Skip to main content
To transcribe audio locally on a Mac, use Steno: it runs the speech-to-text model on your device, so recordings are transcribed without uploading anything to a server. Steno offers two on-device engines — Parakeet (the default, with a live transcript while you record) and Whisper (optional, covering 99 languages) — and auto-detects the language.

​
How local transcription works

When you stop a recording, Steno transcribes it on your Mac and saves a plain-text transcript under ~/Library/Application Support/stenoai/transcripts/. With the default Parakeet engine, a live transcript also appears while you record. See Live transcription and Transcription. You can also transcribe an audio file you already have, without recording it in Steno: open the recording options popover (the ··· button next to the record button) and choose Import audio file…. Steno transcribes and summarizes the imported file the same way as a live recording.

​
Choosing an engine

  • Parakeet (default) — fast on Apple Silicon, with live transcription. Covers 25 European languages, including English.
  • Whisper (optional) — covers the full set of 99 languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hindi, and Arabic. Switch to it in Settings → Transcribe.
See Transcription models for the full comparison.

​
Privacy

Because transcription runs on-device, your audio never leaves your Mac. This makes local transcription a good fit for confidential recordings — see Confidential use cases.
Only for the one-time model download during setup. After that, transcription runs fully offline on your Mac.
Yes, if it’s an audio file: use Import audio file… from the recording options popover. Transcription always runs locally; summarization uses whichever model is configured in Settings → AI (local by default, or a cloud model if you’ve set one up). There is currently no way to re-transcribe a recording already processed by Steno with a different engine — the engine choice applies going forward, to new recordings and imports.