Getting started

Set up Zarah in about a minute

Zarah AI is speech in both directions: it turns your voice into clean, typed text anywhere on your Mac — 100% on-device — and reads any selected text aloud with ⌃⇧R. Here's everything you need to go from download to dictating.

You'll need: a Mac running macOS 26 or later with Apple silicon. Setup asks for three permissions (below) and takes a minute.
1

Install Zarah AI

Open the downloaded Zarah-AI.dmg and drag Zarah AI into your Applications folder. Then open it from Applications. Zarah lives in your menu bar — look for its icon at the top-right of your screen.

Don't have it yet? Download for macOS.

2

Sign in to start your free trial

Click Sign in. Zarah opens your browser so you can sign in securely — no password is ever typed into the app. Confirm the short code shown on your Mac by clicking “Approve this Mac.”

That's it — your 14-day free trial starts immediately, and the app unlocks. It keeps working offline for several days at a time between check-ins.

3

Grant three permissions

On first use, macOS asks Zarah for three permissions. Each one is necessary, and everything stays on your Mac:

MicrophoneTo hear you while you hold the hotkey. Audio is processed on-device and never leaves your Mac.
AccessibilityTo paste your text into whatever app holds your cursor.
Input MonitoringTo arm the press-to-talk hotkey system-wide.

If you miss a prompt, you can grant these anytime in System Settings → Privacy & Security.

4

Speak, and it's typed

Put your cursor anywhere you'd type — Mail, Slack, a browser, a document. Then:

  • Hold your hotkey (default Fn). A floating capsule shows Zarah is listening.
  • Speak naturally.
  • Release. Zarah transcribes on-device, tidies grammar and filler if you've enabled it, and pastes clean text right at your cursor.
5

Listen with Read Aloud

Zarah speaks, too. Select text in any app — an email, a brief, a web page — and press ⌃⇧R:

  • Free Apple voices, entirely on-device, are the default. Press the hotkey again to stop, or pause from the capsule; set the speed (0.5×–2×) in Settings.
  • ElevenLabs voices use your own ElevenLabs API key and credits. Save the key in Read aloud, choose one of your own ElevenLabs voices or a stock voice from the live list, then hear a sample. The text being read goes to ElevenLabs under its terms and retention settings; recorded audio stays on your Mac.
  • Grok voices (Ara, Eve, Leo, Rex, Sal) are an opt-in alternative that uses your own xAI key — the same key as the Grok AI-model option.
  • Nothing selected? Zarah reads your last dictation back — a quick proof-listen before you hit send.
6

Make it yours (optional)

  • Remap every hotkey in Settings — dictation, Read Aloud, Ask, and Re-paste each have their own recorder, and Zarah warns you if two shortcuts collide.
  • Ask (off by default): select text, hold the Ask key, and say the change — "make it shorter", "insert my signature block" — and the selection is rewritten in place. If a rewrite would move a number, add or drop a “not”, or change a name, Zarah shows you the change and waits for your approval instead of inserting it.
  • Re-paste: press ⌃⇧V to drop your last dictation at the cursor again.
  • Grammar cleanup turns filler into clean sentences — with guardrails that never change a number or drop a “not.”
  • Encrypted local history keeps a searchable record of your dictations, on this Mac only.
  • Bring your own AI (off by default): connect your own Claude, OpenAI, xAI, Gemini, or Meta key for cleanup, Ask, and Grok voices. Only text is ever sent — never audio.
7

Keep going after the trial

When your 14 days are up, a subscription — $49/year per Mac (plus applicable sales tax) — keeps Zarah running. Subscribe from inside the app or on the site.

💡 One tip: subscribe with the same email you sign into Zarah with. That way your purchase unlocks the app automatically. If you used a different email, just email us and we'll link it.
Subscribe — $49/year

Meetings (Beta)

Open Meetings in Zarah's Workspace sidebar. Select your meeting app, choose whether to include your microphone, confirm that everyone has been informed and permission to transcribe is in place, then press Start transcription. macOS may ask for audio permission. No capture starts automatically.

Call mute does not pause Zarah's microphone. Use Pause my mic or Stop in Zarah. Browser capture can include other tabs; silence unrelated audio. Me and Others identify audio sources, not individual speakers.

After stopping, search the saved transcript, follow timestamps, or choose Generate draft for on-device notes with source links. Notes require Apple Intelligence to be enabled and its model ready. Review transcripts and notes for errors or omissions. Captured audio is not saved or uploaded. Transcripts and notes remain encrypted on this Mac until you delete them in Meetings; dictation retention does not remove them. Copied text and exported files are outside Zarah's history lock.

Your privacy

Your voice never leaves your Mac. Speech-to-text runs entirely on-device, and left alone Zarah reaches the network only to sign you in, check your license, and check for updates — the in-app Trust panel logs those so you can see them. Anything that sends text off your Mac — a connected cloud model, or Grok or ElevenLabs voices — is off until you turn it on. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Need a hand?

We're happy to help — email support@zarah.ai and a real person will get back to you.