OneTapAnswer

Docs & FAQ

Everything about running OneTapAnswer, in the order you are likely to need it.

Setup guide

The installer does the whole setup. You will not see a terminal, a package manager or a configuration file at any point.

  1. Run the installer. It puts OTA in the system tray and starts it when you log in.
  2. Choose an AI. ChatGPT is marked Recommended and works on a free ChatGPT account; Gemini works on a free Google account; Claude needs a paid Claude plan. One is enough — add the others later. OTA installs what it needs behind a progress bar.
  3. Authorise it. One tap opens your browser. Sign in to the engine you chose and come back — the installer notices on its own.
  4. Sign in to OneTapAnswer. Google sign-in, which is what carries your 10 free answers and, later, your plan.
  5. Done. The last screen shows your hotkey and offers to change it.

First-run warnings

The installers are new and not yet signed, so each system asks you to confirm the first time you open OneTapAnswer. This is what each one says, and the way past it.

Windows

OneTapAnswer is new and doesn’t carry a publisher’s signature yet, so Windows can’t say who made it and asks you to confirm. It’s the warning every new app gets.

  1. Microsoft Edge holds the file back: “isn’t commonly downloaded.” Point at it, press … and choose Keep, then open the arrow beside Delete and choose Keep anyway. Chrome downloads it without asking.
  2. If a blue window says “Windows protected your PC”, press More info, then Run anyway.
  3. Windows asks whether to let “an app from an unknown publisher” make changes: press Yes. It installs for everyone on the computer, which needs that permission.
Edge's Downloads panel saying the OneTapAnswer installer isn't commonly downloaded, with its … menu open on Delete, Keep, Report this file as safe and Learn more.
In Edge: … → Keep
Edge asking to make sure you trust the OneTapAnswer installer, publisher unknown, with Keep anyway opened from the arrow beside Delete.
Then: Delete ⌄ → Keep anyway

Smart App Control is stricter. If Windows says it blocked OneTapAnswer, there is no way past it on that computer yet: that setting only runs signed apps.

macOS

OneTapAnswer isn’t notarised by Apple yet, so the first time you open it macOS stops it and asks you to allow it in System Settings.

  1. If Safari asks whether to allow downloads on onetapanswer.com, press Allow.
  2. Open the downloaded file and drag OneTapAnswer into Applications.
  3. Open it from Applications. When macOS says it can’t verify OneTapAnswer, press Done — not Move to Trash.
  4. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to the line about OneTapAnswer and press Open Anyway, then Open Anyway again in the box that follows, and confirm with your password.
  5. When OneTapAnswer asks, allow Screen Recording: it’s how it reads the question in front of you.
  6. The first time you press the keys, macOS asks whether OneTapAnswer may “bypass the system private window picker”: press Allow.

On macOS 14 or earlier, Control-click the app in Applications, choose Open, then Open again.

Still blocked after Open Anyway? Open Terminal, paste xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/OneTapAnswer.app and press Return, then open OneTapAnswer again.

Linux

The AppImage is the whole app in one file: nothing to install, but it has to be allowed to run first.

  1. Right-click the downloaded file → Properties, and allow it to run as a program (Executable as Program on GNOME, Is executable on KDE). In a terminal: chmod +x OneTapAnswer_*.AppImage
  2. Double-click it. On KDE, press Launch when Dolphin asks whether to launch it.
  3. On GNOME 48 or newer, or KDE Plasma, say yes when the desktop asks about OneTapAnswer’s keyboard shortcuts (Add on GNOME).
  4. On the setup’s last step, press Allow beside Let OTA read your screen, then Allow again when the desktop asks.

Nothing opens? Start it from a terminal to see why, or with --appimage-extract-and-run, which works without FUSE.

Hotkeys

KeysWhat it does
Ctrl EnterAnswer — capture the window in front of you, ask the AI, show a notification. Enter is the key you already press to commit an answer.
Ctrl MMove — cycle through the engines you have connected. A notification confirms the switch.

Both work system-wide, whatever window is focused. Both can be changed in Settings, where the picker records a live keypress. A combination is accepted only if it carries Ctrl, Alt or Cmd, is not already OTA’s other hotkey, and the operating system agrees to hand it over.

Answer modes

How much answer arrives in the notification. Changeable from the tray menu without opening Settings.

ModeYou seeTapping it
Letter onlyOTA: BDismisses
ChoiceOTA: B) MitochondriaDismisses
Short explanationOTA: B — the cell's powerhouse.Dismisses
DetailedOTA: B) Mitochondria (tap for details)Opens the full answer

On a Mac or Linux the notification can’t be tapped open: it ends (details in OTA’s menu), and Show explanation in OTA’s menu opens the same window.

Detailed mode opens a small window with the answer, the reasoning, and a line on why each other option is wrong. It closes on Escape, on Dismiss, or by clicking anywhere outside it, and there is a Copy button.

Question types

OTA works out what shape a question is and answers in the quiz’s own labelling. There is nothing to configure per site or per question.

TypeAnswers like
Multiple choice — lettersOTA: C
Multiple choice — numbersOTA: 3
Multiple choice — romanOTA: iii
Select all that applyOTA: A, C, E
Fill in the blankOTA: Paris
Several blanksOTA: 1) Paris 2) France
True or falseOTA: True
MatchingOTA: 1-C, 2-A, 3-D

The test quiz has three of each, with the expected answer hidden behind a button so OTA does not read it along with the question.

AI providers

Four AI providers, each with different strengths.

AIGood forNeeds
ChatGPTThe default. Fast and accurate on ordinary quizzes.A ChatGPT sign-in — the free plan works
ClaudeLong, wordy or reasoning-heavy questions.A paid Claude plan (Pro or above)
GeminiA third opinion when the other two are busy. Slower to answer than either of them.A free Google sign-in
OllamaWorking offline, or keeping everything local.A capable machine

Settings → Answering AI shows every version each AI offers — the list updates automatically, so new versions appear without waiting for an OTA update.

Offline with Ollama

Ollama runs a vision model on your own computer. Nothing leaves the machine, and it works with no internet at all.

  1. Settings → Offline Answers. If it is not installed, press Install Ollama and watch the bar.
  2. Pick a vision model. OTA lists only models that can read a picture — a text-only one would fail on the first question — and marks the one sized for your computer; the smallest is about 1.6 GB.
  3. Choosing a downloaded model is what switches Ollama on. Until then it stays out of the default and out of the Ctrl M cycle.

Plans & devices

Every account gets 10 free answers a month, resetting on the 1st. A plan makes them unlimited and renews until you stop it — see pricing.

  • Two computers at a time. Windows, macOS and Linux on the same licence, in any mix. A third sign-in signs out the least recently used one, by name.
  • It works offline for a day. Your plan is confirmed with the server and then cached for 24 hours, so a server outage or a flight does not stop you answering.
  • Cancel any time, keep what you paid for. Cancelling stops the next charge; the period you are inside runs to its end and answers stay unlimited until it does. Until then the same button undoes it.
  • A failed renewal is not a lockout. If a card is refused, OTA says so and keeps answering for three days while your payment provider retries — long enough to update a card without losing a day.

Privacy

What actually happens when you press the hotkey:

  • OTA captures the foreground window only — not the screen, not your other applications, not the taskbar or a second monitor. The one exception is Linux under Wayland: GNOME and KDE hand an app only the whole screen, so there OTA reads that, after you allow it once in the desktop’s dialog.
  • What it reads is held in memory, sent to the engine you chose, and dropped. There is no history of it and no image cache.
  • Two engines, ChatGPT and Gemini, can only be handed a file. On those paths only, OTA writes the image to a private file for the seconds the answer takes, overwrites it with zeros and deletes it. On the Claude path nothing touches disk at all.
  • What it reads is never uploaded to our servers. It goes from your machine to the engine and nowhere else. With Ollama it does not leave the machine.
  • What we do store is an account: your email, which plan you are on, and a hashed identifier for each of your two computers — never the machine identifier itself.

Troubleshooting

Every failure arrives as a notification written in plain language. These are the ones you are most likely to meet.

The hotkey does nothing
Another application already owns that combination and the operating system will not hand it over. OTA says so rather than failing quietly: the tray tooltip reads Hotkey unavailable — open Settings, and the Settings hotkey picker marks the binding In use by another app. Record a different one — anything with Ctrl or Alt in it.
“ChatGPT is not connected. Open Settings to set up.”
The AI is installed but has never been authorized, or its sign-in has expired. Open Settings → the AI card → Connect, which opens your browser for one tap. Nothing is typed in.
“Rate limit reached”
The AI provider has temporarily limited your usage — this is the provider’s limit, not OTA’s. Press Ctrl M to switch to another connected AI and carry on.
“No internet connection”
Cloud engines need one. If you set up Ollama, switch to it and keep going — it answers entirely on your own machine.
“Ollama is not running”
Ollama is installed but its background service is stopped. Open Settings → Offline Answers and press Start. OTA starts it without opening Ollama’s own window over your quiz.
The answer is wrong
Check that the question was fully visible in the window when you pressed the hotkey — OTA reads the foreground window as it is, so anything scrolled out of view is not part of the question it sees. If the question was complete, press Ctrl M to switch to a different AI; long, wordy questions tend to work better with Claude.

FAQ

Do I need an API key?
No. OneTapAnswer sets everything up during installation and connects it with one click in your browser, using the ChatGPT, Claude or Google account you sign in with.
Do I need a paid ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini account?
Not for ChatGPT or Gemini: both answer on a free account, within that provider’s own limits. Claude is different — it needs a paid Claude plan (Pro or above), because Anthropic includes the part OTA uses only on paid plans.
Does it work outside a browser?
Yes. OTA is not an extension — it reads whatever window is in front of you. A PDF of past papers, a slide deck, a study app and a course video all work the same way.
What happens after my 10 free answers this month?
The answer hotkey stops until the 1st of next month, when the count goes back to 10 — the notification says so, and offers a plan if you would rather not wait. Everything else keeps working: settings, switching AI, the tray. The app is never locked, and nothing is deleted.
Is it a subscription?
Yes. A plan renews automatically at whatever length you picked — every month, every 6 months or every year — until you cancel it. Cancelling is one button in Settings → Plan, it takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for, and you keep every day of that period. You can undo a cancellation any time before it takes effect.
Can I split a plan with friends?
Yes — that is the Team plan. One person pays $49.99 a month and gets an invite code; up to five people in total, the buyer included, redeem it and get unlimited answers. That is $9.99 each with five of you, against $29.99 each on the Monthly plan. Everybody keeps their own account, their own two computers and their own answers; the only thing shared is the payment.
What happens to a team if the person paying cancels?
Everybody keeps unlimited answers until the end of the period already paid for, exactly as the buyer does — cancelling never takes back a day somebody has paid for. After that each member falls back to whatever they hold on their own: their own plan if they have one, and the free 10 answers a month otherwise. Nothing is deleted, and the same code works again if the buyer subscribes again.
How do I change the card I pay with?
Settings → Plan → Update payment method, which opens your payment provider's own page in your browser. OTA never has anywhere to type a card number, which is the point: it cannot leak what it never holds. If you paid through PayPal, change it on paypal.com.
How many computers can I use?
Two at a time, in any mix of Windows, Mac and Linux on the same licence. Signing in on a third signs out whichever of the two you have used least recently — OTA names it, so you always know what happened.
Can I get a refund?
No — and that is why the free answers exist. Try OTA on your own practice questions before paying anything. The refund policy says it in full, including the duplicate charges and statutory rights that are always put right.
Does OTA keep what it reads?
No. See Privacy below for exactly what happens to one.
Is this allowed?
OTA is built for practice tests, homework checks, revision and past papers. Whether outside help is allowed in a particular test is up to whoever sets it, and checking is your responsibility — where it isn’t allowed, that includes OTA (Terms §5).

Something not covered here? Email support@onetapanswer.com. Paid plan users get the priority support.

For the wider questions — how to revise for an online exam, what the alternatives actually do — there are a few longer pieces on the blog.