Archyv vs Gemini 2

What Gemini 2 is

Gemini 2 is MacPaw’s duplicate file finder, made by the company behind CleanMyMac and Setapp. It scans whatever locations you give it — a folder, a drive, or the whole Home folder — and sorts what it finds into two groups: identical files, which it calls duplicates, and files that differ only slightly, which it calls similars. The scan covers any kind of file, not only photos: documents, music, whole folders, and duplicates on external drives and network volumes.

Its distinctive feature is selection. Smart Selection pre-ticks the copies it judges safe to remove, keeps at least one of each, and learns your habits over time; Smart Cleanup then clears them in one click. Similar files are not selected by default — MacPaw’s documentation says they wait for your decision, though Gemini may offer to add a rule that changes that. A Duplicates Monitor watches folders for new copies after the first clean-up, and there is an option to replace duplicates with hard links instead of deleting them.

Pricing, as MacPaw’s site states it on the date above: the product page says “starting at $1.95/month”, the Mac App Store listing carries a Yearly Access purchase at $19.99, and MacPaw’s own store offers monthly, annual and one-time plans. The one-time plan, in the store’s words, lets you “pay once and use Gemini 2 forever”, with major upgrades charged separately. Gemini is also in Setapp. The support pages list macOS 10.13 or later as fully supported, with an older edition for 10.10 to 10.12. The trial scans without limit but cleans only up to 500 MB.

What Archyv is

Archyv is a batch photo and media manager for the Mac: one change run across a whole folder of photos and video, with a preview before and a change history after. Duplicate Detection is one of its twelve processes, alongside renaming from metadata, format conversion, metadata and copyright editing, folder generation and templated transfer. It works on folders on disk, not inside the Photos library. It costs $99 one-time per seat, runs on macOS 14 or later, and has a 14-day trial that needs no account.

Where Gemini 2 wins

Breadth. Gemini 2 finds duplicate documents, music, folders and downloads as readily as photos. If the aim is disk space rather than a tidy photo archive, that breadth is the whole point, and Archyv does not attempt it.

The Photos library. With your permission Gemini 2 looks inside the Photos and Music libraries, and duplicates removed from Photos land in that app’s Recently Deleted album. Archyv cannot see inside a Photos library at all.

Speed of decision. Smart Selection and Smart Cleanup mean a first pass over a cluttered Mac can be done in a few clicks, with the identical copies pre-chosen. Archyv asks you to mark each pair yourself — deliberate, and slower.

Ongoing watch. Duplicates Monitor keeps looking after the clean-up. Archyv runs when you run it.

Price and reach. At a few dollars a month, or $19.99 a year through the App Store, Gemini 2 costs a fraction of Archyv, and it supports Macs several macOS versions older than Archyv does.

If your problem is “my Mac is full and I don’t know what is duplicated”, Gemini 2 is the better buy.

Where Archyv wins

Photo-specific matching. Archyv compares in two stages: exact duplicates first, by size, date and dimensions, then the pictures themselves by perceptual hashing, so a JPEG exported from a TIFF, a resized web copy and the full-size original are grouped together. Gemini 2 documents its similars as files that “slightly differ”; its worked example is two photos taken two seconds apart. The two tools are looking for different things.

RAW and JPEG are not duplicates. A RAW file and the JPEG, HEIC, TIFF or PNG made from it are grouped and labelled Related Files, never offered as a duplicate pair, and the names need not match. Marking one of them asks for a separate confirmation. Gemini 2’s documentation does not describe RAW handling.

Review with the evidence in front of you. Every match is shown side by side with both files’ metadata — dimensions, format, keywords, credit — so you keep the copy that carries the work, not just the newer or larger one.

Nothing goes until you say so. Marks accumulate as you browse; a single Start removes them all at once, and the button stays disabled until something is marked. Removal goes to the macOS Trash, and Archyv’s undo brings a photo and its Lightroom or Photos edit files back together.

Video by content. Videos are compared by sampled frames — three, five or seven depending on the accuracy level — so a re-encoded clip can match its original. Gemini 2’s release notes say it finds video duplicates; as far as its documentation shows, that means identical files.

The other eleven jobs. Once the copies are gone, the same app renames from capture date, converts formats, writes copyright, and files into folders — with the same preview and the same undo. That is what Archyv’s price buys; the duplicate finder alone does not justify it.

Side by side

Which one to choose

Choose Gemini 2 if:

• your duplicates live in the Photos library or across the whole Mac, not in a folder tree;
• you want the machine to pick which copy goes, and a one-click cleanup;
• you also have duplicate music, documents or folders to clear;
• you would rather pay a few dollars a month than $99 up front.

Choose Archyv if:

• your archive is folders on a drive, and the copies are exports, resizes and re-saves of the same photograph;
• you shoot RAW and keep the JPEGs, and a finder that offers the pair for deletion is a risk you will not take;
• you want to see both copies’ metadata before deciding, and a Trash-plus-undo path afterwards;
• duplicate removal is one of several passes you will make over the same library.

Using both

They do not overlap much. Gemini 2 clearing the Mac’s general clutter and Photos library, and Archyv working through the folder-based archive with its other processes, is a sensible pairing.

Next: the site-wide comparison covers the other tools Archyv is measured against, and finding and removing duplicates walks through Archyv’s scan, accuracy levels and review in full.

Facts about Gemini 2 were checked on its own site on 17 September 2026. If something here is out of date, tell us and it will be corrected. Official site: Gemini 2.