How to Transcribe a Podcast on Your Mac (Without Uploading Anything)

You have a podcast episode you want to transcribe. Maybe you’re a podcaster who needs show notes. Maybe you’re a researcher pulling quotes. Maybe you just want to search through episodes for something someone said.

Most transcription services want you to upload your audio to their servers. Here’s how to do it entirely on your Mac, without uploading anything.

What You Need

• A Mac with Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, or M4)
• macOS 14.2 or later
• MacParakeet (the free tier includes 15 minutes per day — enough for most episodes)
• Your podcast file (MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, or any common audio/video format)

Step 1: Get Your Podcast File

If you already have the audio file downloaded, skip to Step 2.

From Apple Podcasts: Open the podcast in Apple Podcasts, click the download button on the episode. Find the downloaded file in your library by right-clicking the episode and selecting “Show in Finder.”

From a podcast website: Most podcasts have a direct download link on their website. Right-click the play button and look for “Download” or “Save Audio As.”

From an RSS feed: Open the podcast’s RSS feed URL in your browser. Look for <enclosure url="..."> tags — these are direct links to the audio files.

You should end up with an MP3, M4A, or similar audio file on your Mac.

Step 2: Open MacParakeet

Launch MacParakeet from your Applications folder or the menu bar. The main window shows a drop zone in the center.

Step 3: Drop the File

Drag your podcast file from Finder into MacParakeet’s drop zone. Or use File > Open and navigate to your audio file.

MacParakeet automatically detects the format and starts transcription.

Step 4: Wait (Briefly)

On Apple Silicon, MacParakeet uses the Parakeet TDT model to transcribe at roughly 300x realtime with under 7% word error rate:

Podcast Length	Approximate Transcription Time
15 minutes	~3 seconds
30 minutes	~6 seconds
60 minutes	~12 seconds
90 minutes	~18 seconds
3 hours	~36 seconds

No upload time. No waiting for a cloud server. Everything processes locally on your Mac.

Step 5: Review and Export

Once transcription is complete, the text appears in MacParakeet’s main window. You can:

• Copy to clipboard — Select all and copy, or use the copy button
• Export as TXT — Save as a plain text file
• Search through the text — Use Cmd+F to find specific quotes or topics

The transcription includes the full text. Word-level timestamps are stored internally for future features like subtitle export.

Tips for Better Results

Audio quality matters. Parakeet handles most podcast audio well, but extremely noisy recordings will produce more errors. If you’re transcribing your own podcast, a decent USB microphone makes a noticeable difference.

English works best. MacParakeet’s Parakeet TDT model is optimized for English with under 7% word error rate. It handles accents well but doesn’t currently support other languages. For multilingual podcasts, cloud-based alternatives may be a better fit.

Multiple speakers work fine. The model transcribes all speech in the recording. It doesn’t currently identify who’s speaking (speaker diarization is planned for a future release), but all words are captured accurately.

Long episodes are fine. There’s no recording duration limit. The Parakeet model handles hours-long files without issues — it just takes proportionally longer at that 300x ratio.

Why Not Just Use a Cloud Service?

You could. Services like Otter.ai, Rev, and others will transcribe your podcast. But consider:

• Privacy. Your podcast content goes to someone else’s server. If it’s an interview with a source who spoke confidentially, that’s a concern. More on why this matters.
• Cost. Cloud transcription services charge per minute or per month. Transcribing podcasts regularly adds up. MacParakeet is $49 once.
• Speed. Upload time + processing time + download time. For a 60-minute episode, you’re often waiting minutes. Locally, it’s 12 seconds.
• Offline. Cloud services need internet. Local transcription works on a plane, at a cabin, anywhere.

The CLI Alternative

If you prefer the command line, MacParakeet includes a CLI tool:

macparakeet transcribe /path/to/podcast-episode.mp3

This outputs the transcription to stdout. You can pipe it to a file:

macparakeet transcribe episode.mp3 > transcript.txt

Useful for batch processing or integrating into scripts.

Summary

1. Download your podcast file
2. Open MacParakeet
3. Drop the file in
4. Wait a few seconds
5. Copy or export the text

No account needed. No upload. No subscription. Your podcast audio stays on your Mac the entire time.