Drag a file in. Get a transcript out.
TongueType transcribes audio and video files on your Mac using Whisper AI running locally on Apple Silicon. Nothing is uploaded. No account. No queue. Just text, a few seconds later.
macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon · Free forever, Pro if you want
What it transcribes
Audio files
WAV, MP3, M4A, AIFF, CAF, FLAC. Voice memos, podcasts, interviews, conference call recordings, lectures, dictation captured on a phone in the field.
Video files
MOV, MP4, M4V, 3GP. TongueType pulls the audio track and transcribes that — useful for screen recordings, Zoom exports, course videos, and clips you pulled off a camera.
Drag and drop
Open Transcribe audio/video file… from the menu bar, then drop a file onto the dialog. Or bind a global keyboard shortcut and trigger it from anywhere.
Why offline transcription matters
Audio stays on your Mac
Most transcription apps upload your file to someone’s server. TongueType doesn’t. There’s no transcription API behind the curtain. The file you dropped in never leaves the machine.
No upload, no waiting
A two-hour meeting recording is a big upload. Skip it entirely — transcription starts the moment you drop the file in.
Works offline
Coffee shop Wi-Fi, airplane, basement office, hospital floor. TongueType doesn’t need a network connection to do its job.
No per-minute pricing
No metered API costs and no transcription credits to budget. Pro is a one-time purchase that removes the per-file cap, after that.
No analytics
We don’t track what files you transcribe, how long they are, or anything else. We literally can’t — there’s no telemetry path in the app.
Apple Silicon speed
Whisper runs on the Apple Neural Engine via CoreML. Transcription is fast and barely touches the battery.
12 languages, with auto-detect
File transcription uses the same language setting as live dictation. Pick a language under Language in the menu bar, or leave it on Auto-detect if you don’t know what’s in the file.
Supported: English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Dutch, and Russian.
Free vs Pro for file transcription
The free version transcribes the first 10 seconds of any file, so you can confirm it does what you need before you pay anything. The dialog tells you up front, and the transcript ends with “[Audio trimmed to 10 seconds]” as a reminder.
TongueType Pro removes the per-file cap entirely. A 90-second voice memo, a 20-minute interview, or a two-hour meeting all transcribe in full. Pro is a $19.99 one-time purchase, good on up to 5 Macs. No subscription, no recurring charges.
Live dictation has its own free-tier limit (30 minutes per calendar month) that’s independent from the file cap.
Fits into how you already work
Get the text out the way you want
When transcription finishes, three buttons handle the output: Copy & Close (copies and closes the dialog, also bound to Return), Copy (copies without closing, in case you want to re-read or queue another file), and Clear (resets the transcript area for the next file).
Postprocessing applies here too
Your custom replacement rules and the Whisper-annotation filter both apply to file transcripts. A recording with “[music]” in it gets the same cleanup as live dictation. Useful for cleaning up names, jargon, or stripping the bracketed cues Whisper inserts for non-speech sounds.
Need the full setup walk-through?
The file-transcription docs cover the dialog in detail — binding a global shortcut, language selection, what happens when you cancel mid-transcription, and the full format list.
Skip the upload. Keep the text.
Download TongueType for free and try it on a real file.
macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon · Direct download, no App Store