Dinky
Dinky vs Smol
Smol is a paid menu-bar app with Smart Clipboard and on-device AI upscaling. Dinky is free, open source, about 35 MB—and covers audio alongside stills, MP4, and PDF in the same drop zone.
Choose Smol for menu bar and Smart Clipboard
When the menu bar is home base, you want automatic clipboard compression without a hotkey, you need RAW camera files or on-device AI upscaling, and a one-time purchase with trial is fine.
Choose Dinky for free OSS, audio, and automation
When you want inspectable source, no purchase, watch folders included, deeper PDF paths (flatten, preserve, optional OCR), audio cross-converts, CLI and dinky serve, URL import—and the smallest all-in-one install.
| Dinky | Smol | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (MIT) | $29 one-time (7-day trial) |
| Source | Open source on GitHub | Proprietary |
| Installed size (approx.) | ~35 MB | Not published (bundled encoders + AI upscaler) |
| Primary UI | Window drop zone + sidebar | Menu bar + popup |
| Clipboard workflow | Hotkey paste compress (⌘⇧V) | Automatic Smart Clipboard |
| Watch folder | Included | — |
| Still images | WebP, AVIF, HEIC, lossless PNG | AVIF, WebP, JPEG, PNG + RAW |
| AI upscaling | — | 2× / 4× on Apple Silicon |
| Video | MP4 (H.264/HEVC/AV1); optional FPS cap | H.265 video compression |
| Audio | AAC, ALAC, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 | — |
| Flatten, preserve, optional scan OCR | 5 quality presets | |
| CLI / automation | dinky CLI + dinky serve |
— |
| Processing | Local on your Mac | Local on your Mac |
| macOS | 15+ Sequoia | Apple Silicon only · macOS 13+ |
Free · Open source · Local
Breadth and automation without the purchase
Smol excels at menu-bar speed and automatic clipboard compression; Dinky adds audio, watch folders, richer PDF routes, and CLI automation—all free, inspectable, and sized for everyday compression instead of a paid bundle with an AI model on disk.
35 MB · v2.11.2 · Requires macOS 15 Sequoia