Ant Renamer vs Renamer.ai

Ant Renamer is a free Windows program for applying rules to large batches of file and folder names. Its actions include changing extensions, replacing or inserting text, moving or deleting characters, numbering names, and changing letter case. It can build names from MP3 ID3 v1.1 tags, modification dates and times, EXIF information, regular expressions, or names in a supplied list or file. The program changes names only, not file contents. It supports Unicode names, including Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic characters, on NT systems. The interface is available in English and numerous other languages, including French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Tamil. Ant Renamer is free software under the GNU General Public License version 2 or, at the user’s option, a later version. Version 2.13.0 is offered as an installer and as a portable ZIP package. The project began in 2003 and is still maintained, though its maker describes it as based on old tools and not using newer Windows features. The maker points users to the included help file, online manuals, a forum, or email support.

Renamer.ai analyzes file contents with AI and OCR to create descriptive filenames. It handles more than 30 formats, including documents, spreadsheets, images, presentations, vector files, and email files. Users can rename batches, build templates from details such as document type, date, company or person names, invoice information, and project details, or set Magic Folders to rename files when they arrive. The service supports more than 20 languages and can detect a file's language automatically. Listed platforms include macOS, Windows, web, and API; desktop plans include batch renaming and Magic Folders. The free Starter plan allows 25 renames per month, while paid plans range from 200 files per month on Pro to 5,000 on Ultimate. Pro costs $9.95 a month. The web demo has a 100 MB maximum file size. Web uploads are stored on EU servers for up to 24 hours; files processed through the desktop app are not stored on the service's infrastructure. The company says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and file contents are not used to train AI models.