# On-device processing Canonical page: https://flit.fyi/glossary/on-device-processing [Glossary](https://flit.fyi/glossary) / [Where it runs](https://flit.fyi/glossary#privacy) Also: local processing Updated October 4, 2026 Definition On-device processing means the speech recognition model runs on your own computer, so audio is transcribed locally and never uploaded. The alternative is cloud processing, where audio is sent to a server to be transcribed. The distinction decides three things at once: privacy (nothing to intercept, subpoena, or breach on a server), offline behavior (local tools keep working without a network), and often latency (no round trip). The trade is that the model must fit and run on your hardware, which is why on-device tools state minimum requirements. For confidential work, on-device is the difference between a tool your compliance review waves through and one that needs a vendor agreement: there is no processor of the audio other than your own machine. ## The whole pipeline, or part of it "Local" on a product page can mean several things. Recognition on the device but formatting in the cloud. Recognition local by default but cloud models offered as an option. Everything local except the screen context, which is uploaded for personalization. Or genuinely everything: capture, recognition, formatting, dictionary, history, and any context reading, all on the machine. Only the last one lets you turn off the network and lose nothing, and only the last one means there is no copy of your words anywhere but your own disk. ## How to verify it Three tests, in order of effort. Turn off wifi and dictate; a fully on-device tool works exactly the same. Open a network monitor such as Little Snitch, filter to the app, and dictate for an hour; you should see nothing but the connections the vendor has documented, such as model downloads you started and an update check. Read the privacy statement and see whether it names every connection the app makes and why. A tool that passes all three has earned the word. A policy page describes intentions; the network monitor describes behavior. ## Why it became possible Two things arrived together. Open speech models good enough to compete with cloud engines, and consumer chips with dedicated machine-learning hardware to run them. On Apple silicon, a large recognition model and a small language model run side by side in real time on a laptop. The compromise that used to define local tools, slower and less accurate, has mostly gone, which leaves cloud processing with cross-device sync and not much else to argue. ## How to check whether Apple Dictation is processed on your Mac Apple Dictation can run on the device or on Apple servers, depending on your Mac and your language. You do not have to guess which one applies to you, because macOS tells you in settings. 1. Choose Apple menu → System Settings, then click Keyboard in the sidebar. 2. Go to Dictation. 3. Read the text under the Dictation switch. It says whether your voice input is processed on your device. 4. If you dictate in more than one language, change the Dictation language and read the text again, because availability varies by language and Mac model. 5. If it does not say the processing is on the device, assume what you dictate is sent to Apple to be processed. ## How to watch network activity while you dictate Activity Monitor is included with every Mac and gives you a first check without installing anything. It will not show you where data goes, but it shows whether data is moving while you speak. 1. Quit apps that use the network heavily, such as browsers and sync tools, so the reading is quiet. 2. Open the Activity Monitor app and click Network. 3. Look at the bottom of the window and note Data sent and Data sent/sec. 4. Dictate for one full minute into a text editor. 5. Compare the numbers. Audio leaving your Mac for a minute shows up as a clear rise in data sent. A flat line is what on-device processing looks like. 6. Repeat with Wi-Fi turned off in System Settings → Wi-Fi. A tool that still works is not depending on a server for recognition. ## Does Apple Dictation send audio to Apple? It depends on the device and the language. Apple’s privacy notice for Siri and Dictation says your device indicates in Keyboard settings if your audio and transcripts are processed on the device and not sent to Apple servers. When that is not the case, the same notice says the things you dictate are sent to and processed on the server, and are not stored unless you opt in to Improve Siri and Dictation. Apple also describes collecting related request data, such as device specifications and performance statistics. This is the general pattern to look for in any tool: a clear statement of when audio stays local, when it does not, and what else is sent. A statement that only covers the best case is not a complete answer. In Flit Flit is on-device for every step, verifiably: turn off wifi and everything still works, and the privacy page lists every connection the app ever makes. [Do not take our word for it](https://flit.fyi/#privacy) - [Private, provably](https://flit.fyi/#privacy) - [The privacy statement, with the network-monitor recipe](https://flit.fyi/privacy) - [Private dictation apps, ranked, with three levels of testing](https://flit.fyi/blog/best-private-dictation-apps) - [Privileged notes that never upload](https://flit.fyi/use-cases/lawyers) ## Questions people ask. ### What does on-device mean for a dictation app? The speech model, and ideally every other step, runs on your own computer. Your audio and text are never uploaded, the tool works offline, and there is no server holding a copy of anything you said. ### How can I check whether a dictation app is really on-device? Turn off wifi and dictate; it should work unchanged. Then watch it with a network monitor for a while and compare what you see with what the privacy statement says the app connects to. Behavior beats a policy page. ### Is on-device dictation less accurate than cloud? Not meaningfully, on Apple silicon with current open models. Your microphone, room, and vocabulary matter more than where the model runs. The remaining cloud advantage is syncing a dictionary across devices, not accuracy. ### How do I know if dictation on my Mac is on-device? Open System Settings → Keyboard and look under the Dictation switch. macOS states there whether your voice input is processed on your device. ### How do I see which apps can use my microphone on a Mac? Choose Apple menu → System Settings, click Privacy & Security, then click Microphone. You can turn access on or off for each app in the list. ### How can I tell if my Mac microphone is being used? macOS shows a recording indicator in Control Center when the microphone is in use or has been used recently. ## Guides that use it - [How to dictate on a Mac](https://flit.fyi/how-to-dictate-on-mac) - [Mac dictation not working](https://flit.fyi/mac-dictation-not-working) - [Change the dictation language](https://flit.fyi/change-dictation-language-mac) - [Transcribe an audio file](https://flit.fyi/transcribe-audio-file-mac) - [Wispr Flow not working](https://flit.fyi/wispr-flow-not-working) - [Does Wispr Flow work offline?](https://flit.fyi/does-wispr-flow-work-offline) - [All guides](https://flit.fyi/guides) ## On the blog - [Flit 1.5: transcribe recordings on your Mac](https://flit.fyi/blog/flit-1-5) - [Flit 1.1: new voice models and a new look](https://flit.fyi/blog/flit-1-1) - [A private dictation app for Mac, out now](https://flit.fyi/blog/introducing-flit) - [The best dictation apps for lawyers in 2026](https://flit.fyi/blog/dictation-for-lawyers) - [All posts](https://flit.fyi/blog) ## Use cases - [Agencies](https://flit.fyi/use-cases/agencies) - [Sales](https://flit.fyi/use-cases/sales) - [Lawyers](https://flit.fyi/use-cases/lawyers) - [Therapists & clinicians](https://flit.fyi/use-cases/therapists) - [Doctors & medical](https://flit.fyi/use-cases/medical) - [Multilingual](https://flit.fyi/use-cases/multilingual) ## Compared on it - [Flit vs Wispr Flow](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/wispr-flow) - [Flit vs Superwhisper](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/superwhisper) - [Flit vs SpeakMac](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/speakmac) - [Flit vs Spokenly](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/spokenly) - [Flit vs VoiceInk](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/voiceink) - [Flit vs FluidVoice](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/fluidvoice) - [Flit vs Snaply](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/snaply) - [Flit vs Utter](https://flit.fyi/alternatives/utter) - [All 34 comparisons](https://flit.fyi/alternatives) ## Related terms - [Speech-to-text](https://flit.fyi/glossary/speech-to-text) - [Automatic speech recognition](https://flit.fyi/glossary/automatic-speech-recognition) - [Neural Engine](https://flit.fyi/glossary/neural-engine) - [Local LLM](https://flit.fyi/glossary/local-llm) - [Dictation](https://flit.fyi/glossary/dictation) ## Your voice was always faster. 7 days free, then $19 USD once. No account, no subscription, nothing uploaded. [Download for Mac](https://flit.fyi/download) [Buy now · $19 USD](https://flit.fyi/pricing#personal) macOS 14 or later · Apple silicon