Transcribe audio to text on your Mac — offline
Drop in a recording, get clean text back. Transcribe runs the full Whisper large‑v3‑turbo model directly on your Mac, so nothing is uploaded, nothing is queued on someone else's server, and there is no per‑minute meter running while you work.
Why on-device matters here
Transcription is the one job where the privacy question is not theoretical. The files people transcribe are client calls, medical notes, research interviews, legal depositions, therapy sessions, unreleased podcast takes. Sending those to a third-party API is a decision with consequences, and for a lot of work it is simply not allowed.
Transcribe removes the question entirely. There is no account required to process a file, no upload step, and no server component — so there is no data retention policy to read, because there is no data to retain. If you want to check rather than trust: turn on Airplane Mode and transcribe something. It works exactly the same.
The full model, not a small one
Plenty of local transcription apps ship a smaller Whisper model to keep the download light, then quietly cost you accuracy on accents, crosstalk and technical vocabulary. Transcribe uses Whisper large‑v3‑turbo — roughly 1.6 GB, fetched once on first run and cached where every Rude Dog tool can reach it.
The download is explicit and shown with progress, rather than a 1.6 GB surprise the first time you open the app.
What it handles
- Audio — MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF, FLAC.
- Video — MP4 and MOV; the audio track is pulled out for you.
- Batches — drop in a folder's worth and they queue up and run in order.
- Live transcription — transcribe from your microphone as you speak.
- Exports — TXT for documents, SRT and VTT with timestamps for video.
Each finished job shows a waveform built from the real signal, so you can see where the speech actually is in a long recording instead of scrubbing blind.
Lite and Pro
Lite ships inside the free Rude Dog hub and transcribes the first 5 minutes of any file — same model, same exports, no watermark on the output. It is a length cap rather than a countdown, so it stays useful indefinitely for short recordings.
Pro removes the length cap and unlocks live transcription, for £39 paid once. Renewing the update window later costs £19, and is optional — the version you bought keeps running whether you renew or not.
Comparing the options
There are several good offline transcription apps for Mac, including free and open‑source ones that will serve plenty of people perfectly well. We wrote up the whole field — what each one actually does, which Whisper model it ships, and when paying for this one is not worth it.
Requirements
A Mac running macOS, roughly 2 GB free for the model, and an internet connection for the initial download only. Transcribe is signed and notarised by Apple, and installs through the free hub.
The other Rude Dog tools
- Upscale — enlarge images up to 4× without losing detail
- Cutout — remove backgrounds, down to hair and fur
- Interpolate — double or quadruple a video's frame rate
All four are covered by the Suite licence, and every one ships a free Lite tier inside the same hub download.
Questions
Does it work without an internet connection?
Yes. After the one-time model download, Transcribe runs entirely on your Mac and never needs the network again. Turn on Airplane Mode and transcribe something — it works exactly the same. That is the simplest way to verify the privacy claim for yourself rather than taking our word for it.
Is my audio uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server to upload it to. Your file is read from disk, processed by a model running as a local subprocess on your own machine, and the transcript is written back to disk. No account is needed to transcribe a file, and we have no technical means of seeing any of it.
Which Whisper model does it use?
Whisper large-v3-turbo — the full-size model at roughly 1.6 GB, not a cut-down tiny or base model chosen to keep the download light. It is fetched once on first run, verified by checksum, and cached in a shared location so any other Rude Dog tool that needs Whisper reuses the same copy.
What files can it open?
Audio: MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF and FLAC. Video: MP4 and MOV, where the audio track is extracted for you automatically — so you can drop a screen recording or an interview straight in without converting it first. Unsupported files are rejected with a message naming the formats that do work.
What can I export?
Three formats. Plain text (TXT) for documents and notes, and SRT or VTT subtitle files carrying per-segment timestamps for video editors, YouTube and web players. You can also copy an entire transcript to the clipboard in a single action rather than exporting a file and opening it.
Is there a free version?
Yes. Transcribe Lite is included in the free Rude Dog hub and transcribes the first 5 minutes of any file, using the same model with no watermark on what it produces. It is a length cap rather than a trial that expires, so it stays useful indefinitely for short recordings.
Is it a subscription?
No. £39 once, and that version is yours permanently — it keeps working forever, including after the two-year update window closes. Renewing for £19 only re-opens access to newer builds; it is never required to keep using the version you already bought.