monologue

Press a key. Speak. Text appears.

Local dictation for macOS. No cloud. No subscription.

Download for Mac

7-day free trial · then $30, once

Launch price See pricing →

Available for macOS · Open this link on your Mac

3x faster than typing · Fully local · 7-day free trial

Three steps. That's it.

No modes. No setup. No learning curve.

Press any hotkey

Fn, Option, or Control. Your choice.

Speak your mind

No wake words. No commands.

Text just appears

Right where your cursor is.

See it in action.

Real dictation. One take. No edits.

No staging. No post-processing. Just monologue running on a Mac.

Works where you work.

No window. No editor. No workflow to learn. Text appears wherever your cursor is.

Draft PRs · Reply to teammates · Brain dump ideas · Write docs

Nothing leaves your machine.

Most voice tools send your audio to the cloud. monologue doesn't.

  • Processed on-device
  • Audio discarded instantly
  • No account required

Private

No internet needed. Audio is processed on-device & never leaves your Mac.

Fast

Native Apple Silicon GPU acceleration. No uploads, no server calls, no waiting.

Accurate

Accurate right out of the box. No setup, no configuration needed.

From the maker

Your voice is yours.
Not a data point.
Not a training sample.
Just yours.

Every dictation tool I tried uploaded my voice somewhere, asked for an account, or locked basic functionality behind a subscription. For something as simple as turning speech into text, that felt unnecessary.

What I wanted was straightforward: a key I could press, a sentence I could speak, and text appearing instantly wherever my cursor was. Nothing leaving my machine. No one storing my audio. No usage limits. Just a fast, local tool that respects the boundary between my device and the internet.

— Mihir Karandikar (@mihir0x69)

Maker of monologue

Designed for thinking out loud.

Simple controls. Zero friction. Nothing between your voice and your text.

Hold to dictate

Hold a key and talk. Release to stop. Or toggle for longer sessions.

Works in any app

Text fields, code editors, search bars, terminals — works in any app that accepts text input.

Smart silence detection

Silence detection is built in. Let go and nothing happens. No cleanup, no wasted keystrokes.

Custom hotkey

Fn, Option, or Control — system-wide, in every app. No per-app shortcuts to remember.

No account needed

Download, open, start talking. No sign-up, no email, no activation hoops.

Lightweight & native

Under 200MB. No Electron. No browser engine. Runs quietly in your menu bar.

One price. No surprises.

Pay once, own it forever. No subscriptions.

Launch price

$30

one-time purchase

  • 7-day free trial
  • Full functionality, no limits
  • No credit card for trial
  • 30-day money-back guarantee
  • All future updates included
Download for Mac

7-day free trial · then $30, once

Launch price See pricing →

Available for macOS · Open this link on your Mac

Most dictation tools charge monthly. monologue doesn't.

Questions & answers.

Is my voice recorded or stored anywhere?

No. Audio is processed in real-time and immediately discarded. Nothing is saved to disk, logged, or sent anywhere. Everything runs locally on your Mac — no internet needed, ever.

What happens after the free trial?

After 7 days, monologue asks you to make a one-time purchase. No auto-charges, no surprise billing. You decide when you're ready.

Can I get a refund?

Yes. If monologue isn't for you, reach out within 30 days and you'll get a full refund. See our Refund Policy for details.

Does it work in every app?

If your cursor is blinking, monologue can type there. Slack, VS Code, Notion, Mail, Pages — any app that accepts text input.

How is monologue different from Apple Dictation or cloud tools?

Apple Dictation relies on cloud processing and has usage limits. Cloud tools upload your voice to remote servers, require accounts, and charge monthly. monologue runs fully offline using Whisper models on your GPU — no internet, no limits, no accounts, no subscriptions, no data leaving your Mac.

What speech recognition does it use?

monologue runs OpenAI's Whisper models locally on your Mac, optimized for Apple Silicon's GPU. Nothing is sent to OpenAI or any other server.

What are the system requirements?

macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later on any Mac with Apple Silicon — M1, M2, M3, or M4. Intel Macs are not supported. The app and its bundled model are under 200 MB. During active transcription, it uses around 200–400 MB of RAM depending on the model; near zero when idle.

Does it support languages other than English?

English is fully supported today. More languages are planned.

Is there any delay between speaking and text appearing?

Transcription happens in near real-time. On Apple Silicon Macs, text appears within a second of finishing a phrase. No network round-trip — it's all local GPU processing.

How much battery does it use?

monologue only uses GPU resources while you're actively dictating. When idle, it consumes near-zero energy. Most users see no noticeable impact on battery life.

How does monologue handle updates?

Updates are optional and non-intrusive. monologue checks for new versions on launch and lets you decide when to update. No forced restarts, no auto-updates.