Questions people ask before they start.
The things people want settled before they call us. If yours isn’t here, ask on the call — we would rather answer it than have you guess.
Before you buy
What does setup involve?
We help you start with the work you want Marling to handle, connect supported mail and calendar accounts, and bring in the files and instructions your team needs. Hosted Marling runs on a dedicated server we manage. With the office-device option, you connect the device to your network and open Marling in your browser.
What will it cost?
You can start with Hosted Marling or put a small device in your office. Request a call to discuss Hosted pricing. For the office device, Standard is $599 a month plus a one-time $999 device setup. The first ten founding customers pay $399 a month, locked for 24 months, plus the same setup. On Standard and Founding, AI usage is prepaid, starting at $50, and you top up when you need more. The full breakdown is on our pricing page.
What happens after I request a call?
A person at Marling writes back by email to find a time for a call. On the call we learn about your business, walk through how Marling fits your workflow, and if it’s a fit, we set you up.
Privacy and your data
So what I type does reach ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini?
Yes. The substance of your request reaches an AI model over the internet. On the office device with the Mental Health or Legal plan, Marling replaces identifying details it recognizes with stand-ins before sending the request, then restores them in the reply. In our tests on deliberately awkward text, it hides about 96% of names as standard and about 99% once your customer list is loaded. A surname used on its own can still be missed, even when the full name is on your list. Hosted Marling and the general small-business plan send requests without this masking step, so identifying details in your request can reach the model.
Does the AI learn from our conversations?
No. On both Hosted Marling and the office device, Marling uses the providers’ commercial services, whose terms exclude training models on your requests. Separately, Shared Memory uses approved preferences and rules about your business to guide future replies. Its suggestions wait for an Admin or Marling Support to approve them.
Is this enough for regulated work?
Masking alone does not make your work compliant. On the office device with the Mental Health or Legal plan, Marling replaces identifying details it recognizes before a request reaches an AI model over the internet. Some details can be missed. If the masking step is unavailable, the message is refused and stays on the device. Hosted Marling and the general small-business plan do not apply this masking step. Before you use real customer information, we walk through the setup, safeguards, and agreements your work requires with you.
Do our documents get uploaded anywhere?
Your documents are read and indexed on the device, and are not sent to any AI provider. When an answer draws on a file, only the passage it needs is sent, with identifiers removed first. Separately, the device sends an encrypted backup to our backup server every four hours so the device can be restored.
Isn’t the cloud more secure than a box in my office?
Security depends on how each system is set up and maintained. You can run Marling on a dedicated server we host for your business or on a small device in your own office. The office device stores your files, saved conversations, and search index on its encrypted disk. Once Marling Support enrolls it for backups, encrypted backups to our backup server are scheduled every four hours. Both options use commercial AI models over the internet. Only the office device with the Mental Health or Legal plan replaces identifying details it recognizes before sending a request, and some details can be missed. Hosted Marling and the general small-business plan do not apply this masking step.
Living with it
Does it listen to sessions or meetings?
No. Dictation is for speaking your own notes after a session or meeting. It records only after you press the mic and answer Yes, turns the audio into text on the device, and deletes the recording right away.
Can we use it from home?
It works on your own network, or through your own VPN if you have one. There is no way in from the open internet, on purpose. Many solo practitioners work from a home office, where the device simply lives.
What happens when we hit the cap?
Requests pause until the daily cap resets the next day. Contact Marling Support any time to top up your prepaid AI balance or set a lower daily cap.
What if it breaks, or the internet goes down?
If your internet drops, the AI models are unavailable until it’s back, and nothing on the device is lost. If the device itself has a problem, we look after it. We reach it over a private connection that opens no doors from the internet, and while we’re in there we can see what’s on the device, the same as any IT administrator fixing a server. The device sets up that connection itself, and we use it only to fix a problem. It also sends an encrypted backup to our backup server every four hours.
Isn’t this just ChatGPT?
A personal chat account sits on one person’s login and knows only what that one person has typed into it. Marling is one shared brain for your whole team with no separate AI accounts for your staff to manage. It connects to your Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace mail, calendar, and tasks, answers from your own files with citations, and learns the standing rules your Admin approves so every new hire benefits from day one. Nothing is sent or remembered without a person’s approval, and you can run it on a dedicated hosted server or on a small device in your own office.
Can it work with another tool we use?
Tell us which tool and what you want done. If it has an API or another permitted way to connect, we can usually build a connection. Our connections page shows what is available today.