Dictation for Mac
Hold a key. Talk.It's typed.
Text lands at your cursor in whatever app you're in, 0.1 to 0.3 s after you let go with a streaming engine. Free and open source.
Hold space and talkTap, then hold again to send
A simulation. Your mic isn't used.
If it has a cursor, it works.
Engines
Pick an engine for each key.
Bring your own API key, or keep everything on the Mac.
Recognizes while you talk, so it's ready the moment you let go.
Cleanup
Ramble. It comes out clean.
An optional pass fixes punctuation and drops the ums. It doesn't rewrite what you meant.
Um, so for tomorrow's meeting, uh, let's do three, actually three thirty, and I'll bring, like, two options.
For tomorrow's meeting, let's do 3:30, and I'll bring two options.
macOS 26+
More than dictation.
The same app also listens to your Mac.
Live captions
Captions for whatever is playing, translated from English to Japanese or transcribed as is. ⌥⌘S to start.
Meeting notes
Paste a Google Meet link. A bot joins with mic and camera off and saves a transcript with speaker names.
Translate as you type
Speak in one language, type in another. Falls back to the original if translation fails.
Fully local mode
Apple's on-device recognition and translation. Works offline, no key, nothing sent anywhere.
Details
Made for every day.
Two hotkeys
Each with its own engine, mode and cleanup. Hold to talk, or tap to toggle.
Double-tap to send
Tap the key, then hold it again and talk. voicekey presses Return after pasting.
Dictionary
Names and jargon get replaced with your spelling, locally, right before paste.
History
A slim notch on the screen edge opens your recent dictations. Click to copy.
Numbers as digits
Japanese numerals like 十二 and 三時 come out as 12 and 3時.
API cost
See today's, this month's and all-time spend by provider and model.
Any key
Right ⌘, F-keys, or JIS keys like かな and 英数.
Auto-updates
New versions download in the background. One click to restart.
Privacy
The mic is on only while you dictate.
No always-on listening
Nothing is recorded until you press the hotkey.
Keys stay in Keychain
Your API keys never touch a voicekey server. There isn't one.
History stays local
Kept on this Mac. Sync is off unless you set it up. Clear it any time.
Install
One line in Terminal.
brew install --cask tomato-1101/tap/voicekey- 1
Run it
Installs to /Applications and opens. No Gatekeeper warning.
- 2
Allow access
Microphone, Input Monitoring and Accessibility. Used to record and paste.
- 3
Add a key
Settings › API Keys. On macOS 26 it works without one.
Windows build, docs and source on GitHub.
FAQ
Questions
What does it cost?
The app is free. Cloud engines bill you directly at their own rates. Apple's on-device engine is free.
Which languages?
Whatever the engine supports. Most handle dozens of languages, including English and Japanese.
Does it work offline?
Yes, with the Apple on-device engine on macOS 26 or later. Other engines need a connection.
Where are my keys stored?
In your Mac's Keychain. They aren't shown on screen or written to logs.
Windows?
There's a Windows version you can run from source. Only the Mac version is distributed as a build.
