Offline dictation on a Mac

Updated: November 7, 2026

Offline dictation means the speech model sits on your own disk and your Mac does the recognition itself. On current Macs this is practical on both Apple Silicon and Intel, as long as the app supports your chip. This guide explains what happens under the hood, what to check before you rely on it on a plane or with confidential notes, and how to prove to yourself, with Wi-Fi switched off and by watching network traffic, that audio is not leaving the machine. We make Voice Monkeys, which works this way, but every check below works with any app.

What offline actually means

A speech recognition model is a large file of learned weights. In an online setup your microphone audio travels to a server, the model runs there, and text comes back. In an offline setup the same kind of model is stored on your Mac, the audio goes from the microphone straight into it, and the text is produced locally. Nothing needs to travel for the words to appear.

Apple Silicon chips (M1 and newer) include a Neural Engine built for this kind of maths. Intel Macs run the model on the main processor instead; an app built for that works fine, but not every app ships an Intel version, so check the requirements.

Offline describes where recognition happens. It does not automatically mean an app sends nothing at all: it could still check for updates, verify a licence or send usage data. The two tests further down separate those questions.

Built-in dictation and offline apps

For the built-in dictation, read the line under the switch in Keyboard settings; it answers the question for your Mac and language. Setup details are in the Mac dictation guide, and how to choose a dictation app for Mac covers the other criteria.

The one-time model download

Every offline app needs the internet once, to fetch its model. For Voice Monkeys that is about 600 MB on Apple Silicon and about 640 MB on Intel. Until the download has finished, the app cannot work offline, so do this at home, not at the gate.

• Check free space first: System Settings > General > Storage. Leave a few gigabytes spare beyond the model size.
• Use a stable connection and let the download finish; do not close the lid halfway.
• Dictate one sentence while still online to confirm the model loads.
• Then run the Wi-Fi test below once before trusting it on a flight or in a place without signal.

Voice Monkeys runs offline on Apple Silicon (M1 or newer, macOS 14+) and on Intel Macs (macOS 11+, 8 GB of memory recommended). After the download, the internet is used only for the licence check and updates; no audio or text is sent. The price is $25 once with a 7-day trial without a card; download it and the model is fetched on first start. Intel specifics are in dictation on an Intel Mac.

Test 1: switch the network off

• Open the dictation app and confirm its model has finished downloading.
• Click Wi-Fi in Control Center and turn it off. Unplug any Ethernet cable and disconnect any phone hotspot.
• Open TextEdit and dictate: "Flight leaves at 6:40 from gate B12, call Tomas when you land."
• If the text appears, recognition happened on your Mac. If you get an error or nothing, the app depends on a server.
• Dictate for a couple of minutes more, then switch Wi-Fi back on.

This proves the words were produced locally. It does not prove the app never sends anything later, for example queued audio or text once the connection returns. That is what the second test is for.

Test 2: watch outgoing connections

Open Activity Monitor, choose the Network tab, sort by Sent Bytes and find the dictation app. Note the number, dictate for one minute, and look again. A minute of audio is a sizeable upload, so a local app's counter should barely move. In Terminal, the nettop command gives the same per-process view live.

An outbound firewall app goes further: it shows every connection an app tries to make, with the destination, and lets you block it. A local app should not open a connection when you press the dictation key; if one appears exactly when you speak and carries a steady stream of data, audio or text is going somewhere.

• Small connections at launch are often update or licence checks. If you are unsure, ask the vendor what each destination is.
• Block the app entirely in the firewall, then dictate. If it still works, recognition does not need the network.
• For the built-in dictation, also check the optional setting about sharing audio recordings with Apple and set it the way you want.

None of this replaces your organisation's own rules. If you dictate patient, client or legal material, these tests tell you where speech is processed, and your employer or regulator decides whether that is acceptable. More in is voice dictation private?.

A short checklist before relying on it

• Chip and macOS version checked against the app's requirements in About This Mac.
• Model downloaded and tested once with Wi-Fi off.
• Outgoing traffic checked in Activity Monitor or a firewall while dictating.
• Audio sharing options in the app reviewed.
• Your rules for sensitive material checked with whoever sets them.

If cost is part of the decision, dictation apps without a subscription explains why offline apps can be sold for a one-time price.

Questions and answers

Sources

• Apple: Use Dictation on Mac (checked November 7, 2026)
• Apple: Mac computers with Apple silicon (checked November 7, 2026)

More guides

• Dictation without a subscription
• How to choose a dictation app for your Mac
• How to dictate on a Mac, step by step
• Dictation on an Intel Mac
• Is voice dictation private? What happens to your words