Free, and your voice never leaves your Mac.
Fast, private push-to-talk dictation for your Mac. Your words land in whatever text field you’re using, in any app. Everything happens on your Mac; nothing is uploaded unless you choose it.
macOS 26 Tahoe or later · Apple Silicon
Can we push the release to Friday? I want one more pass on the onboarding flow.
How it works
No floating overlay, no popup, no scratchpad to copy from. Just your text appearing where you're already typing.
Press and hold your trigger key. Right Option by default, or any modifier or function key you choose.
Say what you mean. Your voice is transcribed right on your Mac, and no audio ever leaves the machine.
Let go, and the text lands in whatever field has focus. No overlay, no scratchpad, no copy-paste.
$0
forever, no tiers
0
accounts or sign-ins
0
audio files uploaded
Any
language your Mac speaks
Private by design
Transcription is always local. Cleanup is on-device by default. Nothing leaves your machine unless you choose a cloud provider, and then only the transcript text, with your own key.
Your Mac
| SpeakKey | Cloud dictation apps | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Monthly subscription |
| Your audio | Never leaves your Mac | Uploaded to their servers |
| Account | None | Usually required |
| Telemetry | None | Usually |
| Works offline | Fully | Rarely |
| Your API keys | Your keychain only | Their cloud |
Our privacy policy, in one line
“We don’t see your data.”
Not your voice, not your transcripts, not your usage. There are no SpeakKey servers for them to pass through. Read the full policy.
Optional AI cleanup
Turn on cleanup to drop the filler, fix punctuation, and apply spoken commands like “new paragraph.” Off by default, so you're always in control.
You said
“um so basically can we uh push the release to friday um I want one more pass on onboarding”
SpeakKey typed
Can we push the release to Friday, I want one more pass on onboarding.
Free and on-device by default. No API key, no network, no cost. Want more? Bring your own key for Claude or OpenAI. And if cleanup ever fails, SpeakKey inserts the raw transcript, so you never lose what you said.
Yours to shape
Fix the words it always gets wrong, like names, jargon, and product terms. Deterministic, instant, free. Works with or without AI cleanup.
whole-word or substring · case options · JSON import/export
A built-in usage & cost meter shows cleaned dictations and estimated cost, this session and all-time, per provider.
An optional, searchable record of your dictations. Off by default, stored only on your Mac, never synced.
Controls
Right Option by default, rarely pressed by accident. Or pick fn, Right Command, or a function key like F5.
Hold-to-talk for quick bursts, or toggle mode for dictating long paragraphs hands-free. Tap to start, tap to stop.
Press Esc mid-dictation and nothing gets inserted. Change your mind for free.
Optionally add a space after each dictation so consecutive dictations don't run together.
Dictate in any language the on-device speech engine supports. The model downloads on first use.
Launch at login, live quietly in the menu bar, and a clear one-click panel for Microphone and Accessibility permissions.
⌥fn⌘F5your trigger, your choice.escalways cancels.
FAQ
macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later on Apple Silicon. SpeakKey is built on the newest on-device speech technology. That's what makes it fast, private, and free to run.
No. Audio is transcribed locally on your Mac, always. If you turn on AI cleanup, it runs on-device by default too. The only time anything leaves your Mac is if you explicitly choose a cloud cleanup provider, and then only the transcript text is sent, to the provider you picked, with your own API key.
SpeakKey is free. Transcription and on-device cleanup cost nothing. If you optionally bring your own API key for a cloud model, you pay that provider directly, typically fractions of a cent per dictation, and the built-in meter shows you exactly what you've spent.
Nothing bad. If cleanup can't run because of a missing key, a network error, or an unavailable model, SpeakKey inserts the raw transcript instead. You never lose what you said.
The App Store requires apps to run inside Apple's sandbox, and the sandbox forbids the two things SpeakKey exists to do: listen for a system-wide push-to-talk key and insert text into other apps. So SpeakKey ships as a direct download instead, signed with a Developer ID certificate and notarized by Apple. That's how most Mac utilities that work across apps are distributed.
Microphone (to hear you) and Accessibility (to type into the focused field). SpeakKey shows a simple status panel for both, with one-click buttons to grant them.
No account, no telemetry, no sync. Optional dictation history is off by default and, if you enable it, stored only on your Mac with retention controls you set.
Free to download. Private by default, and ready the next time you’d rather say it than type it.