"The quarterly results exceeded our expectations, with revenue growing by twenty-three percent..."
100% On-Device · 98 Languages · Free & Open-Source
Your voice, your Mac.
Nothing between.
Dictate anywhere on macOS. Transcribe files and YouTube. Record meetings with system audio and mic — all on your Mac, never the cloud. Open-source on GitHub.
macOS 14.2+ · Apple Silicon
"The quarterly results exceeded our expectations, with revenue growing by twenty-three percent year over year..."
Three modes. One app.
Dictate anywhere on macOS. Transcribe files and YouTube. Record meetings with system audio and mic. All on-device.
Dictate anywhere
Press your hotkey. Speak. Text appears wherever your cursor is — any app, any text field. The dictation Apple should have shipped.
Transcribe files & YouTube
Drop an audio or video file. Paste a YouTube URL. Get text in seconds. Podcasts, interviews, lectures, voice memos — anything with speech becomes searchable text.
MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, MOV, YouTube URLs, and more
Record meetings
Capture system audio and your mic at the same time. Take notes during the call, watch the live transcript, ask questions as it unfolds. Audio never leaves your Mac.
Granola-style workflow, fully local
Everything you need
Built for people who care about speed, privacy, and getting out of the way.
98 Languages
Korean, Japanese, Chinese & more via WhisperKit
Live Meeting Notes
Type during the call. Slash commands. Auto-saved.
Custom Hotkeys
Any key, or any chord, for dictation
YouTube URLs
Paste a link, get a transcript
7 Export Formats
TXT, Markdown, SRT, VTT, DOCX, PDF, JSON
Speaker Diarization
Know who said what
Custom Vocabulary
Teach it your jargon
Bring Your Own LLM
OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LM Studio — optional
Your audio never leaves your Mac
Every millisecond of processing happens on your Apple Silicon chip. No cloud servers. No accounts. No data collection. No terms of service to worry about. MacParakeet doesn't even have the ability to send your audio anywhere -- the code simply isn't there.
100% on-device
Your audio never leaves your Mac
Dictate into any app on your Mac
Slack, Gmail, VS Code, Notes, Pages, your terminal -- if it has a text cursor, MacParakeet can type into it. The dictation overlay floats above your windows without stealing focus, so you never lose your place.
If it has a text cursor, MacParakeet works
What's new
Actively developed. Here's what shipped recently.
Three steps. That's it.
Install
Download and run. Setup takes 60 seconds. No account, no sign-up, no email.
Speak or Drop
Press Fn to dictate into any app. Drop an audio file or paste a YouTube URL to transcribe it.
Done
Text appears where you need it. Copy, export, or just keep working.
Free and open-source.
No paid tier. No "community edition" with features stripped out. The app you download is the app we develop.
- Unlimited transcription & dictation
- Full source code on GitHub
- All audio & video formats + YouTube URLs
- 7 export formats · Speaker diarization · Custom vocabulary
No account. No subscription. No catch.
How we compare
Other apps charge $30-250. MacParakeet is free and open-source.
| MacParakeet | WisprFlow | MacWhisper | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free open-source | $12-15/mo | $30 once |
| Free tier | Everything | 2,000 words/wk | No |
| Open-source | Yes GPL-3.0 | No | No |
| 100% Local | Yes | Partial | Yes |
| Parakeet TDT (155x) | Yes | No | Added later |
| System dictation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Export formats | 7 formats | TXT | 5 formats |
| YouTube URL transcription | Yes | No | Yes |
| Speaker diarization | Yes | No | Yes |
| No account needed | Yes | No | Yes |
Questions & answers
Is my audio really private?
Yes. All transcription and dictation runs locally on your Mac's Apple Silicon. Your audio never leaves your device. If you optionally connect a cloud AI provider for summaries or chat, only the transcript text is sent -- never the audio itself, and only when you choose to.
Does MacParakeet collect any data?
Only anonymous usage statistics — like which features are popular and how long transcriptions take. No personal data, no transcription content, no audio, no IP addresses. Session IDs reset every launch, so there's no way to track you across sessions. You can opt out anytime in Settings.
Do I need an internet connection?
Only for initial setup (downloading the speech model). After that, dictation and file transcription work completely offline. YouTube transcription and optional AI features (summary, chat) require a connection.
What's the difference from MacWhisper?
Both are local transcription apps for Mac with system-wide dictation. MacWhisper Pro ($30) was built around Whisper and later added Parakeet as an option. MacParakeet is built around Parakeet from day one. And free.
What Mac do I need?
macOS 14.2 or later with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, or M4). Intel Macs are not supported because the Parakeet model requires Metal acceleration.
Is it really free?
Yes. MacParakeet is free and open-source under the GPL-3.0 license. There is no paid tier and no 'community edition' with features stripped out. The full source code is on GitHub. No subscription, no credit card, no account required.
Why is it open-source?
Trust and ethics. Open-source means you can verify our privacy claims by reading the code -- not just taking our word for it. And since MacParakeet is built with AI tools trained on the open-source community's work, open-sourcing it back feels like the right thing to do.
What languages are supported?
98 in total. Parakeet — the default engine — handles 25 European languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian. For Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Vietnamese, Thai, and 91 others, switch to the optional WhisperKit engine in Settings. One-time download, then everything still runs on your Mac. Clean text processing is currently optimized for English.
Can I record meetings? How is it different from Granola or Otter?
Yes. MacParakeet records system audio (everyone else on the call) and your microphone at the same time, then transcribes locally. While you record you get live notes, a live transcript, and an Ask tab to query the meeting as it unfolds. The difference: nothing is uploaded. No per-minute caps, no subscription, no account. Granola-style workflow, MacParakeet privacy.
Parakeet vs. WhisperKit — which engine should I use?
Parakeet is the default and the fastest. Use it if you speak any of its 25 European languages. WhisperKit is a one-time 632 MB download that adds 73 more languages, including Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Thai. It's slower than Parakeet for English but covers far more of the world. Switch in Settings, or pick per-call from the CLI.
Ready to reclaim your voice?
Free and open-source. Download the app or build it from source.
macOS 14.2+ · Apple Silicon · GPL-3.0