Hold Right ⌥, say what you mean, let go. Utter turns your voice into tidy text and types it where your cursor is — using Apple’s on-device speech model, so nothing ever leaves your Mac.
Free · macOS 14+ · Apple silicon & Intel · ~2 MB · How to open it the first time
Utter lives in your menu bar and works in any text field — email, chat, docs, terminals and code editors.
Hold Right ⌥ (or ⌘, ⌃, fn) while you speak. Prefer hands-free? Switch to a start/stop shortcut such as ⌃⌥Space. Esc cancels.
Recognition runs with Apple’s on-device speech model. No audio or text is uploaded, and there’s no account. The only network call is the update check.
A slim pill near the bottom of the screen shows your voice level and the words as they arrive, then gets out of the way.
Ums and uhs disappear, sentences get capitals, and you can say “new line”, “new paragraph”, “comma” or “period”.
Teach it that “next js” means Next.js, add names and jargon as vocabulary hints, and Utter spells them your way.
Text is pasted for you and your previous clipboard is put back a moment later. Without Accessibility, it’s copied and you press ⌘V.
Every dictation, searchable, with the app it went to. Copy it, send it to that app again, or delete it. Stored as a local file.
Words dictated, speaking pace and the time saved compared with typing — on the Home screen.
Pick from every language your Mac can recognise on-device. Utter only lists the ones that stay offline.
Switch modes from the menu bar. Your dictionary applies in all of them.
For messages and documents.
Keeps your casing and builds identifiers.
let retryCount = max_retriesExactly what the recogniser heard.
It’s only used while you hold the key.
That switches on Apple’s on-device model for Utter.
Optional, but it lets Utter hear the hold key in other apps and paste for you.
No. Utter asks Apple’s speech framework for on-device recognition only and refuses to run a language that would need a server. History and your dictionary are JSON files in your Library folder. The app’s only network request is checking this site for updates.
Whatever your Mac can recognise offline. Settings lists only those languages; macOS may need to download a language’s speech model first, which you can do in System Settings › Keyboard › Dictation.
Two reasons: to notice the hold key while another app is in front, and to press ⌘V for you. Without it, use the start/stop shortcut and Utter will copy the text so you can paste it yourself.
Only for a moment. Utter puts your previous clipboard back right after pasting. You can turn that off in Settings.
Apple’s on-device model is very good for everyday speech. For names and technical terms, add them to the Dictionary — vocabulary hints and replacements make a big difference.
Utter is distributed directly from this website. Here’s how to open it the first time.
Free, private, and ready the moment you hold the key.