Say what you're doing
Type your topic in plain language — "learning English", "Q3 budget deck". Add an always-allow list for the tools you trust, like Anki or your docs.
Stop drifting. START FINISHING
01 — What it does
Tell it your topic. It watches the window and tab you're actually in, and blocks whatever isn't that.
02 — How it feels
A nudge when you slip, a full-screen lock when you keep slipping. The way back is always your own topic.
Download for Windows
↗
Beta · Windows 10/11 · uninstall anytime
Download for macOS
↗
Beta · macOS 11+ · Apple Silicon (Intel Mac) · first launch: right-click → Open
Focus Zip is a desktop app for Windows and macOS — pick the installer for the machine you work on.
Three steps.
That's the whole product.
Focus Zip watches the window
It polls the focused app and browser tab every 1.5 seconds. Keyword matching handles the obvious calls instantly and for free; Claude settles the ambiguous ones.
You get pulled back
Nudge sends a notification. Block throws a full-screen overlay over the distraction — and the dismiss button stays locked longer every time you try to push past it.
Built by someone who kept
beating their own blocker
Every feature here exists because a cheaper version of it failed.
It understands context
Not a URL blacklist. A Chinese course page during an English session gets blocked; Anki during a language session doesn't. No keyword lists to maintain.
Escalating lock
First block: 10 seconds before you can dismiss. Then 20, 40, 60. Return to a page you were already blocked from and it re-blocks instantly.
Always-allow list
Name the tools that are always fine. Edits apply mid-session, immediately — no restart, no waiting for the next block to find out you got it wrong.
Session history & reports
Every session logged with what got blocked and why. Shareable text and chart reports, weekly and monthly.
Your own lock screen
Personalize the block overlay with your own message and theme — Midnight, Ocean, Sunset, or Light. Make it something you'll actually listen to.
Presets
Save the topics you return to. Two clicks from opening the app to a running session.
Community
A place for people who are learning something — a language, a degree, a craft, a side project. Bring what you are working on and work on it next to other people.
Study together
Say what you are starting, start it, come back when the session ends. Working alongside other people is the oldest focus trick there is, and it works when nobody is watching you either.
Goals and progress
Share the week you planned and the week you actually had — your focus score, your streak, the distraction that keeps winning. Easier to keep a promise you said out loud.
Shape the app
Bugs, missing features, wording that makes no sense in your language — this is the fastest way to reach us, and a lot of what is in the app today started as someone's message.
Join the Discord server
Free, and open whether or not you pay for Focus Zip. You need a Discord account; the app itself works without one.
Browser add-on
Optional. Focus Zip already sees your browser's window title; the add-on also reports the page address, so a tab whose title gives nothing away still gets judged correctly — and a tab switch is noticed the moment it happens.
- Download and unzip the add-on. Keep the unzipped folder somewhere permanent — the browser loads it from that location every time it starts.
- Open your browser's extensions page: paste
chrome://extensions(Chrome, Brave),edge://extensions(Edge) oropera://extensions(Opera) into the address bar. - Turn on Developer mode — the switch in the top-right corner.
- Click "Load unpacked" and pick the unzipped folder. "Focus Zip Connector" appears in the list — that is all.
- Check it worked: in the app open Extensions and click Check connection. It only connects while a focus session is running.
Pricing
One subscription, three sizes. You pick the plan inside the app, and you can cancel it there at any time.
Zip Core
$3.99/ month
- Try the first week for $1 — full Zip Pro access while it lasts
- Then $3.99/month — 150 AI checks a day
- Recognizes related apps with zero keywords (Anki, docs, tools…)
- All focus modes, presets, challenges and full session history
- No AI weekly report and no AI coach
Zip Pro
$5.99/ month
- 🧠 AI weekly report — what actually broke your focus, every Monday
- 300 AI checks a day — about four times a heavy working day
- Personalized lock screen and all themes
- Advanced charts and unlimited session history
- A report to read, not a conversation
Zip Coach
$9.99/ month
- Everything in Zip Pro, plus:
- 💬 Talk to your AI coach about your own sessions — ask why a week went badly and what to change
- 55 coach messages a month
- The coach sees your focus patterns, never your page titles
- Advice covers work habits only — not health or wellbeing
Prices in US dollars. In the app you see the price in your own currency including VAT, which is the amount actually charged. The $1 first week continues as Zip Core at $3.99/month until you cancel — cancel any time in Settings → Account.
Questions
Which browsers does it work with?
All of them. Focus Zip reads the active window title from the operating system, so Chrome, Opera, Edge, Firefox and Brave all work the same way — as does every desktop app.
Can I just alt-tab past the block?
The overlay covers the distraction rather than force-quitting it, so a determined person can get around it. Everything else is designed to make that annoying: the dismiss button locks for longer each time, and pages you've already been blocked from re-block instantly.
What about false blocks?
Add the app or site to your always-allow list and it applies immediately, mid-session. Adult content can't be allow-listed.
"Daily AI quota reached"
During the beta every account gets 300 AI checks a day — a normal working day uses 30-80. The app keeps working with keyword matching after the limit; quotas reset at midnight UTC.
Where is my data stored?
Locally: settings, presets and session history live in %APPDATA%\Focus Zip.
Server-side: only your e-mail, hashed password and usage counters. Deleting your account
removes the server record; local data stays until you uninstall. Details in the
Privacy Policy.
Do I need an API key?
No. The app ships with no keys in it. You sign in with an account and classification is proxied through our backend.
Is there a Mac version?
Yes — a beta, for Apple Silicon and Intel, macOS 11 or newer. It is not notarised by Apple yet, so the first launch needs right-click → Open. It has had less testing than the Windows build, so tell us what breaks.
What will you
finish this week?
Download for Windows
Beta · 77 MB · Windows 10/11
Download for macOS
Beta · Apple Silicon · macOS 11+
On an Intel Mac? Download the Intel build. Because the app is not notarised by Apple, open it the first time with right-click → Open.