How to transcribe an audio file on a Mac without uploading it
The short answer
A Mac can turn a recording into text without sending it anywhere. Voice Memos shows a transcript for its own recordings, where the feature is available. The open Whisper model runs on any audio file from Terminal, after a short install. Flit, a local dictation app for Mac, takes an audio or video file on its Transcribe tab and gives back a transcript with paragraphs, saved as a text file or exported as SRT and VTT, on the Mac itself.
How to read the transcript of a recording in Voice Memos
- Open the Voice Memos app on your Mac.
- Click the recording you want to read.
- Click the Transcription button to view the transcript.
- Select the text you want, Control-click it, and choose Copy.
- Paste the text into Mail, a document, or any other app.
- To find a recording by what was said, type the words into the search field. Voice Memos shows recordings with that text in the title or in the transcript.
Apple says audio transcription is not available in every country or region, so the Transcription button may be missing on your Mac. It works on recordings made in Voice Memos.
Most "transcribe audio to text" results are websites that ask you to upload the file. On a Mac with Apple silicon, that is unnecessary: the machine can do it, with the recording never leaving the disk. There are three ways, and the table is the short version.
Three ways to transcribe a recording on a Mac
| Way | What you need | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Voice Memos | Nothing installed. A recording made in Voice Memos, in a region where transcription is available | A transcript to read, search and copy |
| Whisper in Terminal | Python, ffmpeg and a pip install. Comfort with a command line | A text file, plus SRT and VTT, for any audio file |
| Flit | The Flit app on macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon | A transcript with paragraphs from any audio or video file, saved as text, exported as Markdown, SRT or VTT |
Voice Memos: free, built in, for its own recordings
The Voice Memos app that comes with macOS can show a transcript of a recording. Apple's page on it describes the Transcription button, copying the text, and searching recordings by what was said. It also notes that audio transcription is not available in all countries or regions.
It is the right answer when the recording was made in Voice Memos, on the Mac or on an iPhone that syncs to it. For a file from somewhere else, a video, or a recording longer than a memo, the other two ways do more.
Whisper in Terminal: any file, after a short install
Whisper is an open speech recognition model from OpenAI, released with its code and weights under the MIT License. It ships with a command-line tool that takes audio files and returns text. The project's README lists Python 3.8 to 3.11 as compatible and says it needs the ffmpeg tool to read audio.
- Open Terminal.
- Install ffmpeg. With Homebrew the command is
brew install ffmpeg. - Install Whisper with
pip install -U openai-whisper. - Run it on a file with
whisper recording.mp3 --model turbo. It writes the transcript as text, SRT and VTT files in the folder you ran it from. - If you know the language of the recording, name it:
whisper interview.wav --language German.
Which model, and how accurate
With Whisper you choose the trade-off yourself. The project publishes six sizes, from tiny at 39 million parameters to large at 1,550 million, and rates tiny at roughly ten times the speed of large. The turbo model has 809 million parameters and is rated at roughly eight times the speed of large.
Whatever tool you use, the honest test is the same: pick a few minutes that matter, play them back, and read along with the transcript before you trust the whole document. Names, numbers and anything said over crosstalk are where every model slips.
What none of the three do
None of them says who said what. A transcript from any of these is one flow of text; speaker labels need a separate model, and on the Mac that means a tool built for it, such as MacWhisper. None of them records a meeting as it happens either: you bring the recording.
Transcribe a file in Flit
Flit is a dictation app first: hold a key, speak, and finished text lands at your cursor. Since version 1.5 it also transcribes a recording you already have, with the same voice models, on the Mac.
- Drop an audio or video file on Settings → Transcribe, on the Flit icon in the menu bar, or right-click it in Finder and choose Services → Transcribe with Flit. MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP4 and MOV all work.
- The transcript appears as it goes, in paragraphs that start where the speaker paused. A two-hour recording takes a few minutes at the Clean formatting level.
- It is saved as a text file in a folder you choose and kept in the tab for later. Export it as Markdown, or as SRT and VTT subtitles with timestamps.
- Choose a voice model and a formatting level for recordings, separate from your dictation settings. Polished makes the recording read as prose.
- From a script: install the
flitcommand from Settings → Transcribe, andflit transcribe meeting.m4a --srtdoes the same from Terminal. - Nothing is uploaded. The file is read on the Mac, in pieces, and Flit transcribes with Wi-Fi off.
- Flit is free for 7 days with every feature on, then $19 once, with no account and no subscription.
Good to know
- Flit does not label speakers, and it does not record a meeting as it happens. Both are on its roadmap.
- Which languages a recording can be in depends on the voice model you choose: Parakeet V3 covers 25 European languages, Cohere Transcribe 14, Qwen3-ASR 30 and Whisper the most.
- Flit runs on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later, and its voice model is a download of about 0.5 to 2.3 GB that you choose once.
Questions people ask
How do I transcribe an audio file on a Mac for free?
Two ways cost nothing. Voice Memos shows a transcript when you click the Transcription button on a recording, where the feature is available. The open Whisper model installs with pip and runs on any audio file from Terminal.
Can a Mac transcribe audio without uploading it?
Yes. Voice Memos, Whisper in Terminal and Flit all run on the Mac itself. On Apple silicon the models are fast enough that a two-hour recording takes minutes, and the file never leaves the disk.
Can I transcribe a video file on a Mac?
Whisper reads video through ffmpeg, and Flit takes MP4 and MOV directly. Both use the sound and ignore the picture. Voice Memos only transcribes its own recordings.
Which Mac app gives speaker labels?
None of the three here. MacWhisper labels speakers in its Pro version, on the Mac, and meeting tools such as Otter do it in the cloud.
Is there an app that transcribes audio files on a Mac?
Yes. Flit is a local dictation app for Mac with a Transcribe tab: drop an audio or video file in and the transcript comes back on the Mac, saved as text and exported as Markdown, SRT or VTT. Flit is free for 7 days with every feature on, then $19 once, with no account and no subscription.