step 1 of 3
install the app
open the dmg and drag featherdrive to applications. a small feather lands in your menu bar.
7-day free trial · macOS 14+
your google drive, as an infinite mac disk.
featherdrive puts your google drive in finder. files take zero bytes on your mac and open the moment you click them, because only the parts an app reads are fetched.
see it in finder
click the big file. it weighs nothing.
6 items, 4.2 MB on this mac, 674 GB in your google drive
wedding-final-4k.mov48.2 GB
- kind
- QuickTime movie
- size
- 48,213,551,104 bytes
- on disk
- Zero bytes on disk
- where
- featherdrive ▸ films
it lives in your google drive. finder streams just the parts an app reads.
01:12:08:14
v2
v1
a1
48.2 GB clip, zero bytes on disk, scrubbing straight from google drive
12,408 raw files, zero bytes on disk, previews load in a blink
kick
bass
keys
vox
pads
31.4 GB of stems opened in place, nothing copied to your mac
lecture-07-thermo.mp4 · 2.1 GB
week 7: entropyexam stuff
a whole semester of recordings, zero bytes on a 256 GB mac
why it feels differentbig files, zero weight.
big files, zero weight.
on a mac that stays light.
space a 48 gb film takes on your mac0 bytes
target time from click to first frame< 1.5 s
encrypted segments, fetched one by one4 MiB
gcm encryption, keys in your keychainAES-256
opens in the apps you already use
- Final Cut Pro
- DaVinci Resolve
- CapCut
- Premiere Pro
- Logic Pro
- Lightroom
- QuickTime
step 2 of 3
sign in with google
one button. featherdrive only sees the files it puts in your drive, never the rest of it.
step 3 of 3
drag files in
featherdrive shows up in finder under locations. drop your biggest folders there and free the space.
a cloud drive that feels local.
it behaves like a disk you already know, with a few extras living in your menu bar.
drop files on the feather
drag anything onto the menu-bar icon and it uploads to your drive.
your disk stays empty
move a folder in and get the space back straight away.
press play, it plays
only the parts you watch are fetched, so a big clip starts in about a second.
keep folders for offline
right-click a folder, choose keep on this mac, and take it on the plane.
share with a link
copy a link from finder. it opens in any browser, the key stays in the link.
uploads that pick up again
close the lid halfway through. it carries on from the last byte.
locked before it leaves
with encryption on, google only ever stores scrambled bytes.
edit straight from the drive
resolve, final cut and logic read from featherdrive like any other disk.
the same drive, minus the copies.
| feature | featherdrive | google drive for desktop | icloud drive | dropbox |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| opens big files without downloading them first | ✓ | — | — | — |
| no local copy left behind after you open a file | ✓ | — | — | — |
| native finder location | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| end-to-end encryption | optional | — | opt-in (advanced data protection) | business plans |
| price | one-time ₹799 / $12.99, uses your google storage | free, uses your google storage | paid beyond 5 gb | paid beyond 2 gb |
based on each app’s default behaviour on macOS as of october 2026. pricing is for extra storage beyond the free tier.
my mac has a 256 gb drive and i edit video. for a year i juggled external disks and deleted footage i wanted to keep.
i already paid google for two terabytes i barely touched. i just wanted that space to show up in finder and behave like a disk, without copying everything back down. so i built it, priced it once, and kept your files in your own drive.
things people ask first.
how can a 48 gb file open instantly?
macOS asks featherdrive for specific byte ranges of a file as an app reads it. featherdrive fetches just those ranges from google drive, plus a little ahead, and hands them over. a video player needs the first few megabytes to start, not the whole file. those pieces pass through a small capped cache and are cleared again, so get info keeps saying zero bytes on disk.
can it see my other google drive files?
no. featherdrive asks for google’s drive.file permission, which only covers files the app creates or that you open with it. it makes one featherdrive folder in your drive and works inside it. your existing docs, photos and folders stay out of reach.
what happens if i lose my recovery key?
if encryption is on and you lose both your passphrase and your 24-word recovery key, nobody can decrypt your files: not google, not us. that is the point of end-to-end encryption, and also why the app makes you save the recovery key before you continue. encryption is optional; unencrypted files can always be opened from drive.
does it work offline?
files you have marked “keep on this mac” work offline like normal files. everything else needs a connection to open. new files you add while offline wait in a queue and upload when you reconnect.
what do i need to run it?
a mac with macOS 14 sonoma or later, apple silicon or intel, and a google account. how much you can store depends on your google storage: 15 gb free, or more with a google one plan.
is it really free?
you get a free 7-day trial with everything unlocked. after that it is a one-time ₹799 / $12.99 for unlimited use on up to 3 macs, with every update included. no subscription. your files stay in your own google drive either way, so there is no storage bill from us.
featherdrive, yours for good.
try it free for 7 days. if it earns its place in your menu bar, pay once and keep it. no subscription.
one-time purchase
$12.99once, for life
- 7-day free trial in the app
- unlimited files
- up to 3 macs
- all updates included
- end-to-end encryption
thank you
your license key:
- open featherdrive
- settings → license
- paste the key
we also emailed it to you. works on up to 3 macs.
7-day free trial · pay once · macOS 14+
your mac stays light. your files stay close.
install it, sign in with google, drag your biggest folder in. it takes about a minute.