Offline Voice-to-Text Tool for macOS Using Local Whisper via MLX

A developer has created whisper-dictate, a macOS tool that enables fully offline voice-to-text transcription with real-time translation capabilities. The tool uses OpenAI's Whisper running locally through MLX on Apple Silicon, with no data ever leaving your machine.

How It Works

The workflow is straightforward: hold the fn key, speak, and release. The text is transcribed and pasted directly where you're typing. The tool works in Slack, VS Code, browsers, email, or any other text field. A floating "Listening..." overlay provides visual feedback during recording.

Technical Details

• Transcription takes about 500ms after you stop speaking
• Uses Whisper running locally through MLX on Apple Silicon
• The small model is solid for everyday use
• large-v3-turbo model provides near-perfect accuracy
• 100% offline operation - no accounts, tokens, or data leaving your machine

Translation Feature

Whisper can translate on the fly without extra models or translation APIs. The translation is built into Whisper's decode step. For example, speaking French outputs English text. You set the output language to English, and it handles translation natively.

Setup and Configuration

On launch, the tool asks what language you'll be speaking and what you want the output in, allowing easy switching between pure transcription and translation. The entire setup requires no internet connection once installed.

Availability

The project is open-sourced on GitHub for others to use and adapt to their workflows.