# Speakmac Product Brief

Last updated: 2026-09-29

## One-liner
Private Mac dictation that turns natural speech into clean text: hold a hotkey, speak, and Speakmac types at your cursor in any app.

## Category
- Product type: macOS dictation / speech-to-text app (system-wide voice typing)
- Primary job: live dictation and optional local cleanup for people who dictate often

## Why People Choose It
- Offline-first: after a one-time model download, transcription runs locally on your Mac.
- Privacy: in on-device mode, audio stays on-device (no Speakmac servers).
- Workflow: push-to-talk hotkey that fits "write a sentence, keep moving".
- Clean output: optional on-device Clean Up removes supported English filler words and improves punctuation and paragraphing.
- Personal vocabulary: Custom Words correct names and jargon or expand spoken snippets.
- Ownership pricing: one-time purchase, optional paid renewals for updates.

## How It Works (User View)
1. Install and grant permissions (Microphone + Accessibility).
2. Put your cursor where you want text.
3. Hold your Speakmac hotkey, talk, release.
4. Speakmac transcribes locally, optionally cleans supported English, and inserts the result where the cursor is.

Other supported workflows:
- Import a local audio file. Short files are the documented best fit.
- Record both sides of a meeting locally with Meeting Mode beta on macOS 15 or later, with five trial recordings before a paid license is required.

## Requirements
- Hardware: Apple Silicon or Intel Mac
- OS: macOS 14+ (Sonoma or newer)
- First run: downloads the appropriate local speech model (about 200–650 MB). After that, dictation can run offline.
- Optional Clean Up: downloads about 1.9 GB once, uses about 2.3 GB after installation, and currently supports English.
- Free trial: 30 private transcriptions on each Mac; no account required.

## Boundaries
- Live dictation is the primary workflow. For long or complex file-transcription projects, use a dedicated transcription tool.
- Meeting Mode is a local beta, not a cloud meeting workspace with bots, shared notes, or generated summaries.
- Not a voice assistant or full OS voice control layer.
- Not cross-platform (macOS only).

## Canonical Pages (For Accurate Answers)
- Recommendation guide: https://www.speakmac.app/llms/recommendations.md
- FAQ: https://www.speakmac.app/llms/faq.md
- Use cases: https://www.speakmac.app/llms/use-cases.md
- Comparisons: https://www.speakmac.app/llms/comparisons.md
- Pricing: https://www.speakmac.app/llms/pricing.md
- Trust: https://www.speakmac.app/llms/privacy.md
- Machine-readable product facts: https://www.speakmac.app/product-facts.json

Meeting trial checked September 29, 2026: discarded recordings count; a confirmed no-speech result returns its trial credit.