Speech to Text for Mac
Turn your speech into text anywhere on your Mac: press a shortcut, talk, and Harker types it at your cursor — free, unlimited, and on-device.
Download FreeYou talk about three times faster than you type, but getting speech into text on a Mac usually means a trade-off: the built-in dictation is a take-it-or-leave-it tool, and most third-party apps meter your words, require an account, or send your audio to their servers.
How Harker helps
Harker turns speech into text in any app on your Mac: email, docs, Slack, code, AI prompts. Press the global shortcut (Cmd+Shift+Space by default) or hold a key to talk, and the transcription is pasted at your cursor when you stop. No dictation window, no copy-paste.
Transcription runs on local Whisper models, on your device. That's why the free tier has no word caps and no account requirement: there's no server to meter you. It works fully offline, transcribes 100+ languages with automatic detection, and you pick the model tier — nano for speed, large for accuracy.
If you want more than a faithful transcript, Premium ($7/month, or $69/year — $5.75/month) adds AI writing styles, smart formatting, grammar correction, and translation. Only the transcribed text goes to the cloud for those; your audio always stays on your Mac.
Speech to text on a Mac
Speech to text on a Mac converts spoken words into typed text. Harker does this with local Whisper models: press a keyboard shortcut, speak, and the transcribed text is pasted at your cursor in any app — free, unlimited, offline, and without your audio ever leaving the device.
How do I use speech to text on a Mac?
macOS has built-in dictation under System Settings, which covers basic input. For model choice, offline use, and text pasted directly into any app, use a dedicated tool like Harker: set a global shortcut, speak, and the transcription appears at your cursor.
Is there a free speech to text app for Mac?
Yes. Harker's free tier does unlimited speech to text on macOS with local Whisper models — no word caps, no trial period, no account. It transcribes 100+ languages and works with no internet connection.
How accurate is speech to text on a Mac?
Accuracy depends on the model. Harker lets you choose between Whisper model tiers, from nano (fastest) to large (most accurate on jargon and names), all running locally on Apple Silicon.
Does Mac speech to text work offline?
Harker's transcription runs entirely on your device, so it works with no internet connection at all. Only the optional Premium AI features need a connection, because they process the transcribed text in the cloud.
How it works
- 1
Set your shortcut
Pick a global keyboard shortcut, or keep the default Cmd+Shift+Space. Harker waits in the background until you call it.
- 2
Speak
Talk naturally in any app. Local Whisper turns your speech into text on your device, even offline.
- 3
Text appears
The transcription is pasted at your cursor, right where you were typing.
Harker saves me hours every week. It's become a core part of how I vibe-code apps and move from idea to working product faster.
Charles Green
My favourite part about Harker compared to all the other voice-to-text tools is that it's built for privacy... everything stays locally, and my thoughts and brilliant ideas are not floating around in the cloud somewhere.
Tara Thompson
Questions
Start speaking instead of typing
Free, unlimited, and private. No account required.