Dictate / Privacy
Privacy & network use
The short version: what you say stays on your Mac. This page lists every exception so you can check.
Last updated 2026-09-28.
Dictation
When you hold the activation key, Dictate records from your microphone into memory. When you release it, the audio is transcribed on your Mac by NVIDIA's Parakeet model running on the Neural Engine, and the text is pasted at your cursor. The audio is then discarded; it is never written to disk and never sent anywhere. The pasted text also remains on your clipboard, like anything you copy.
Every network connection
- first launch
Speech model download from
huggingface.co(about 600 MB), once. Repeated only if the model is missing or a new version of Dictate ships a new model. - daily
Update check to
dictate.cphtech.dk, and the download when you accept an update. The request carries the app version, as any download does, plus your IP address. No audio, text, settings or identifiers. - opt-in
Claude cleanup. Off by default. If you have Claude Code installed and turn it on, dictations (all of them, or only longer ones in Smart mode) are sent to Anthropic through your own Claude Code login to fix punctuation and filler words. Anthropic's terms apply to that text.
- never
Analytics, crash reporting, tracking, accounts, or uploading audio.
What is stored on your Mac
- Your settings: activation keys, per-keyboard keys, substitutions, cleanup mode.
- The speech model files.
- Standard macOS system logs, which stay on your Mac.
Permissions it asks for
- Microphone — to hear you while you hold the key. Dictate does not listen otherwise.
- Accessibility — to detect the activation key and paste text into the app you're using.
This website
offlinedictation.app sets no cookies and runs no analytics. It is served by Cloudflare, which processes requests (including IP addresses) to deliver and protect the site.
Who we are
Dictate is made by cphtech in Denmark.