. Pro is a one-time purchase that unlocks the dataset-shaping extras on export and lifts the project limit.

Augmentation on export: generate extra training copies (flips, rotations, crops, photometric and blur effects), with every box and polygon moved to match.
Isolate objects: turn labeled boxes into a foldered-by-class classification dataset.
Export presets: save a whole export recipe and reuse it across a library in one click.
Unlimited projects: the free tier holds two projects per library; Pro removes the cap.

And, honestly, a warm fuzzy feeling. Keeping an app fast with thousands of images is real work, and even a small handful of people going Pro is a huge morale boost. Thank you.

yaAnnotator's export augmentation options generating extra training copies

Feature	Free	Pro
Annotation editor: boxes, polygons, rotated boxes, Smart Select	✓	✓
Model-assisted labeling: YOLOv3, Vision, SAM2, custom Core ML & RF-DETR	✓	✓
Import & export: COCO, YOLO, CreateML, CVAT, Pascal VOC	✓	✓
Analyze Annotations report	✓	✓
Fully offline & private: no accounts, no telemetry	✓	✓
Runs on macOS 15.0 or later	✓	✓
Projects per library	2	Unlimited
Augmentation on export	–	✓
Isolate objects → classification dataset	–	✓
Save Export presets	–	✓

Build your next dataset on your Mac

Download yaAnnotator from the Mac App Store and start labeling in minutes. No sign-up, no setup, no subscription.

Download on the Mac App Store