Press your hotkey
Anywhere in macOS — mid-email, mid-message, mid-commit. A small activity island appears at the top of your screen so you know it is listening.
⌥+Zby default
Version 1.10 · macOS 12+
Say it once.
It's already typed.
Most people type around 40 words a minute and speak around 150. FlowType closes that gap: hold a hotkey, talk, and finished text appears wherever your cursor is.
Free for 7 days, no card$14.99 once, then it's yours Works offline
FlowType 1.10 · Dark theme
- Slack
- Notion
- Messages
- Google Docs
- Obsidian
- Cursor
- Linear
- …and every other text field on your Mac
- 3×
- Faster than typingComfortable speech runs at roughly 150 words a minute. Average typing sits near 40.
- 1
- Keystroke to startOne global hotkey begins and ends a session. There is no window to find and no button to hunt for.
- 0
- Bytes sent, by defaultThe bundled Whisper model runs on your Mac. Offline transcription is the default, not a paid extra.
Three seconds of setup, then it disappears.
FlowType is a menu bar utility, not another window to manage. It waits until you press your hotkey and gets out of the way as soon as your text lands.
Talk like a person
No stilted dictation voice and no reciting punctuation. Clean dictation removes the ums, the false starts and the repeated words on its own.
The text is already there
Your transcript is copied to the clipboard and, if you want, pasted straight into the app you were already using. Then FlowType goes quiet again.
Auto-paste·Auto-copy
Transcribe what you said — or say what you want written.
Dictate is a faithful transcript. Compose takes an instruction and writes the draft. Same hotkey, one toggle apart.
Dictate
Your words, exactly.
Speech in, text out. Runs on the bundled offline model, so it works on a plane, on hotel wifi, or with your network cable pulled out.
- Local Whisper model included — nothing to download or configure
- Personal dictionary for names and jargon
- Spoken snippets expand into reusable blocks of text
- Failed recording? Retry the clip instead of saying it again
Compose
Say the intent, get the draft.
Describe the message instead of dictating it. Compose sends your instruction to the model you choose and returns only the finished text — no chat window, no copying between apps.
- Bring your own OpenAI or OpenRouter key
- Pick any supported model, per your provider
- Optional Screen Context: one screenshot per request, deleted right after
- Only the draft is pasted — never the instruction
Offline is the default, not the upgrade.
FlowType ships with a Whisper model inside the app bundle and selects it on first launch. Recording and transcription both happen on your Mac. Going online is a deliberate choice you make, not something that happens quietly.
No FlowType account, ever. There is no login, no telemetry pipeline for your transcripts, and no server that needs to be running for the app to work. Your licence is verified locally.
- LocalBundled Whisper model. Fully offline. Free to run, no key and no per-word cost.
- OpenAIYour own API key for transcription and Compose. Billed by OpenAI at their rates.
- OpenRouterYour own key, with a wider choice of Compose models. Billed by OpenRouter.
- KeychainAPI keys and licence state live in the macOS Keychain — never in a plain-text settings file.
Settings · Advanced · Transcription engine
A tool you open every day should be worth looking at.
Six built-in themes, switchable from the window without a restart. Every screenshot below is the real app.
Small app. Finished corners.
The details that decide whether you keep a utility installed after the first week.
Your own global hotkey
Record any shortcut you like. It works whether the FlowType window is open, hidden, or tucked in the menu bar.
Menu bar mode
Close the window and FlowType keeps running. Start, stop, open, and quit straight from the tray menu.
Dictionary and snippets
Teach it the spellings it keeps getting wrong — names, product names, jargon — and trigger reusable blocks of text by voice.
Clean dictation
Optional local cleanup strips filler words and repetitions, then fixes punctuation spacing and capitalisation. No model call needed.
Words and WPM tracking
See what you dictated today, this week, this month, and all time — plus your words-per-minute for your last session.
History you control
Copy anything back from your transcript history, or switch on auto-clear so nothing is ever retained.
Signed and notarised
Every release is code-signed and notarised by Apple, so it opens without warnings and updates verify before installing.
Updates in the app
Check for updates from inside FlowType. Updates are cryptographically signed and free for the life of your licence.
Keys in the Keychain
If you add an API key, it is stored in the macOS Keychain — never written into a settings file in plain text.
One price. Paid once.
Try the whole app for a week without handing over a card. If it earns a place in your workflow, buy it once and keep it — including every future update.
- FlowType, forever $14.99
- A typical dictation subscription, per year $96–$180
- Running the local model $0.00
FlowType for macOS
$14.99one time
Starts with a 7-day free trial. No card required to begin.
Download the free trialAlready tried it? Buy a licence
- The complete app — no locked features
- Dictate and Compose modes
- Offline transcription included
- Free updates for life
- No subscription, no account
Straight answers.
Something not covered here? Email support and a person will reply.
Is the trial really free?
Yes. Seven days of the complete app, no credit card and no account. If you keep it, FlowType is $14.99 once — there is no subscription and no upsell tier.
Does my voice leave my Mac?
Not unless you choose an online engine. FlowType ships with a local Whisper model and uses it by default, so recording and transcription happen entirely offline. If you switch to OpenAI or OpenRouter, audio goes to that provider under their terms and is billed by them.
Which apps does it work in?
Any app with a normal macOS text field. Your transcript is copied to the clipboard automatically, and if you turn on auto-paste it lands directly at your cursor — in Mail, Slack, Notion, Docs, your notes app, or your editor.
What is the difference between Dictate and Compose?
Dictate transcribes what you said, word for word. Compose takes a spoken instruction — “reply to this and say I can do Thursday” — and writes the draft for you. Compose uses an online model, so it needs your own OpenAI or OpenRouter key.
What is Screen Context?
An optional Compose setting. When it is on, FlowType captures one image of your current display per Compose request so the model can see what you are working on, then deletes the temporary file immediately. It is off by default and needs macOS screen recording permission.
What does it cost to run?
Nothing, if you stay on the bundled local model. Online transcription and Compose use your own OpenAI or OpenRouter key and are billed by them at their rates — a ChatGPT subscription does not cover API usage.
What do I need to run it?
macOS 12 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. FlowType asks for microphone access, plus accessibility permission if you enable auto-paste and screen recording permission if you enable Screen Context.
Can I use my licence on more than one Mac?
Your licence is for your personal Macs. Lost the email? Resend it from the support page.
Your next email is faster spoken than typed.
Seven days, the whole app, no card. If it does not change how you write, delete it and you have lost nothing.
macOS 12 or later · Apple silicon and Intel · Signed and notarised