Aria · Offline dictation
Offline by default
Offline dictation for Mac. No cloud, no account.
Hold the right ⌘ key, talk, and the sentence appears where your cursor already is — in Mail, Slack, Notes, a browser, an editor. The model runs on your Mac. With the Wi-Fi off, it still works.
Download Aria
Free up to 2,000 words a week. No account, no card, no sign-up screen.
macOS 11 or later · 487 MB model downloaded once from inside the appWhat "offline" means here, precisely
Not "we do not sell your data". Not "processed securely". This:
- The speech model — NVIDIA Parakeet TDT V3 — is a file on your disk.
- Dictating with it makes no network request at all. Turn off Wi-Fi and nothing changes.
- Your transcript history is a local database on the Mac.
- Your personal dictionary is local.
- Optional API keys are encrypted in the macOS Keychain, not on a server.
- There is no account, so there is no profile to attach any of it to.
The one exception, stated plainly: the free plan checks a weekly word counter against a server, which needs a brief connection. It sends a counter, never audio or text. Aria Pro removes even that.
Where the text goes
Aria types at the cursor. There is no separate window to copy out of, which is the difference between dictation you use forty times a day and dictation you try twice. It works in any standard macOS text field: Mail, Messages, Notes, Slack, Teams, Safari, Chrome, VS Code, a terminal's text field, a form on a web page.
If the target app refuses the insertion — some do — the transcript stays in your history rather than vanishing.
It writes what you said
Aria restores a capital letter or a full stop locally. It does not summarise, translate or restyle unless you explicitly choose one of those modes. The language you spoke is preserved: English in, English out, and no quiet translation when you switch mid-sentence. Correct a name once and it goes into the personal dictionary, so the same fix is not needed twice.
What it costs, in machine terms
| Disk | 487 MB for the model, downloaded once |
| Memory | Claimed while transcribing, released afterwards |
| Processor | CPU — no GPU requirement, no driver |
| Languages | 25 European languages |
| Macs | Apple Silicon and Intel, macOS 11+ |
| Price | Free to 2,000 words a week, €5 once for unlimited on three Macs |
What offline costs you. A local model is weaker than a large hosted one on three things: heavy accents, noisy recordings, and rare proper nouns. On everyday dictation in a quiet room with a decent microphone, the gap is small. When it matters, Aria lets you switch to a cloud engine with your own API key — OpenAI, Groq, Deepgram, Soniox, ElevenLabs, Mistral — so local is a default, not a cage. And one more honest note: Aria is signed but not yet notarised by Apple, so the first launch needs a trip through System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway.
Questions
Does it really work with no internet?
Yes, for dictation with the local engine. Only the free plan's weekly counter needs a brief connection, and Pro removes that.
Do I need an account?
No. Install it and dictate. There is no sign-up.
Is any audio ever uploaded?
Not with the local engine. If you deliberately pick a cloud engine, the audio goes to that provider — your choice, made per engine.
Does it work on an Intel Mac?
Yes, there is a separate Intel build. It is slower than on Apple Silicon.
Can it transcribe files too?
Yes — MP3, WAV, M4A, FLAC, OGG, MP4, MOV — with speaker identification.