How to Use Voice Typing on Mac Without Internet Connection

Working offline shouldn't mean losing access to voice typing. Here's how to set up fully local speech recognition on your Mac.

Why Offline Matters

• Planes and travel: No WiFi required
• Privacy: Audio never leaves your device
• Reliability: Works even when internet is down
• Speed: No network latency

Option 1: macOS Built-in Dictation

Apple's Enhanced Dictation downloads a ~1GB model for offline use. Enable in System Preferences → Keyboard → Dictation. Quality is decent but not state-of-the-art.

Option 2: Local Whisper Apps

Apps running Whisper locally provide the best accuracy without internet. The model runs entirely on your Mac's Apple Silicon, with no data sent anywhere.

Model Sizes

• Tiny (75MB): Fast but less accurate
• Base (142MB): Good balance
• Small (466MB): Better accuracy
• Medium (1.5GB): Very good
• Large (2.9GB): Best accuracy

Performance on Apple Silicon

M1/M2/M3 Macs run Whisper efficiently using the Neural Engine. Even the Large model transcribes faster than real-time on modern MacBooks.

Setup Checklist

1. Download your preferred Whisper model while online
2. Test transcription to verify it works
3. Models are cached locally after first download
4. Now works anywhere, no internet needed