How is this different from the dictation already in macOS?

macOS has talk to text built in, and for a sentence into Notes it is fine. This is aimed at the rest: you pick the engine and the language, the text is cleaned up before it lands, it types into any field rather than one at a time, and the same app records and summarizes your meetings. Speech to type on a Mac stops being a party trick somewhere around the fifth message of the day.

Is this just Whisper with a nice window?

Whisper is one of the two engines, and you can pick it. The app is everything around it: the menubar shortcut, live typing into any field, the AI polish pass, speaker identification, meeting auto-detect, summaries and the folder your audio never leaves.

Where does my voice go?

Your audio stays on the Mac: transcription and recording are local, and recordings are written to a folder you choose. One step is not local — the AI cleanup of dictated text is on by default and sends the transcript, never the audio, to our servers. Switch Dictation output to "Raw transcript" and nothing leaves. A cloud speech engine also exists, off unless you pick it.

Does dictation work in every app?

Anywhere macOS lets you type: Slack, Mail, Notion, Linear, Cursor, Figma comments, terminal. It types into the focused field, so it needs Accessibility permission once. Where macOS blocks synthetic input — a password field, or without that permission — nothing is typed and the finished text waits in the HUD and the tray. Your clipboard is not touched until you press Copy.

Will it still sound like me?

AI polish removes hesitations and applies your self-corrections. It doesn't rewrite your wording or add a friendly opener. If you'd rather see exactly what you said, switch the output to raw transcript.

Will it run on a MacBook Air?

Yes. Dictation software on a MacBook Air needs no more than the lightweight model, and that runs in 8 GB — only the best summary model wants 24. macOS 13 and up, Apple silicon; the build we ship is aarch64 only. The app tells you which models your Mac can handle before you download them.

MAC SPEECH TO TEXT · DICTATION APP FOR MAC

Mac speech to text that types itself.

Say it once — it's already typed. A small app in your Mac's menubar: hold ⌥Space in any app, say the thing, and the finished sentence is in the field, punctuated and de-ummed, in the language you spoke.

Download for Mac

Free to start · macOS 13+ · Apple silicon · 59 MB

WHAT IT REPLACES

Typing in Slack, Mail, Notion, Linear, Cursor — anywhere a cursor blinks.

WHAT IT ALSO DOES

Records your meetings, writes the summary, keeps the audio on your Mac.

Slack100%14:22

#design-review3 members

Looked at the mockups — let's go with the second one, just make the header type bigger. I'll send the estimate before end of day.

Types itself —never touches your clipboard

TALK TO TYPE ON A MAC · FOUR SECONDS OF SETUP

It lives in your menubar.

No window to find, no tab to keep open.

⌃⌘R

You hold a key. You talk.

Push-to-talk, or double-tap for hands-free.

⌥Spacehold

The message types itself.

Right where your cursor already is.

SlackMailNotion+ everything

You get on with it.

Nothing to review, nothing to paste.

See the details →

WHAT THE DICTATION ACTUALLY DOES

Six small superpowers.

Each one is minor on its own. Together they're the difference between dictation software you abandon after a week and dictation you stop noticing.

01 · ANY APP

Dictation that feels like magic.

Hold ⌥Space wherever you are. No app integration, no browser extension, no waiting for a window.

⌥SpaceI'll send the estimate by six.

02 · AI POLISH

Cleaned up before it lands.

Fillers dropped, self-corrections applied ('Monday — no, Tuesday'), punctuation fixed. Runs in the cloud after you stop, adds a second or two, and falls back to the raw transcript on any hiccup. Or switch it off and keep the raw text.

um, so I think maybe Tuesday, no, WednesdayLet's do Wednesday.

03 · 100+ LANGUAGES

In your language.

Speak German, get German — the local models cover 100+ languages. Dictation inserts what you said; it never translates. Translation is for your meeting transcripts.

DEEN· ES · FR · JA · +96

04 · ON-DEVICE

Your audio never leaves.

Whisper V3 and Nvidia Parakeet transcribe on your Mac — offline, always. The AI cleanup is the one cloud step, and it sends text, never audio. Turn it off and nothing leaves at all.

Whisper V31.5 GBNvidia Parakeet1.28 GB

05 · LIVE TYPING

Words land while you talk.

Not one paste at the end — the text appears as you speak, and your clipboard is never touched.

Could you send the invoice

06 · MEETINGS

Nothing said is ever lost.

The same engine records your calls, names the speakers and writes the summary while you're still saying goodbye.

Standup12:04Client call41:201:1 with Sam27:35

FROM NATURAL SPEECH TO FINISHED TEXT

Speak naturally. Get text that fits the app.

One cleanup pass, wherever the cursor is: fillers and false starts gone, self-corrections applied, punctuation and paragraphs put in. Your wording, your language, nothing invented. Under each example: which engine ran it, which output setting was on, what actually changed, and whether the current version really does this.

RAW SPEECH

Um, hey Sarah, I just wanted to, actually, let me start again. Can we move tomorrow's product call to Thursday around two? I need another day to finish the numbers.

14 seconds spoken · held ⌥Space

EMAIL OUTPUT

Hi Sarah,

Could we move tomorrow's product call to Thursday at 2:00 PM? I need another day to finish the numbers.

Mail— typed into the open draft, no paste

ENGINE

On-device — Parakeet

DICTATION OUTPUT

AI polish

WHAT CHANGED

Filler and the false start dropped, greeting kept

IN THE APP TODAY

Yes — polish needs a signed-in account

RAW SPEECH

So yeah the staging build is broken again, uh, it's the auth redirect I think, um, I'll look at it after lunch, can someone unblock Nina in the meantime

11 seconds spoken · held ⌥Space

SLACK OUTPUT

Staging build is broken again — looks like the auth redirect. I'll dig in after lunch. Can someone unblock Nina in the meantime?

Slack— one message, no greeting added

ENGINE

On-device — Whisper V3

DICTATION OUTPUT

AI polish

WHAT CHANGED

Fillers gone, run-on split, question mark added

IN THE APP TODAY

Yes — raw dictation is free and unlimited

RAW SPEECH · TWO PEOPLE

Okay so we said release moves to Thursday, design lands Wednesday morning, and, um, Maria you'll warn the client, and I guess the demo goes to Friday three pm, yeah

from a 41:20 Zoom call, auto-recorded

STRUCTURED MEETING NOTE

DECISIONS

Release moves to Thursday

Design lands Wednesday morning

ACTION ITEMS

Maria — warn the client about the new date

Oleg — hand over the mockups Wednesday

Client demo Friday, 3:00 PM

Notion— or kept next to the transcript

MODE

Meeting recording — not dictation

PROCESSING

On device on a 24 GB Mac, cloud otherwise

WHAT CHANGED

Decisions and owners pulled out of 41 minutes

IN THE APP TODAY

Yes — Standard and up

RAW SPEECH

Okay I want you to, hmm, write me a, like, a short outreach email to a design agency, we're a two person company, we need a landing page, budget is around five thousand dollars, keep it, uh, short and not salesy

17 seconds spoken · held ⌥Space

PROMPT OUTPUT

Write a short outreach email to a design agency. We're a two-person company and we need a landing page. Our budget is around five thousand dollars. Keep it short and not salesy.

ChatGPTClaude— typed into the prompt box

ENGINE

On-device — Parakeet

DICTATION OUTPUT

AI polish

WHAT CHANGED

Four false starts gone, one clean instruction

IN THE APP TODAY

Yes — a prompt box is just another field

RAW SPEECH

So the upload just spins forever when the file is, like, over two gigs, no error, nothing, and, I checked, it only does it in Safari, Chrome is fine

13 seconds spoken · held ⌥Space

ISSUE OUTPUT

The upload spins forever when the file is over two gigs — no error, nothing. I checked: it only does it in Safari, Chrome is fine.

LinearGitHub— typed into the issue body

ENGINE

On-device — Whisper V3

DICTATION OUTPUT

AI polish

WHAT CHANGED

Fillers gone, the run-on became two sentences

IN THE APP TODAY

Yes — no integration, it types where you are

RAW SPEECH · SPANISH

Eh, necesito que revises el contrato antes del viernes, este, sobre todo la parte de pagos, o sea, creo que las fechas no cuadran

12 seconds spoken · held ⌥Space

SPANISH OUTPUT

Necesito que revises el contrato antes del viernes, sobre todo la parte de pagos: creo que las fechas no cuadran.

SlackMail— typed in Spanish, never translated

ENGINE

On-device — Parakeet

DICTATION OUTPUT

AI polish

WHAT CHANGED

Spanish fillers dropped, the wording left alone

IN THE APP TODAY

Yes — the polish never translates, in any language

These are six of the places it lands, not a list of supported apps. Dictation types into whatever field holds the cursor — Cursor, Figma comments, Jira, Notes, a terminal, your CRM — so there is nothing to check before you install.

WHY PEOPLE KEEP IT