Dictato - Private Voice to Text Dictation App for Mac

Dictato lives in your menu bar and is always ready. You configure a global hotkey — press and hold it, speak, then release. Your speech is transcribed in real time and the resulting text is instantly inserted wherever your cursor is, in any application. There's no need to copy and paste, switch windows, or interact with a separate interface. It works in your email client, word processor, code editor, messaging apps, browser fields — anywhere you can type on macOS.

Under the hood, Dictato uses on-device machine learning models to convert your speech to text. The transcription engine runs entirely on your Mac's hardware, leveraging Apple Silicon's Neural Engine for fast inference. The audio from your microphone is processed locally in real time with latency as low as 80 milliseconds, meaning you see your words appear almost as fast as you say them. Because nothing is sent to a server, transcription works even when you're offline — on a plane, in a cafe without Wi-Fi, or anywhere else.

Mac's built-in dictation has several limitations that Dictato solves. First, there's a 60-second timeout — if you speak for more than a minute, Apple's dictation stops and you lose your train of thought. Dictato has no timeout. Second, Apple's dictation sends your audio to their servers for processing (unless you enable on-device mode, which has limited language support). Dictato is 100% on-device, always.

Third, Dictato offers real-time transcription with 80ms latency — you see words appear as you speak, not after you finish. Fourth, you get to choose from 3 transcription engines (Whisper, Parakeet, Apple) depending on your language and accuracy needs. Finally, Dictato works in every app, not just Apple apps, and inserts text directly at your cursor without needing a special dictation field.

Dictato ships with three transcription engines, each with different strengths. Parakeet is the recommended engine — it's NVIDIA's open-source ASR model optimized for speed and accuracy, supporting 25 European languages with a model size of approximately 2.3 GB. It delivers the best balance of quality and real-time performance on Apple Silicon.

Whisper is OpenAI's well-known speech recognition model, supporting 99 languages with a smaller model size of around 600 MB. It's the best choice if you need broad multilingual coverage. Apple SpeechAnalyzer is Apple's built-in engine available on macOS 26 and later — it requires no model download since it uses the system's speech recognition framework.

All engines run 100% locally on your Mac. You can switch between engines at any time in settings.

Yes. Dictato works with virtually any macOS application where you can type. This includes Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, Slack, Discord, Microsoft Teams, VS Code, Xcode, Sublime Text, Notion, Obsidian, Bear, Pages, Word, Google Docs (in Chrome/Safari), Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and countless others.

When you release your hotkey, Dictato inserts the transcribed text directly at your cursor position using macOS accessibility features. There's no need for the app to have special dictation support — if you can paste text into it, Dictato works with it.

Dictato is built from the ground up with privacy as a core principle. All speech recognition happens entirely on your Mac using locally downloaded machine learning models. Your audio never leaves your device — there is no server, no cloud API, no intermediary processing. When you speak into Dictato, the audio goes directly from your microphone to the on-device transcription engine and is discarded immediately after processing.

This makes it suitable for sensitive use cases: legal professionals dictating confidential notes, medical practitioners documenting patient information, journalists protecting sources, or anyone who simply values their privacy. There are no analytics on your transcription content, and no way for anyone — including us — to access what you dictate.

Language support depends on the transcription engine you choose. The Whisper engine offers the broadest coverage with 99 languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, and many more.

The Parakeet engine focuses on 25 European languages with optimized accuracy. All engines feature automatic language detection, so you don't need to manually select your language before speaking.

Dictato requires macOS Sonoma (macOS 14) or later, running on a Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 chip or newer). The transcription engines rely on the Neural Engine built into Apple Silicon chips for fast, efficient inference — this is what enables the 80ms real-time latency.

In terms of storage, you'll need space for the transcription engine models. Parakeet requires approximately 2.3 GB, Whisper approximately 600 MB, and Apple's built-in engine requires no additional download. The app itself uses between 100-300 MB of RAM depending on the active engine.

Yes. Dictato includes a 7-day free trial with full functionality — no credit card required. Download the app, use it for a week, and only pay if you want to keep using it after the trial ends.

This gives you plenty of time to test all three transcription engines, try it in your favorite apps, and make sure it fits your workflow before committing.

Yes. Because Dictato processes all audio 100% on-device with no cloud connection, it's suitable for use cases requiring strict confidentiality. No audio or transcription data ever leaves your Mac, making it appropriate for HIPAA-conscious medical documentation, attorney-client privileged notes, or any other sensitive professional use.

That said, like any transcription tool, Dictato is not 100% accurate. We recommend proofreading important documents before finalizing them.

No. Dictato is a one-time purchase of $9.99. There are no subscriptions, no monthly fees, no usage limits, and no premium tiers. You pay once and the app is yours to use forever, with no restrictions on how much you dictate.

Your purchase includes 2 years of free updates — new features, engine improvements, and compatibility updates with future macOS versions. After the 2-year update period, the app continues to work indefinitely with the last version you received.