The screenplay editor for Mac that opens Final Draft .fdx
and .fountain
files. An AI collaborator reads your script in the side panel — giving notes and tracking your story, never writing your dialogue. Your scripts never train AI.
Ask it anything about your script and you get a real read — where the arc sags, who's underwritten, what a scene is actually up to. You can sit it in different chairs while you work: Showrunner, Script Editor, Director, Save the Cat. The one thing it won't do is write your dialogue. That part's yours. It gets things wrong sometimes, and when it does, it stays out of your way.
Learn about the collaborator →Type INT. and it knows that's a slugline. Drop a character name in caps, hit return, and the next line lands in dialogue. You're never reaching for the Tab key to tell it what a line is — it just keeps up with you.
Courier Prime, 12pt, US Letter, 54 lines a page. Page counts match Final Draft to the line — the answer to "how long is it?" is the right one.
Spin off a draft called "the bold version" without touching the main one, hop between them, and pull back an older version whenever you change your mind. It all lives on your Mac and syncs when you want it to.
One page runs about a minute on screen, and a reader's eye catches when something's off before they can say why. So Lastslate holds the margins, the font, and the spacing to the standard, and your script reads like a script the second it hits someone's inbox.
See the formatting rules →INT. KITCHEN — MORNING
Sunlight, thin and gray. MARA pours coffee for one. A second mug sits clean on the rack.
MARA
(to no one) Tuesday again.
She lifts the second mug. Considers. Puts it back.
CUT TO:
Share a draft with a producer, director, or writing partner — they open it in a browser, no account, and leave comments right on the lines. Threaded replies, tied to that exact draft. Their notes land back in your editor, where you write.
How review links work →INT. KITCHEN — MORNING
Sunlight, thin and gray. MARA pours coffee for one. A second mug sits clean on the rack.
Type /cast
and you get a cast list with line counts, pulled straight from the script. There's a whole stack of
these: locations and props for the line producer, a logline or one-sheet for the days someone wants
the pitch. It's reading and sorting what you already wrote, not writing any of it.
Switch from Final Draft and bring your whole library — every .fdx opens, edits, and saves back untouched. Fountain, plain text, and that PDF you got over email come in clean too.
Open your whole Final Draft library, edit, and save back — title pages, dual dialogue, and revision colours all intact. Nothing lost in the switch.
Plain-text first. Save once and your script reads in any tool that supports the spec.
Drag in a PDF; Lastslate reconstructs scenes, characters, and dialogue you can edit.
Starter template with industry margins, FADE IN, and a proper title page out of the box.
Multi-cam or single-cam scaffold, ACT ONE / ACT TWO breaks, COLD OPEN built in.
Five-act structure, teaser, scene cards aligned to act breaks.
Built for the vertical-drama boom — ReelShort, DramaBox, and the rest. A Hook / Friction / Spike / Button beat engine scaffolds each micro-episode so every cliffhanger lands.
Lastslate is the only modern screenplay editor that pairs Final Draft–parity output, format-as-you-type editing, and a collaborator that reads with you.
| Capability | Lastslate | Final Draft | WriterDuet | Highland 2 | Sudowrite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modern editor (format-as-you-type, auto-save) | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | n/a |
| Industry-perfect pagination | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | n/a |
Final Draft .fdx round-trip |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | No |
| AI collaborator that reads, never drafts | Yes | No | No | No | Drafts dialogue |
| Async review — share-link comments, no account | Yes | Email .fdx | Real-time only | No | n/a |
| Your scripts never train AI | Yes | n/a | n/a | n/a | Trains on input |
| Local-first storage | Yes | Yes | Cloud-only | Yes | Cloud-only |
| Free tier | Yes | No | Limited | No | No |
Coming from Final Draft? Open your existing scripts exactly as they are and pick up where you left off — your whole library comes with you.
Compared from public info as of May 2026 — vendor sites, App Store reviews, feedback boards. Spot something we got wrong? Tell us.
Your writing is always yours — no "pay to unlock your own file," ever.
It takes care of the formatting, so you're not fixing margins or fighting page breaks when you're trying to get words down.
Free is for writing. Pro is for moving faster — students get it for less.
For writing and exporting your screenplay without limits on your files.
Enough to write your script and send it out. Upgrade when your work outgrows it.
Download freeOr $150 a year, about 17% off. This is the tier for when the writing gets real — people are reading your pages and you want sharper help while you rewrite.
Or $150 $100 / year. Current US students get everything in Pro at the student rate.
.edu email — renews yearlyEverything writers ask before they download — privacy, the AI collaborator, supported formats, pricing, and Final Draft compatibility.
Lastslate is the modern screenplay editor for macOS. It pairs format-as-you-type with Final Draft–parity pagination and an AI collaborator that reads your script but never drafts dialogue. The editor is free and includes clean PDF and full FDX export, cloud projects, and a daily AI assistant; Pro adds the advanced AI model, unlimited cloud, and review links.
Yes. Lastslate matches Final Draft on output and round-trips .fdx with title-page metadata, dual dialogue, and revision colours preserved. Lastslate adds what Final Draft doesn't have: format-as-you-type, auto-save, a scene navigator sidebar, parallel named drafts, and an AI collaborator constrained to read.
Sudowrite and ChatGPT generate — and it drifts: on-the-nose dialogue, a character who forgets who they are, a story that wanders. Lastslate's AI is the opposite by design: it reads, asks questions, maps arcs and beats — but never drafts a line of dialogue.
Lastslate's free tier is built for first-time and student writers — the full editor, industry-perfect pagination, format-as-you-type, every file format (.fdx, .fountain, .txt, PDF import), parallel drafts, local version history, and auto-save. No credit card required.
Yes — Lastslate. The commitment is unconditional and applies to free and paid tiers alike. Scripts live locally on your Mac by default; cloud backup is opt-in and encrypted in transit and at rest.
Yes. Lastslate opens and saves Final Draft .fdx files losslessly, and paginates to the same industry standard — Courier Prime 12pt, 54 lines per page — so page counts match to the line.
Final Draft (.fdx), Fountain (.fountain), plain text (.txt), and PDF — drag a PDF screenplay in and Lastslate reconstructs scenes, characters, and dialogue you can edit.
No. The AI collaborator only reads. It plays Showrunner, Script Editor, Director, or Save-the-Cat, maps arcs, and asks the right questions — but never drafts a line of dialogue. You keep the pen.
Yes. Generate a share link and send it to a producer, director, or writing partner — they open it in any browser with no account and leave comments right on the lines, with threaded replies. Comments are tied to that specific draft, and their notes land back in your editor where you write.
The editor is free — unlimited local projects, 10 cloud projects, clean PDF export, full FDX import and export, 30-day version history, and a daily AI writing assistant (standard model, 10/day). Pro is $15/month or $150/year — the advanced AI model (Sonnet-class, 400 premium messages/month, then standard with no interruption), unlimited cloud projects, unlimited version history, AI scaffolding, and review links.
Yes. Always. Your PDFs and FDX exports remain yours permanently — Lastslate is not a subscription to your writing, and never paywalls your files.
Lastslate runs on macOS 12 or later as a universal binary — native on Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) and Intel Macs. The app is notarized by Apple.
Yes. Lastslate is local-first — your scripts live on your Mac. Cloud backup is opt-in, encrypted in transit and at rest, and nothing you write is ever used to train a model.