For Mac

Smart dictation that never leaves your Mac.

Hold a key, speak, and watch your words appear in any app. And the ums, stutters, and second thoughts? Cleaned up on the way in. No internet needed.

Download for Mac

Free to use. Apple silicon Mac, macOS 14.4 or later.

Press it to play again, or to stop

How it works

Hold a key. Talk. Let go.

That is the whole thing. It works the same in Mail, Slack, Notes, a browser, or a code editor.

Hold the talk key

Right Option, out of the box. Pick another key if you want, or set it to tap once to start and tap again to stop.

Your Mac turns it into text

The speech model runs on the Neural Engine. A short sentence comes back in well under a second.

The text is typed at your cursor

Cleaned up, and fitted to the sentence you were writing. Your clipboard is put back the way you left it.

The cleanup

What Slate fixes before it types.

Each one is a fixed rule. Your wording is never rewritten by an AI.

You say

“~~Um,~~ so the deadline, ~~the deadline~~ moved to Friday.”

Slate types

So the deadline moved to Friday.

You say

“~~I’ll see you at 10:30. Actually,~~ I’ll see you at 11.”

Slate types

I’ll see you at 11.

You say

“~~Ship it Tuesday. Scratch that.~~ Ship it Wednesday.”

Slate types

Ship it Wednesday.

You say

“Email sam at example dot com.”

Slate types

Email sam@example.com.

All of it can be switched off in Settings.

Inside the app

What else it does.

Removes ums, uhs, and repeats

Filler sounds go. “The the” becomes “the”. A phrase you started twice is written once.

Keeps your correction, not your first try

Change your mind mid-sentence and only the second version is written. Say “scratch that” and the sentence before it goes.

Say “new paragraph” and get one

“New line” starts a line. “Open bracket” and “open quote” wrap what comes next. “Scratch that” takes back the sentence before it.

A dictionary for names and jargon

Add what you say on one side and what should be written on the other. Islamic phrases are spelled the same way every time.

25 languages, all on this Mac

The English model is the most accurate. The multilingual model covers 25 European languages and works out which one you are speaking.

Leaves your clipboard and music alone

Whatever you copied comes back, images included. Music pauses while you talk and starts again after. Sitting idle, Slate uses 0% CPU.

The promise

Nothing is sent anywhere.

Cloud dictation apps send a recording of your voice to a server, charge every month, and stop working on a plane. Slate does the whole job here.

Speech becomes text on this Mac, on the Neural Engine, using the Parakeet model. There is no server to send it to.
No account, no sign-in, no tracking. Slate does not collect anything.
Zero network connections while dictating. Measured with lsof during a live transcription: none.
Works with no internet after the speech model downloads, about 600 MB. Switching to the multilingual model fetches that one too.
The rest of the list, in full. A license key is checked with the store once. Update checks, if you switch them on, ask this site for one small file and download the new version if you install it. Nothing about you goes with any of it.

$ lsof -i -a -p $(pgrep -x Slate)
# nothing. keep talking, run it again, still nothing.
$

Do not take our word for it. Run Little Snitch, LuLu, or Wireshark and watch while you dictate. Or turn off Wi-Fi and keep working.

The difference

Slate and cloud dictation.

	Slate	Cloud dictation apps
Where speech becomes text	On your Mac	On their servers
How long it takes	Under a second	A round trip to their server
On a plane	Works	Does not work
Your voice	Never leaves the Mac	Uploaded
Account	None	Required
Price	Free	$144 a year and up

Free to use

Get Slate.

No account to make, and nothing to sign up for.

Download Slate for Mac

Version 1.1.0 · 7.9 MB · Apple silicon Mac (M1 or later) · macOS 14.4 or later

First launch asks for two permissions, and downloads the speech model.

Microphone

Used while you hold the talk key, and at no other time.

Accessibility

Notices the talk key, and puts the text at your cursor. Every other keystroke passes through untouched.

The speech model

Downloads once, about 600 MB. After that, dictation needs no internet.

FAQ

Questions people ask.

Is there a Windows or iPhone version?

No. Slate needs an Apple silicon Mac, M1 or later, and macOS 14.4 or later. Speech runs on the Neural Engine, which Intel Macs do not have.

Why does Slate need Accessibility access?

Two jobs: noticing the talk key, and putting the text where your cursor is. macOS puts both behind the same permission.

Every other keystroke passes through untouched. Nothing about what you type is read, stored, or sent.

What does it cost?

Nothing. Slate is free to use, with no subscription and no account to make.

Nothing in the app is held back. If it saves you time and you want to say thanks, a tip jar is on the way.

What does Slate keep?

A history of what you dictated, as text, on this Mac. You pick: keep it, keep it for a day, or keep nothing. Your dictionary and settings stay here too.

Audio is never written to disk. It is held in memory while you talk and dropped as soon as the text is ready.

How can I check the privacy claims myself?

Three ways. Turn off Wi-Fi after the model has downloaded, and keep dictating. Run Little Snitch, LuLu, or Wireshark and watch while you talk. Or open Terminal and run lsof -i -a -p $(pgrep -x Slate) mid-sentence.

Four things, and never while you dictate: the speech model download, a license check if you activate a key, and update checks and downloads if you switch them on.

How do updates work?

Slate can update itself in place, but only once you say yes. A check asks this site for one small file, and nothing about you goes with it. A new version is installed only if it is signed with Slate's key.

The switch and a Check now button are in Settings › About.

Something is not working.

Email contact@farhanhossain.com and say what happened. There is more on the support page.