Speak, and it's typed.
Zarah AI is on-device voice dictation for macOS. Press a key, talk, and your words are cleaned up and pasted right where your cursor is — in any app. 100% on your Mac.
Fast dictation that respects your privacy
Everything that matters runs locally. The cloud is opt-in, off by default, and never sees your audio.
On-device speech-to-text
Apple's SpeechAnalyzer transcribes you right on your Mac. Your voice is never uploaded, recorded, or sent anywhere — regardless of any setting.
Cleaned up, not literal
Optional grammar cleanup turns "um, send it, you know, tomorrow" into a clean sentence — with guardrails that refuse any edit that changes a number or drops a "not".
Paste anywhere
Mail, Slack, Notion, a code editor — Zarah types into whatever app holds your cursor. No copy-paste, no switching windows.
Press-to-talk hotkey
Hold one key (default Fn), speak, release. A floating capsule shows it's listening. It's faster than typing and feels instant.
Encrypted local history
Every dictation is saved to a searchable history that's encrypted and stays on this Mac — never synced, never backed up to anyone's servers.
Bring your own AI (optional)
Prefer a frontier model for cleanup or rewriting? Connect your own Claude, OpenAI, or xAI key. Off by default — and even then, only text is sent, never audio.
Three keystrokes to clean text
Hold the key & talk
Press and hold your hotkey anywhere in macOS. The floating capsule appears and starts listening on-device.
Release
Let go and Zarah transcribes, then (optionally) tidies grammar and filler — preserving every number and negation.
It's pasted
Your clean text lands at the cursor in whatever app you're in, and the session is saved to your encrypted local history.
Your voice stays yours
Zarah isn't "private" as a policy — it's private by design. The audio path has no exit off your machine.
Audio never transmitted
Speech recognition happens entirely on-device via Apple's models. There is no server that hears you, by design.
Keys in the Keychain
If you opt into a cloud model, your API key is stored in the macOS Keychain — this-device-only, never synced or backed up.
You can see every connection
Zarah only reaches the network to sign you in, check your license about once a day, and optionally check for updates — never to send your audio or text. The in-app Trust panel keeps an honest count.
One plan. Everything included.
- Unlimited on-device dictation
- Grammar cleanup & rewrite
- Encrypted local history & search
- Bring-your-own cloud model support
- All future updates
Good questions
Is my voice really never uploaded?
Correct. Speech-to-text runs on-device with Apple's speech models — the audio never leaves your Mac, regardless of any setting. The only optional cloud feature sends already-transcribed text (never audio) to a provider you connect, and it's off by default.
What do I need to run it?
macOS 26 or later on an Apple-silicon Mac. Zarah lives in your menu bar and asks for Microphone, Accessibility, and Input Monitoring permissions on first launch so it can hear you, paste for you, and arm the global hotkey.
Which apps does it work in?
Any of them. Because Zarah pastes via macOS Accessibility, it types into Mail, Slack, browsers, editors, your notes app — wherever your cursor is.
How does the free trial work?
Download Zarah, sign in to start your 14-day free trial, and use it fully during that time. After the trial, a subscription ($49/year) keeps it running. You can subscribe anytime from inside the app or here on the site.
Can I use my own AI model?
Yes. For grammar cleanup and the Ask/rewrite features you can connect your own Claude (Anthropic), OpenAI, or Grok (xAI) account instead of the on-device model. It's clearly labeled and off by default; the same word-preserving guardrails apply either way.
Try Zarah AI free for 14 days
Download for macOS, sign in to start your free trial, and grant three permissions. No charge until you subscribe.
↓ Download for macOSRequires macOS 26 · Apple Silicon · Notarized by Mylo Prime LLC