Whisper
Free local dictation for Mac · Apple silicon

Your voice.
Already typed.

Whisper turns speech into text in any Mac app, then gets out of your way. Fast local AI, no account, no audio sent to a server.

Download for Mac See how it works

Version 0.3.1 · 2.08 GB · macOS 12+ · M1 or later · Free

FreeNo subscription
PrivateOn-device processing
FastNative Apple silicon build
Multilingual31 spoken languages
A quieter way to work

Talk naturally.
Keep your flow.

Whisper lives in your menu bar. Tap one shortcut, speak, tap again, and your words appear wherever you were typing. The first model download happens once; after that, everyday dictation works offline.

01

Dictate into any app

Notes, Messages, email, your editor, or the terminal. Whisper pastes the result at your cursor.

02

Local by default

Your microphone audio is processed on your Mac, not uploaded for transcription.

03

Hear Claude Code

Optional local voice summaries read completed Claude Code turns aloud in 31 languages.

Three small steps

From download to
first dictation.

Whisper walks you through microphone and accessibility permissions, then downloads the local models you choose.

  1. 1

    Install the app

    Open the DMG, drag Whisper to Applications, and launch it from your menu bar.

  2. 2

    Choose a shortcut

    Use the suggested shortcut or record any modifier combination that feels natural.

  3. 3

    Speak, then paste

    Tap once to record and once to finish. Whisper transcribes locally and inserts the text.

Privacy is the architecture

Your voice never
needs the cloud.

Whisper uses local Q8 speech models. Audio remains on your Mac during dictation, and there is no account, analytics SDK, or audio telemetry.

Read the privacy details
Local models, chosen for the job

Small enough to live here.
Strong enough to rely on.

LISTENS

NVIDIA Parakeet TDT v3 Q8

The multilingual default for accurate, responsive speech-to-text on your Mac.

Download
~750 MB
Runs
Locally
SPEAKS

Supertonic 3 Q8

A compact text-to-speech model with ten voices and automatic language detection.

Download
~127 MB
Languages
31
Questions, answered

Before you
download.

Is Whisper really free?

Yes. Version 0.3.1 is a free direct download with no subscription or account required.

Does dictation work offline?

Yes, after the initial speech-model download. The default Parakeet transcription model and Supertonic voice model are cached on your Mac.

Is this the OpenAI Whisper model?

No. Whisper is the name of this Mac app. The recommended speech-to-text engine is NVIDIA Parakeet TDT v3 Q8; additional model choices are available in Settings.

Which Macs are supported?

This download is built for Apple silicon Macs (M1 or later) running macOS 12 or newer.

Why does Whisper need Accessibility permission?

Accessibility lets Whisper paste a finished transcript at your cursor and optionally press Return. Without it, Whisper still copies the transcript to your clipboard.

Ready when you are

Give your keyboard
a quieter day.

Free local dictation for Apple silicon Macs.

Download Whisper Version 0.3.1 · 2.08 GB · macOS 12+ · Apple silicon