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The best transcription apps for Mac in October 2026, ranked for audio and video files

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The best transcription apps for Mac in October 2026 are MacWhisper if you need subtitles or speaker labels, YapToText for free plain text from any audio or video file with no minute cap, superwhisper if you already pay for its Pro plan, and Otter.ai for meetings with several people. Apple's Voice Memos and Notes transcribe what you record in them, and whisper.cpp does the job from Terminal. I built YapToText, and it sits second here, behind MacWhisper, for reasons I spell out below.

This page ranks tools for a recording, not for typing as you talk. The roundup of free speech to text apps covers dictation, and the guide to transcribing an audio file on a Mac for free shows every click of the free route. Every fact about another tool comes from its maker's own pages, read on October 3 or October 5, 2026, and each source is listed at the end.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreDownload for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

On this page: 13 sections
  1. How I ranked these transcription apps
  2. At a glance
  3. 1. MacWhisper: subtitles free, speakers on Pro
  4. 2. YapToText: free plain text from any file, on the Mac
  5. 3. superwhisper: file transcription on Pro
  6. 4. Otter.ai: speakers and meetings, in the cloud
  7. 5. Apple Voice Memos: a transcript of what you record
  8. 6. Apple Notes: the recording and the words in one note
  9. 7. whisper.cpp: free and local, from Terminal
  10. Which one I would pick
  11. What each one cannot do
  12. The short version
  13. Questions

How I ranked these transcription apps

I make YapToText, one of the seven tools on this page, so here is how that could tilt it. I know my own app best, I want it to do well, and a list I write could quietly reward what YapToText is good at, price and privacy, over what it lacks, timestamps and speakers. To push against that, I fixed the questions before I placed anything, and the app that does more with recordings than mine sits first. Every outside fact here comes from the maker's own pages, read on October 3 or October 5, 2026.

The order comes from four questions, most important first:

  • Does it take a file you already have, at no cost? A tool that reads a recording from anywhere for free ranks above one that charges for files, which ranks above one that only transcribes what it records itself.
  • Does the audio stay on the Mac? Transcribing on the Mac ranks above uploading to a server.
  • What comes back? Timestamps, subtitles and speaker labels rank above plain text.
  • What does it cost after the free part? Once ranks above by the month.

One placement breaks that order. whisper.cpp answers the first three questions well, but it sits last because it is a Terminal tool, not an app, and for most people that is the biggest hurdle on the page. Apple's Live Captions is not ranked: Apple's guide describes captions in a window while audio plays, and no transcript to save.

My hands make typing difficult, so I dictate every day, and a recording is just a dictation that happened somewhere else.

At a glance

Checked October 3, 2026, on each maker's own pages, and October 5, 2026, for MacWhisper's and superwhisper's prices and for Otter. Prices change, so check before you pay.

ToolWhat it transcribesWhere it runsWhat you getWhat is freePaidWhat it needs
MacWhisperAudio and video files: MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, OPUS, MOV, MP4On the Mac with local modelsText and .srt or .vtt subtitles free; speaker recognition on ProFile transcription and subtitle exportPro €64 onceA Mac, Apple silicon or Intel
YapToTextAny audio or video file macOS can decodeOn the MacPlain text, with no timestamps, subtitles or speakersEverything, no minute capNone; tips are optionalApple silicon, macOS 14 or later
superwhisperRecording files, on ProOn the Mac with a local model; cloud models on ProText shaped by your active mode; speaker separation on ProNo file transcription$8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 oncemacOS 13.3 or later; also Windows, iPhone, Android
Otter.aiMeetings, its own recordings, and imported files up to 5 GBOtter's cloudSpeaker labels and timestamps; TXT on Basic, DOCX, PDF and SRT on paid plans300 minutes a month, 3 imports per accountPro $8.33 a user a month billed annually, or $16.99 monthlyWeb, or the desktop app on macOS 12.3 or later
Voice MemosIts own recordings, live or afterwardsNot stated in Apple's guideA transcript to view, search and copyEverything, built inNonemacOS 15 or later on Apple silicon; not every country or region
NotesAudio you record into a noteNot stated in Apple's guideThe recording, with a transcript to search and copyEverything, built inNoneM1 or later and a listed device language
whisper.cpp16-bit WAV files; convert others firstOn your computerThe transcript, printed in TerminalEverything, MIT licensedNoneTerminal, Git and CMake

Read the What you get column first: it decides between the top two.

1. MacWhisper: subtitles free, speakers on Pro

MacWhisper is a file transcriber first. Drop in an MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG, OPUS, MOV or MP4 file and its free version transcribes it on the Mac with local models, in 100 languages, and exports plain text as .txt and subtitles as .srt and .vtt, with timings. Pro, €64 once with lifetime updates, adds speaker recognition, batch transcription, YouTube and podcast links, audio from other apps, recording of Zoom, Teams, Webex, Skype, Chime and Discord calls, and exports such as .docx, .pdf and Markdown. Its privacy policy says everything runs on your device and that no audio, text or other data leaves it, apart from anonymous analytics about license status.

  • Transcribes: Audio and video files; batches, links and meetings on Pro
  • Runs: On the Mac with local models; its help center points slow Intel Macs to optional cloud transcription providers
  • Price: A free version; Pro €64 once
  • You get: Text and timed subtitles free; speaker recognition and more export formats on Pro
  • Suits: Subtitles for a video, interviews where names matter, and anyone on an Intel Mac

It ranks first because it answers all four questions well, with timings free and speakers for one payment. The App Store edition, Whisper Transcription, also runs on iPhone and iPad and is sold with weekly, monthly and yearly subscriptions, so buy from macwhisper.com for the one-time price. The MacWhisper pricing page breaks down every edition, and the MacWhisper alternative page sets it beside YapToText.

2. YapToText: free plain text from any file, on the Mac

This is the one I built. It is a dictation app first, and on its Utility page the Transcribe a file card takes any audio or video file macOS can decode, recognized by what is inside rather than its name: MP3, WAV, AIFF, CAF, FLAC, M4A, MP4, MOV and M4V among them, Voice Memos included. Whisper Large v3 Turbo (Q5), which ships inside the App Store download, transcribes it on the Mac, and a recording over 4 minutes is cut at quiet moments into pieces of about 2 minutes. Pick Raw Transcription in the Mode menu for exactly what was said, or Note for headings and bullets, and your dictionaries apply to files too. What comes back is plain text: no timestamps, no subtitles and no speaker labels.

YapToText's menu bar panel: Start Dictation, mode and microphone pickers, Transcribe file, Regenerate and Insert last.
Figure 1. Transcribe file sits in the menu bar panel beside Regenerate and Insert last, as well as on the Utility page.
  • Transcribes: One audio or video file at a time, with no minute cap
  • Runs: On the Mac; the only network use is a model download you start yourself
  • Price: Free on the Mac App Store, with no paid tier; tips are optional and add nothing
  • You get: Plain text to Copy, Insert into the app you were using, or Send below to another mode
  • Suits: Interviews, lectures, voice memos and podcasts where the words are what you need, on an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later

It sits second, not first, because MacWhisper's free version gives the same kind of on-device transcript plus timed subtitles. It sits above the rest because nothing about files is metered or locked. Transcribe file in the menu bar panel, or on the History page, files the transcript in History under the file's name, where Export Text saves it as a .txt file. The free file transcription guide walks through it step by step.

3. superwhisper: file transcription on Pro

superwhisper is a dictation app with a free plan for unlimited local dictation, but file transcription is a Pro feature. Its file transcription page names meeting recordings, lectures, interviews and voice memos, and says a file goes through your active mode, so the result uses that mode's voice model and AI formatting. Pro also lists speaker separation, the Parakeet and Cohere Transcribe local models, and cloud models from superwhisper, Deepgram and ElevenLabs. New users get 3,000 words of Pro to try first.

  • Transcribes: Recording files, and Zoom, Teams, Discord and Slack calls recorded without a bot, on Pro only
  • Runs: On the Mac with a local model, or in the cloud with a cloud model; its FAQ points Intel Macs to the cloud models
  • Price: Pro $8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 once, one license for Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android
  • You get: Text shaped by your active mode, with speaker separation on Pro; superwhisper's own MacWhisper comparison says it has no subtitle export
  • Suits: People who already pay for superwhisper's dictation, or need one of its more than 100 languages

It ranks third because it can keep the audio on the Mac and separate speakers, but it transcribes no file on the free plan. The superwhisper pricing page works out monthly against yearly and lifetime.

4. Otter.ai: speakers and meetings, in the cloud

Otter calls itself a meeting agent: its Notetaker joins Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams calls, and its desktop app for Mac records meetings without a bot joining. For a recording you already have, you import an audio or video file of up to 5 GB, from MP3 and M4A, Voice Memos included, to MP4 and MOV. Otter transcribes it in its cloud and stores data on AWS in the US West region. You tag who is talking, each speaker you tag is one Otter can recognize in future conversations, and exports can show speaker names and timestamps.

  • Transcribes: Meetings, conversations recorded in its apps, and imported files up to 5 GB
  • Runs: In Otter's cloud; a live transcript needs an internet connection
  • Price: Basic is free with 300 minutes a month, 30 minutes per conversation and 3 file imports per account, not per month; Pro is $8.33 per user a month billed annually, or $16.99 month to month, with 1,200 minutes a month
  • You get: Speaker labels and timestamps; TXT exports on Basic, and DOCX, PDF and SRT on paid plans
  • Suits: Live meetings with several people, in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese or Simplified Chinese

It ranks fourth because your files leave the Mac and the free plan allows 3 imports in total. For live meetings it does what nothing above it does. The Otter.ai alternative page compares it with YapToText line by line.

5. Apple Voice Memos: a transcript of what you record

Voice Memos transcribes the speech in its own recordings, live while you record or afterwards. Click a recording, then the Transcription button, and the transcript is there. Select a word and the playhead appears at that spot, and search finds recordings by what was said. To take the words elsewhere, select them, Control-click and choose Copy. Apple says it also transcribes a recording made in macOS 14 or earlier, or on a device that does not support transcription, when you open it, if it includes speech.

  • Transcribes: Recordings in Voice Memos; with iCloud, recordings from your iPhone appear there too
  • Runs: Not stated in Apple's guide
  • Price: Free, built into macOS
  • You get: A transcript to view, search and copy; Apple's guide describes copying it, not exporting a file, and with Apple Intelligence, Writing Tools can summarize it
  • Suits: Anything you record yourself, on macOS 15 or later with Apple silicon, where Apple offers transcription in your country or region

It sits fifth only because it will not take a file from anywhere else. For what you record in it, it is the quickest transcript on a Mac. The guide to transcribing Voice Memos on a Mac has the steps, and what to do when there is no Transcription button.

6. Apple Notes: the recording and the words in one note

Notes records audio straight into a note and transcribes the spoken words. On macOS Tahoe 26 and later, click the Attachment button in the toolbar, then Record Audio; on macOS Sequoia 15, click the Record Audio button. Double-click the recording to see its transcript, use Find in Transcript to search it, and choose Copy Transcript to paste the words into the note; macOS 27 adds Add Transcript to Note and shows the transcript live. Deleting a recording deletes its transcript too, so copy the words out first.

  • Transcribes: Audio you record inside a note
  • Runs: Not stated in Apple's Notes guide
  • Price: Free, built into Notes
  • You get: The recording and a transcript you can search and copy
  • Suits: Lectures and meetings you want filed with your notes, on a Mac with M1 or later and the device language set to English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese

It ranks sixth for the same reason as Voice Memos: it transcribes what it records, not a file you bring. The guide to speech to text in Notes on a Mac covers recording and dictating into a note.

7. whisper.cpp: free and local, from Terminal

whisper.cpp is a plain C and C++ version of OpenAI's Whisper, under the MIT License, and it is the engine YapToText itself is built on. Its README calls Apple silicon a first-class citizen, and on Apple silicon it runs fully on the GPU through Metal. You clone it with Git, download a model with its script, build it with CMake and run whisper-cli on a file. The README says whisper-cli currently runs only with 16-bit WAV files, and gives an ffmpeg command for converting anything else; ffmpeg is a separate install.

  • Transcribes: 16-bit WAV files; convert other formats first
  • Runs: On your computer; the internet is needed only to download the model file
  • Price: Free, MIT licensed
  • You get: The transcript, printed in Terminal; for other output options, check its README
  • Suits: People at home in Terminal who want the model with nothing in between, on an Intel or Apple silicon Mac

By the four questions alone it would sit near the top. It sits last because nothing on this page asks more of you to get a first transcript. The page on running Whisper locally on a Mac has the exact commands and the disk and memory each model needs.

Which one I would pick

Pick by what the recording needs, smallest commitment first:

  1. Recording now, on a supported Mac. Voice Memos, or Notes when the recording belongs with your notes. Nothing to install.
  2. The words from a file you already have, free. YapToText, with Raw Transcription for quotes and Note for a tidy draft.
  3. Subtitles or timings. MacWhisper's free version, with .srt and .vtt export.
  4. Who said what, with the audio on the Mac. MacWhisper Pro, €64 once, or superwhisper Pro if you already pay for its dictation.
  5. Live meetings with several people. Otter, in its cloud.
  6. Terminal and full control. whisper.cpp.

Three common jobs have their own guides: transcribing an interview, with speaker names added by hand, transcribing a podcast and turning it into show notes, and turning a video into text. Decide whether you need the words, or who said them and when, and the choice mostly makes itself.

What each one cannot do

  • MacWhisper. Speaker recognition, batches and meeting recording need Pro, and the App Store edition sells subscriptions rather than the one-time license.
  • YapToText. No timestamps, subtitles or speaker labels, one file at a time, and no links, call recording or system audio. It needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later, lists 29 languages plus auto-detect, and the Homebrew build has no speech model until you download one.
  • superwhisper. No file transcription on the free plan.
  • Otter.ai. It transcribes in the cloud, a live transcript needs a connection, the free plan allows 3 imports per account, and it lists six languages.
  • Voice Memos and Notes. They transcribe only what they record, on supported Macs and languages, and not in every region. Apple's guides do not say where the transcription runs.
  • whisper.cpp. Terminal only, and 16-bit WAV in.

What I did not test: accuracy. I compared published facts and ran no word error test, so nothing here ranks these tools by how well they hear, and Intel support and macOS versions are as each maker states them. To check that a tool keeps a recording on the Mac, turn Wi-Fi off and try it; the offline dictation page shows the test. YapToText gives you the words, not who said them or when.

The short version

  • Subtitles, speakers or an Intel Mac. MacWhisper, free or €64 once.
  • Free plain text from any file, on the Mac. YapToText.
  • Recording on the Mac right now. Voice Memos or Notes.
  • Meetings with several people. Otter, in the cloud.

Need timings or names, pick MacWhisper; need only the words, keep your money.

If a fact here has changed, or a tool I left out deserves a place, open an issue on GitHub. Every one gets read.

Download YapToText on the Mac App StoreDownload for free. No account, nothing locked, macOS 14 or later on Apple silicon. Source on GitHub.

About the author. Ryleigh Newman is a developer whose hands make typing difficult and who dictates every day with YapToText, the app this site describes. Facts about other apps come from their own sites, with the date they were read. More about the project.

Sources

Questions

What is the best transcription app for Mac?

MacWhisper, if you need subtitles or speaker labels: its free version transcribes files on the Mac and exports .srt and .vtt, and Pro adds speaker recognition for €64 once. For free plain text from any audio or video file, YapToText; I built it, so weigh that.

Is there a free transcription app for Mac?

Yes. YapToText transcribes audio and video files on the Mac for free with no minute cap, MacWhisper's free version transcribes files and exports subtitles, and Voice Memos and Notes transcribe their own recordings on supported Apple silicon Macs. whisper.cpp is free from Terminal.

Which Mac transcription apps work on device?

MacWhisper, YapToText and whisper.cpp transcribe on the Mac, and superwhisper does with a local model. Otter transcribes in its cloud. Apple's guides for Voice Memos and Notes do not say where their transcription runs.

Which transcription app for Mac labels speakers?

MacWhisper Pro has speaker recognition, superwhisper Pro has speaker separation, and Otter labels the speakers you tag and can export speaker names and timestamps. YapToText returns plain text with no speaker labels.

Can a Mac transcribe audio without installing an app?

Yes, for what you record: Voice Memos transcribes its recordings on macOS 15 or later with Apple silicon, and Notes transcribes audio recorded in a note on a Mac with M1 or later in a listed language. For a file you already have, you need an app such as MacWhisper or YapToText.