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Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 10, 2026

The short version: Motrix is built to be local-first. As things stand today it runs no analytics, sets no tracking cookies, and keeps no copy of your downloads, history, or settings on our servers — that data lives on your own device. This page explains, in plain language, the few places where data does move across the network, and why. If our data practices ever change, we will update this page and tell you here first.

1. Scope & who we are

Motrix is a free, open-source download manager maintained by the Motrix open-source project (created by the developer known on GitHub as Dr_rOot / “agalwood”). In this policy, “Motrix”, “we”, “us”, and “our” refer to that project.

This policy covers: (a) the website at motrix.app, including the download and update service at dl.motrix.app; (b) the Motrix desktop application, both the current 1.x version and the new version now in development; and (c) the Motrix browser extension. It does not cover third-party websites, download sources, or services you choose to connect to through Motrix.

2. Our approach: local-first by design

Motrix is designed to keep your activity on your own device. As of the date shown above, it includes no analytics, usage-tracking, advertising, or crash-reporting code, and it does not build profiles of you. We do not sell or rent your personal information. Wherever Motrix must make a network connection, we aim to make it obvious, optional, or a direct consequence of something you asked for. This describes how Motrix works today; if we later introduce diagnostics, usage analytics, or similar, we will describe them in this policy first — see “Changes to this policy” below.

3. The website (motrix.app)

Our website is a static site served through Cloudflare’s global content-delivery network. Today it sets no tracking cookies and embeds no analytics or advertising scripts, and it has no login, comment, or sign-up forms. The on-site search runs entirely in your browser; your search queries are not sent to us. Should we add website analytics in the future, we will use a privacy-respecting, aggregate measurement approach, disclose it here, and — where the law requires consent for non-essential cookies — ask for it.

As with virtually all websites, when your browser requests a page our hosting provider (Cloudflare) automatically processes standard connection information — such as your IP address, the requested URL, a timestamp, and your browser user-agent — in order to deliver the content and to protect the site against attacks and abuse. These logs are handled by Cloudflare under its own terms, retained only briefly, and are not used by us to identify individual visitors.

The download and update service at dl.motrix.app distributes our installers, the update manifests the app reads to detect new versions, and the plugin registry. It stores no user accounts or profiles and keeps only the same kind of transient access logs described above.

4. The desktop application

No telemetry today. As of the date of this policy, the desktop app contains no analytics, no usage statistics, and no crash-reporting service; it does not phone home to tell us how you use it. If we ever add optional diagnostics or usage reporting, we will disclose it in this policy, and — where it is not strictly necessary — we will make it opt-in and honour your choice.

Your data stays on your device. Everything the app records about your activity is stored on your own computer, under your operating system’s application-data and logs folders. This includes:

  • Your task list and download history;
  • Application settings and preferences;
  • Local logs;
  • Any Cookie, Referer, or custom HTTP headers you enter for a download (including those imported from a cURL command).

You can view, clear, or delete this data at any time from within the app, or remove its data folder to erase all of it.

Update checks. To let you know when a new version is available, the app requests a small update manifest from dl.motrix.app (and, in the new version, from GitHub Releases as a fallback source). This is an ordinary web request: it inherently reveals your IP address and, through the version-specific file it requests, your app version, operating system, and architecture. It carries no account, device identifier, or other tracking token. In the 1.x version, automatic checking is on by default only on macOS, and update checking can be turned off.

Downloads you start. When you download a file, Motrix connects directly to the server or hosts you chose. Those hosts see whatever any download tool would show them — typically your IP address and the request headers for that transfer, including any Cookie or Referer you supplied. We are not an intermediary in your downloads and receive none of this.

BitTorrent and magnet links. If you download over BitTorrent, Motrix participates in a peer-to-peer network. By its nature, this means the app exchanges your IP address with trackers, DHT nodes, and other peers so they can send you pieces of the file. The DHT feature is enabled by default and can be disabled in the app’s settings. This behaviour is inherent to how BitTorrent works and is not something Motrix adds.

BitTorrent tracker lists. To improve torrent performance, the app can periodically download public, community-maintained tracker lists (by default, roughly every 12 hours) from public code CDNs — GitHub’s raw content service and jsDelivr. This fetch reveals your IP address to those CDNs. Automatic tracker-list syncing can be turned off.

Features that connect out only when you use them. Some capabilities make a network connection only after you enable or invoke them:

  • GeoIP database — used to show the country of BitTorrent peers. It is disabled by default; if you enable it, the app downloads a database file from GitHub.
  • Speed test — when you run the built-in speed test, the app transfers test data to and from Cloudflare’s public speed-test endpoint.
  • Plugin installation — when you install a plugin from GitHub, the app fetches it through GitHub’s API.

5. The browser extension

The Motrix browser extension exists to hand a download from your browser to the Motrix desktop app running on the same computer. To do that, it requests browser permissions to see downloads, read cookies, and access sites, and it reads the information needed to reproduce the download: the file URL, the page URL and title, the referrer, and the cookies for the target site. It may also send a lightweight request to the file’s host to learn the file size.

This information is sent over a local connection (a WebSocket to 127.0.0.1 on your own machine) to your Motrix desktop app. It is not sent to us, and it is not sent to any third-party server. The extension itself contains no analytics or telemetry. If you deliberately configure a remote endpoint — for example, a Motrix instance on another computer on your network — the data goes to the address you specified instead. The extension updates through your browser’s web store, not through us.

6. Where your data can go

To summarise, the only parties that can receive data in connection with Motrix are: our own update service (dl.motrix.app) and hosting/CDN provider (Cloudflare); GitHub and jsDelivr (updates, plugins, tracker lists, and the optional GeoIP database); the BitTorrent network (trackers, DHT nodes, and peers, for torrent downloads); and the servers and hosts you choose to download from. We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data.

7. Children’s privacy

Motrix is a general-purpose tool and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Because Motrix does not currently collect personal information about its users on our servers, it holds none about children either.

8. Data retention and your control

Because your Motrix data lives on your own device, you are in control of it: you can clear your download history, change or reset your settings, remove individual tasks, or uninstall the app and delete its data folder to remove everything. Today, the only server-side data — the transient access logs held by our hosting and CDN providers — is retained only for a short period for security and reliability, and is not linked by us to any identity.

9. Your rights

Depending on where you live — for example under the EU/UK GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA/CPRA), or China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) — you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or restrict the use of your personal information. For most Motrix users these rights are satisfied directly: the personal data those laws protect stays on your own device and under your own control, and we hold no user database from which to retrieve, export, or erase it. If you nonetheless believe we hold information about you, or you have any question about your rights, contact us using the details below and we will respond in good faith.

10. Where data is processed

Our website and update service are delivered from the globally distributed edge network of our CDN provider, meaning the server nearest to you generally handles your request. We do not operate a central database of user information. Any brief logs are processed by our providers across their international infrastructure under their own safeguards.

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time — for example when we add a feature that changes how data flows, or if we introduce diagnostics, usage analytics, or website measurement. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top of this page, and for significant changes — including any new collection of personal data — we will provide a more prominent notice and, where the law requires, ask for your consent. Your continued use of Motrix after an update means you accept the revised policy.

12. Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about this policy or your privacy, you can reach us at privacy@motrix.app, or open a discussion or issue on our GitHub repository at github.com/agalwood/Motrix.