GabbleHold Right ⌥ and talk
From any app. A small pill shows it is listening. Tap the key once instead for hands-free; Esc cancels.
Talk. It types.
Gabble is dictation for Mac that runs on your machine. Hold a key, say what you mean, and clean text appears in any app. No account, no cloud, no subscription.
Free · v0.1.7 beta · 15 MB · signed and notarized by Apple · updates itself
um so I think we should uh move the the launch to Thursday
I think we should move the launch to Thursday.
Free, no account
Everything on-device
Works offline
Signed and notarized by Apple
Watch
What is Gabble, in 30 seconds?
Typing runs at about 40 words a minute and talking at about 150. Here is what Gabble does with the difference.
How it works
How does Gabble work?
Three steps, and the first one is the only one you repeat.
Your Mac transcribes it
A Whisper or Parakeet model running on Apple Silicon turns speech into text, then Gabble strips the ums, applies your dictionary and formats it.
Text lands at your cursor
Let go and it is typed where you were working. Your clipboard is restored, and the dictation is saved to your local history.
Features
What can Gabble do?
The features people pay a subscription for, running on your own Mac.
Private by design
Speech recognition runs on your Mac with Core ML. Audio is held in memory, never written to disk and never uploaded.
Works in every app
Slack, Mail, Notion, VS Code, Cursor, the browser. If you can type there, you can talk there. Your clipboard is put back afterwards.
Fast enough to forget
NVIDIA Parakeet transcribes a ten-second thought in a fraction of a second on Apple Silicon. Text lands the moment you let go.
Modes that match the app
Clean, Verbatim, Polished, Email, Message, Notes, Developer, or your own. Gabble switches automatically: Email in Mail, Message in Slack.
Learns your vocabulary
Add names, brands and jargon once. Gabble fixes the spelling and casing every time, and corrects what it tends to mishear.
Voice snippets
Say “my email address” or “calendar link” and get the full text. Works in the middle of a sentence.
Rewrite by voice
Select text, hold Shift with the dictation key and say “make this shorter”. Needs AI cleanup turned on.
Transcribe files
Drop a voice memo, meeting recording or video and get the transcript, processed on your Mac.
History and stats
Search everything you have dictated. See your words per minute, time saved and streak. Keep it forever, a week, or not at all.
The app
See it
A native SwiftUI app that lives in your menu bar.
Your dictation at a glance
The dictation key, words dictated, words per minute, time saved and the last 14 days.
Modes, with per-app rules
Email in Mail, Message in Slack, Developer in your editor.
On-device models
Download one, switch any time.
Searchable local history
Everything you have dictated, grouped by day.
Your dictionary
Names, brands and jargon, spelled your way.
Models
Which speech models does Gabble use?
Seven open models, all running locally through Core ML. Pick one, switch any time.
| Model | Size | Speed | Accuracy | Languages | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parakeet v3Recommended | ~480 MB | Very fast | Best | 25 | 25 European languages, near-instant |
| Parakeet v2 | ~480 MB | Very fast | Best | English | Highest recall, English only |
| Model | Size | Speed | Accuracy | Languages | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whisper Tiny | ~77 MB | Fastest | Good | 99 | Quick notes on older Macs |
| Whisper Base | ~147 MB | Fast | Better | English | Everyday English |
| Whisper Small | ~216 MB | Fast | Great | 99 | 99 languages in a small download |
| Distil Large v3 | ~595 MB | Fast | Excellent | English | Large-model accuracy, English only |
| Large v3 Turbo | ~646 MB | Fast | Excellent | 99 | Best Whisper quality, 99 languages |
Not sure which to pick? Read Whisper vs Parakeet.
Privacy
Where does my voice go?
Nowhere. That is the whole design.
Transcribed on your Mac
The speech model runs on the Neural Engine and GPU. Audio lives in memory for the seconds it takes and is then dropped.
No account, no telemetry
There is nothing to sign up for and Gabble has no analytics. History, dictionary and snippets are plain JSON files in your Library folder.
AI is opt-in and yours
AI cleanup is off by default. Turn it on with Ollama to stay local, or with your own API key. Only text is sent, never audio.
Compare
How does Gabble compare?
Facts from each vendor's own site as of October 2026. Full write-ups in comparisons.
| Gabble | Wispr Flow | OpenWhispr | Apple Dictation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free tier with a weekly word limit; Pro from $12/mo billed annually | Free locally; paid plans for cloud features | Free, built in |
| Speech processed | On your Mac | In the cloud | On your Mac or in the cloud | On-device or Apple servers, depending on Mac and language |
| Account | None | See their site | Not needed for local use | None |
| Platforms | Mac (Apple Silicon) | Mac, Windows, iOS, Android | Mac, Windows, Linux | Apple devices |
| Read more | Gabble vs Wispr Flow | Gabble vs OpenWhispr | Gabble vs Apple Dictation |
Need Windows or a phone app? One of the others is the better pick, and the comparison pages say so.
FAQ
Questions
What is Gabble?
Gabble is a free dictation app for Mac. You hold a key, speak, and the text is typed into whatever app you are using. Speech recognition runs on your Mac using Whisper and NVIDIA Parakeet models, so it works offline and your audio is never uploaded.
Is Gabble really free?
Yes. Gabble is free while it is in beta, with no word limit, no account and no trial timer. Because transcription happens on your Mac there is no per-minute server cost to pass on.
Does my audio leave my Mac?
No. Audio is captured into memory, transcribed on the device and discarded. Nothing is written to disk or sent to a server. The only network requests are the one-time model download from Hugging Face, a daily check of this site for app updates and, if you turn it on, the optional AI cleanup, which sends transcript text only.
Which Macs does Gabble run on?
Any Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later) running macOS 14 Sonoma or newer. Intel Macs are not supported.
How is Gabble different from Apple Dictation?
Gabble lets you choose the speech model, removes filler words, applies your own dictionary and snippets, switches style per app, keeps a searchable history and can transcribe files. Apple Dictation is built in and shows text while you speak, which Gabble does not do yet.
How is Gabble different from Wispr Flow?
Wispr Flow processes speech in the cloud on a subscription and works on Mac, Windows, iPhone and Android. Gabble runs on-device, is free, needs no account and is Mac only.
Which languages does Gabble support?
Parakeet v3 covers 25 European languages. The multilingual Whisper models (Tiny, Small, Large v3 Turbo) cover 99 languages. Parakeet v2, Whisper Base and Distil Large v3 are English only.
Does Gabble work offline?
Yes. After the one-time model download, dictation, cleanup, the dictionary, snippets and file transcription all work with no internet connection. Only the optional AI cleanup with a cloud API key needs a connection; with Ollama it stays offline too.
What does AI cleanup do, and do I need it?
You do not need it. The default Clean mode removes ums, repeats and fixes capitals on-device. AI cleanup is an optional extra pass that can rewrite a ramble as an email, notes or a chat message, using Ollama on your Mac or your own Anthropic or OpenAI-compatible API key.
Why does Gabble need Accessibility permission?
macOS requires it for two things: noticing the dictation key while another app is in front, and pasting the text into that app. Without it Gabble still transcribes and copies the text to your clipboard.
Say it instead.
Free, private, and set up in about a minute.
Download Gabble for MacRequires macOS 14 or later on Apple Silicon.