Make Mac BetterHow to transcribe audio to text on a Mac
An interview, a class, a meeting or a voice note: typing it out by hand takes hours. A Mac can transcribe it on the device itself, without sending the audio to anyone.
Step by step
Voice Memos
On macOS 15 or later with Apple silicon, open a recording in Voice Memos and click the transcript button to see the text. You can also drag an audio file into the app.
Notes
In a note, start an audio recording from the attachments button: Notes shows the transcript as it records and saves it with the note.
Dictation, for what you say live
Press the microphone key (or Fn twice) in any text field and speak: the Mac writes what you say. It doesn’t work with existing audio files.
An audio or video file you already have
In Make Mac Better, open Tools › Transcribe, drop the audio or video and choose the language. You get a .txt with the text or a .srt with timed subtitles.
Which languages can be transcribed?
Apple’s apps started with English and are adding languages; check the list for your version of macOS. Make Mac Better transcribes Spanish and English with Apple’s on-device speech recognition.
Is my audio sent to a server?
With these options, no: recognition is done on the Mac. That matters for interviews, medical or legal recordings and anything confidential.
How do I add subtitles to a video?
Transcribe the video to .srt in Make Mac Better and load that file in your player or editor. Its Video module also generates subtitles and burns them into the picture.
How accurate is it?
It depends on the audio: one clear voice near the microphone gives the best result. Background noise, several people talking at once or strong accents need a review afterwards.