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.
- Run the installer. It puts OTA in the system tray and starts it when you log in.
- Choose an engine. ChatGPT is ticked by default. Claude and Gemini are optional and can be added later. OTA downloads and installs what it needs behind a progress bar.
- Authorise it. One tap opens your browser. Sign in to the engine you chose and come back — the installer notices on its own.
- Sign in to OneTapAnswer. Google sign-in, which is what carries your 10 free answers and, later, your plan.
- Done. The last screen shows your hotkey and offers to change it.
Hotkeys
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl Enter | Answer — 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 M | Move — 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.
| Mode | You see | Tapping it |
|---|---|---|
| Letter only | OTA: B | Dismisses |
| Choice | OTA: B) Mitochondria | Dismisses |
| Short explanation | OTA: B — the cell's powerhouse. | Dismisses |
| Detailed | OTA: B) Mitochondria (tap for details) | Opens the full answer |
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.
| Type | Answers like |
|---|---|
| Multiple choice — letters | OTA: C |
| Multiple choice — numbers | OTA: 3 |
| Multiple choice — roman | OTA: iii |
| Select all that apply | OTA: A, C, E |
| Fill in the blank | OTA: Paris |
| Several blanks | OTA: 1) Paris 2) France |
| True or false | OTA: True |
| Matching | OTA: 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.
| AI | Good for | Needs |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | The default. Fast and accurate on ordinary quizzes. | A free sign-in |
| Claude | Long, wordy or reasoning-heavy questions. | A free sign-in |
| Gemini | A third opinion when the other two are busy. Slower to answer than either of them. | A free Google sign-in |
| Ollama | Working 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.
- Settings → Offline Answers. If it is not installed, press Install Ollama and watch the bar.
- Pick a vision model. OTA lists only models that can read a picture — a text-only one would fail on the first question. moondream is about 1.6 GB and the lightest that works.
- 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 and macOS on the same licence. 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 an exam.
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.
- 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 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. API keys are an option for advanced users, not a requirement.
Does it work outside a browser?
Yes. OTA is not an extension — it reads whatever window is in front of you. A desktop testing client, a PDF, a slide deck and a video call 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 $49.90 a month and gets an invite code; up to five people in total, the buyer included, redeem it and get unlimited answers. That is $9.98 each with five of you, against $29.90 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, and they can be one Windows and one Mac 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 the quiz you actually need it for before paying anything. The pricing page says the same thing at more length.
Does OTA keep what it reads?
No. See Privacy below for exactly what happens to one.
Is this allowed?
That depends on the rules of your specific test — it’s your responsibility to check. OTA is designed for revision, practice papers, and self-study.
Something not covered here? Email support@onetapanswer.com. Paid plan users get the priority support.