Private dictation for your Mac

Say it.
OliType writes it.

Double-tap ⌥ Option, talk, and your words appear wherever you're typing: Mail, Messages, Word, your browser. It runs entirely on your Mac, so nothing you say is ever uploaded.

Option is just where it starts. Prefer another key, a mouse button, or a foot pedal? Pick your own hotkey in Settings.

Try it free for 30 days See how it works

Fully working free trial for 30 days, no card needed. Buy once for $19 to keep it. No subscription.macOS 15 Sequoia or later · Apple silicon

  • Nothing uploadedYour voice becomes text on your Mac.
  • No accountOpen it and talk. That's the setup.
  • Pay once, keep itNo subscription. Every future update is free.
  • Works offlineOnce it's set up, Wi-Fi off? Still works.

How it works

Three steps. You already know two of them.

  1. 1

    Click where the words go

    An email, a message, a document, a search box. Anywhere you'd type.

  2. 2

    Double-tap Option ⌥ and talk

    A soft chime plays and a small "Oli is listening" indicator appears. Speak normally.

  3. 3

    Double-tap again

    Your words appear right where you were typing. Read them, then send when you're ready.

A single press of Option does nothing, so using Option in other apps won't start it by accident. Prefer a single tap, hold-to-talk, a different key, or a foot pedal? Change it in one click.

Made for one hand

One finger is enough.

OliType was built so dictating takes one key, one click, or one press of a foot pedal, whether you type with one hand or two. Settings and Help work with the mouse alone.

  • Left Option, double-tapped. One key at the bottom-left of your keyboard, easy to find without looking. Few apps use it by itself, so double-tapping it won't set off anything else. Using your right hand? Pick Right Option, or any key you can reach, in Settings.
  • Four ways to start. Tap twice; tap once; hold the key while you talk; or both, where a quick tap starts and stops and a longer press works like holding. Choose whichever is easiest for you.
  • Any key, mouse button, or foot pedal. Click the hotkey box and press it. That's it.
  • A floating Dictate button for mouse-only days. Clicking it never takes you out of the app you're typing in, so your words still land where you left off.
  • Talks to VoiceOver. If you use VoiceOver, the Mac's built-in screen reader, OliType announces each stage, "Listening," "Writing it down," and "Typed," so you know what's happening without looking.
OliType Settings: the hotkey set to Left Option, how the hotkey works set to Double-tap, microphone set to System default, the floating Dictate button on, and the Chime sound.

Features

Everything it does happens on your Mac.

Fast, accurate, local

NVIDIA Parakeet turns speech into text on your Mac, usually in about a second. It runs on Apple silicon, no internet needed.

25 languages

English, Spanish, French, German, and 21 more, detected automatically as you speak.

Teach it your words

Replacements fix a word every time: when OliType hears "Jon", it types "John". A list of names helps the optional AI cleanup spell people and places your way.

History you can search

Every dictation is kept as text on your Mac, so you can find and copy it again. Keep it forever, for a while, or not at all.

Cancel without losing words

Press Esc once and nothing is typed. Changed your mind? The recording waits in History for a day, and Restore brings your words back.

Out of the way when you share your screen

The listening indicator, the floating button, and OliType's messages stay out of screen shares and recordings in apps that respect macOS privacy settings. The words you dictate still show, because they're typed into your app.

Optional AI cleanup

A small AI writer that runs on your Mac (16 GB of memory or more) and polishes punctuation and false starts. Off by default. If it ever changes a number or rewrites too much, OliType types your exact words instead.

Never sends for you

OliType never presses Return or Send. You always get to read your words first.

A quick look

Plain words, no jargon.

Every setting explains itself, and the whole guide is built in, so help works offline too.

OliType Vocabulary: exact fixes, such as Oli type becoming OliType, and a list of names and terms.
Vocabulary: exact fixes first, names and terms second.
OliType Help: the built-in guide with a section list, search, and a text size control.
Help: the full guide inside the app, with search and text size.

Pricing

Try it free. Buy it once. Keep it.

The free trial is the full app: every feature, for 30 days, no account and no card. If OliType earns a place on your Mac, buy it once. No subscription, and every future update is free.

OliType for up to 3 Macs

$29 once

Desktop, laptop, and one more

Buy for 3 Macs
  • More than 3 Macs, moving up from 1 to 3, or buying for a team? Email support@olitype.com and we'll sort it out.
  • After the trial, dictation pauses until you enter a key. Nothing you saved is lost.

Try it before you buy it

30 days free · Every feature, nothing held back · No credit card · No account

Download the free trial
An illustration of Oli, a long-haired tabby cat with tall tufted ears.

Why "Oli"?

OliType is named for Oli, the family's long-haired tabby. The ears on the O in the icon are his, and the little indicator says Oli is listening while you talk.

Questions

Good questions, straight answers.

How much does OliType cost?

Try every feature free for 30 days, no account and no card. Then buy it once: $19 for 1 Mac, or $29 for up to 3 Macs. Students, K-12 teachers, and college faculty pay $9 for 1 Mac (email us from your school address, or email us anyway if you do not have one). Buying for a team? Email us about bulk licenses. No subscription, and every future update is free.

What happens when the trial ends?

Dictation pauses until you enter a license key. Your History, Vocabulary, and Settings keep working, and nothing is lost.

Can I move my license to a new Mac?

Yes. In Settings > License on the old Mac, click Remove License from This Mac (nothing else on that Mac changes), then enter your key on the new one. If the old Mac is gone, use the link in your receipt email. Need more Macs than your key covers, or want to move up from 1 Mac to 3? Email support@olitype.com.

Does anything I say leave my Mac?

No. Your voice is turned into text on your Mac, and the text goes straight into the app you are using. OliType has no telemetry, no accounts, and no cloud AI. It uses the internet only to download the speech model once during setup (and the optional AI cleanup model, if you add it), to activate or remove your license key when you click, and, unless you turn it off, to check olitype.com for a newer version. After that, dictation works with Wi-Fi off.

Which Macs does it run on?

A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 15 or later, with about 1 GB of free storage space (about 3.5 GB with AI cleanup). Dictation runs fine on 8 GB of memory. The optional AI cleanup add-on needs 16 GB of memory or more, because its writing model loads into memory while it works. To check your Mac, open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac: look at Chip, macOS, and Memory. Memory is not the same as storage space.

Which languages does it understand?

25 languages, detected automatically as you speak: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian.

Does it work in every app?

It works almost anywhere you can type: Mail, Messages, Word, Google Docs in your browser, Slack, Notes, and more. OliType pastes your words where you're typing. If you're not in a text box, your words wait on the clipboard so you can paste them yourself.

Why does it ask for Accessibility permission?

macOS uses the Accessibility permission for two things OliType needs: noticing your hotkey while you are in another app, and typing your words into that app for you. OliType only listens to the microphone between start and stop.

Can I use it with one hand, a mouse, or a foot pedal?

Yes, that was the point. The default hotkey is a double-tap of Left Option, one key at the bottom-left of your keyboard. You can switch to a single tap or hold-to-talk, pick any key or mouse button, or record a USB foot pedal as your hotkey. A floating Dictate button and the menu bar icon do everything the hotkey does.

What is AI cleanup?

An optional add-on: a small AI writing model (about 2.3 GB) that runs on your Mac, never online. It removes false starts, keeps only your correction when you change your mind, fixes punctuation, follows cues like "new paragraph", and spells your names your way. Most people do fine without it, and if it ever changes too much or alters a number, OliType types your exact words instead.

Why not use the dictation built into my Mac?

Apple's dictation is good for quick notes. OliType adds a hotkey you choose (one key, a mouse button, or a foot pedal) with four ways to use it, a floating Dictate button, a searchable history of everything you've said, Restore for a dictation you cancelled, replacements that fix the words it gets wrong, and an optional AI cleanup that removes false starts. Try both during the free trial and keep what works for you.

Will it ever send a message for me?

Never. OliType never presses Return or Send. You always get to read your words first.

What if I cancel a dictation by mistake?

Press Esc once (or click Cancel) and nothing is typed. The recording waits in History for a day, so you can click Restore and get your words back.

Who makes OliType, and what does it run on?

OliType is made by Bishop Technology Solutions, LLC. Speech recognition is NVIDIA Parakeet, and the optional AI cleanup model is Qwen 3. Both run on your Mac. See the Credits page for everyone whose work OliType uses.

Is there a Windows or iPhone version?

Not today. OliType is made for the Mac.

Everything else is in the OliType Guide.

Your spoken words, written right.

Private by design. Set up in a few minutes. Free for 30 days, no card needed.

Try it free for 30 days

A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) · macOS 15 Sequoia or later