Offline
Offline dictation for Mac
Dictation that works with no internet at all, and never sends your voice to a server. Press a hotkey, talk, and OliType types into any app on your Mac.
The short answer
OliType turns speech into text on your Mac, using NVIDIA Parakeet, a speech model that runs on Apple silicon. During setup it downloads the model once (about 490 MB). After that, dictation works with Wi-Fi off: on a plane, on a train, or on a network that blocks cloud services. Your voice is never uploaded, and there's no cloud option to switch on by mistake.
Prove it's offline in two minutes
Don't take our word for it. Try it with the free trial:
- Install OliType and finish setup, so the speech model is downloaded.
- Turn Wi-Fi off from the menu bar or Control Center, and unplug any network cable.
- Open Notes or TextEdit, click into the page, and press your hotkey (Left Option, double-tapped, unless you changed it).
- Say a sentence, then press the hotkey again. Your words appear, typed with no connection at all.
When OliType goes online, and when it doesn't
Dictation itself never needs the internet. OliType connects only for these, and never sends your voice or your words:
- Downloading a model, once: the speech model during setup, and AI cleanup if you add it. Both come from Hugging Face, a widely used public library of AI models.
- Your license key, when you click to activate it or remove it from a Mac. Our store, Polar, receives only the key and the name you gave the Mac.
- Updates. Unless you turn it off in About, OliType asks olitype.com which version is newest, and downloads an update when you click Install Update.
OliType has no telemetry, no accounts, no analytics, and no cloud AI. The details are in the privacy policy.
Where your voice goes in other apps
Checked on October 17, 2026, against Wispr Flow's data controls page and Superwhisper's home page. Check theirs for the latest.
| Wispr Flow | Superwhisper | OliType | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where speech becomes text | In the cloud: "Transcription always occurs on the cloud" | On your Mac with local models; Pro adds cloud models | Always on your Mac |
| Works with no internet | No | Yes, with local models | Yes, after the one-time model download |
| A cloud option to turn on | Cloud only | Yes, in Pro | None |
More detail: OliType vs. Wispr Flow and OliType vs. Superwhisper.
Private on screen, too
The listening indicator, the floating button, and OliType's messages are left out of macOS screenshots and screen recordings, and out of screen shares in apps that respect macOS's window privacy setting.
Before you buy
- OliType needs a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer), macOS 15 or later, and about 1 GB of free space.
- You need the internet once, during setup, to download the speech model.
- Optional AI cleanup is a free 2.3 GB download that also runs on your Mac; it needs 16 GB of memory.
- It's for live dictation, not recordings or meetings; for files, see OliType vs. MacWhisper.
Try OliType free for 30 days
The full app, no account, no card, then $19 once for 1 Mac or $29 for up to 3. Download the free trial, or see how paying once compares with a subscription.