Private Audio Transcription Software for Mac (Offline)

For most people, MacWhisper is the best private audio transcription app for Mac. It runs Whisper models locally, and even the free version recognizes speakers and exports .txt, .srt and .vtt files. Aiko is the simplest alternative and shares one purchase across Mac, iPhone and iPad. Buzz is free and open source. whisper.cpp suits anyone happy in Terminal. All four transcribe on your Mac without uploading the audio.

The best offline transcription apps for Mac #

Prices are from each developer’s site in September 2026.

MacWhisper: the most complete #

MacWhisper is a drag-and-drop app for audio and video files, meetings and lectures, and it uses local models so your files stay on the Mac. The free version supports MP3, WAV and M4A, around 100 languages, speaker recognition and .txt, .srt and .vtt export, which covers most people. The one-time Pro purchase (listed at €64) adds batch transcription, more export formats (DOCX, PDF, HTML, Markdown), translation, automatic cleanup and integration with AI services.

That last point matters for privacy. Transcription stays local, but if you send a transcript to a cloud AI service for a summary, that text leaves your Mac. For confidential work, leave AI integrations switched off.

Aiko: simple and shared with your iPhone #

Aiko, by Sindre Sorhus, transcribes on the device with no cloud step. On a Mac it uses Whisper’s large-v2 model, and on iPhone it picks medium or small depending on memory. It opens any format Apple devices can play (M4A, WAV, MP3, MP4, MOV, but not OGG), supports around 100 languages, and exports to text, subtitles (SRT), JSON and CSV. It’s a universal purchase across Mac, iPhone, iPad and Vision Pro. There are no speaker labels, and it’s built for files rather than live dictation.

Buzz: free and open source #

Buzz transcribes and translates offline with Whisper, on Mac, Windows and Linux. It has speaker identification, a transcript viewer with search and playback, a watch folder for automatic jobs, and TXT, SRT and VTT export. Current Mac builds require Apple silicon, and Intel support ended with version 1.4.5. If you want everything MacWhisper Pro offers without paying and don’t mind a plainer interface, Buzz is the one.

whisper.cpp: for Terminal users #

whisper.cpp is the engine many of these apps are built on. On Apple silicon it uses Metal for acceleration:

git clone https://github.com/ggml-org/whisper.cpp
cd whisper.cpp
cmake -B build && cmake --build build -j --config Release
sh ./models/download-ggml-model.sh large-v3-turbo
./build/bin/whisper-cli -m models/ggml-large-v3-turbo.bin -f interview.wav -otxt -osrt

Convert other formats to 16 kHz WAV first with ffmpeg -i input.m4a -ar 16000 -ac 1 interview.wav. It’s free and scriptable, and nothing runs that you didn’t ask for.

Also worth a look #

Whisper Notes is a fully offline speech-to-text app for iPhone and M-series Macs. It offers Parakeet V3, Whisper Large V3 Turbo and SenseVoice engines and a one-time price of $14 on Mac after a free 5,000-word trial. It leans towards dictation, which we cover in private dictation software for Mac.

How to transcribe an audio file privately on a Mac #

The steps are much the same in every app:

1. Get the audio onto the Mac. Voice Memos syncs to the Mac if you’ve enabled it in iCloud, QuickTime Player can record audio directly (File > New Audio Recording), and Zoom’s computer recording saves files locally.
2. Download a model once. Pick a size that matches your Mac (see below).
3. Drop the file in and choose the spoken language, or let it auto-detect.
4. Review with timestamps. Jump to anything that looks wrong and listen.
5. Export to text for notes or SRT for subtitles, then delete the audio if you no longer need it.

For recorded calls, our guides to private Zoom transcription and transcribing meetings privately on a MacBook cover capture and speaker labels.

Which Whisper model should you use on a Mac? #

OpenAI’s Whisper repository lists these sizes:

The .en versions are English-only and more accurate for their size, especially tiny.en and base.en. OpenAI notes that turbo isn’t trained for translation, so use medium or large if you want non-English speech translated into English.

When your iPhone is the better tool #

A Mac is great for files that are already on it. But interviews, lectures and meetings are often recorded on a phone, and moving each file to the Mac adds a step.

Private Transcribe, our app for iPhone and Android, transcribes on the phone itself with Whisper, from Quick (78 MB) up to Best (574 MB, large-v3-turbo). You can record or import audio and video files (m4a, mp3, wav, aac, mp4, mov, up to 90 minutes each). Nothing is uploaded, there’s no account, and it works in airplane mode. It doesn’t label speakers, and there’s no Mac version, so for speaker-labelled transcripts of long files, MacWhisper or Buzz on the Mac is still the better pick. For a lecture or a voice memo you want as text on the train home, the phone is quicker.

Tips for better accuracy #

• Use large-v3-turbo on any Apple silicon Mac. It’s fast enough that smaller models are rarely worth it.
• Set the language rather than relying on detection, especially if the recording starts with noise or music.
• Give the model your vocabulary. whisper.cpp accepts --prompt "Name One, Name Two, jargon", and several apps have a similar field.
• Fix the audio at the source. A closer mic beats any filter. See how to minimize background noise for accurate transcription.
• For video, extract the audio track with ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -vn -ar 16000 -ac 1 audio.wav if your app doesn’t open the video directly.

Frequently asked questions #

Is there free private transcription software for Mac? #

Yes. Buzz and whisper.cpp are free and open source, and MacWhisper’s free version includes speaker recognition and subtitle export. All three transcribe locally with Whisper models.

Does macOS have built-in audio transcription? #

macOS has on-device dictation for speaking into text fields in supported languages, which you can confirm in Keyboard settings. For transcribing existing audio files with timestamps and subtitle export, you need a separate app such as MacWhisper, Aiko or Buzz.

Will these apps work on an Intel Mac? #

whisper.cpp builds and runs on Intel Macs, just more slowly. Current versions of Buzz require Apple silicon, and some apps only offer their larger local models on M-series chips. If you’re on Intel, stick to small or medium models.

Can MacWhisper or Aiko transcribe live meetings? #

They’re built mainly for recorded files. The reliable private method is to record the meeting to your Mac first, then transcribe the file. That also gives the model the full context, which improves accuracy compared with live captions.

How accurate is offline Whisper on a Mac? #

On clear audio, large-v3-turbo and large models are close to the best cloud services. Accuracy drops with crosstalk, poor microphones and strong background noise, just as it does in the cloud. A better recording helps more than a bigger model.