Murmurtale Now on Mac · iPhone & iPad coming · Halloween novella sprint ↓
Every tale begins
with a murmur.
Murmurtale turns natural speech into properly paragraphed fiction — dialogue punctuated, character names spelled your way, in your own style — right inside the Mac apps where you already write. It edits; it never writes for you.
Signing up with email? We'll email you a link. Your trial starts when you open it. For Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later. Prefer to keep everything on your Mac? Switch to on-device mode anytime.What you say
maya lowered the pistol her hand steady you said the vault was empty she said he didn't answer
What lands at your cursor
Maya lowered the pistol, her hand steady.
“You said the vault was empty,” she said.
He didn’t answer.
An illustrative example of Fiction mode's automatic punctuation, dialogue and paragraph formatting — you never say “comma” or “quote.” Punctuation and capitals appear where they belong, dialogue gets wrapped in quotes with a new paragraph for the new speaker, and your character’s name is spelled the way you taught it. Not a screenshot.
Halloween sprint
Dictate your horror novella: 20,000 words by Oct 31
Your free trial is exactly 20,000 words. Spend them on a novella.
Hold a key, speak a scene, and Murmurtale types it into the app you already write in as fiction: dialogue in quotes, a new paragraph for each speaker, and italics for thoughts you tag (“she thought”) or mark out loud with “in italics”. It never changes your words.
- Start free. Your free trial covers 14 days or 20,000 cloud words. Start the week you're ready to write, then go Pro to finish your novella. No credit card.
- Dictate about 1,450 words a day. Your trial words and days left are in the menu bar and in Preferences → Account.
- Go Pro to keep going. $14.99/month or $119/year for 60,000 cloud words a month plus unlimited on-device dictation. Same price for everyone.
Every cloud word counts toward the trial, including retakes, so it can run out just before your manuscript hits 20,000; the take you're on always finishes. When the trial ends nothing is charged and your account becomes free, with 5,000 on-device words a month. Your 14 days count from when you confirm your email (or sign up with Apple or Google). One trial per account. Apple Silicon Mac, macOS 14 or later. Available in the United States only.
The problem
The reformatting tax
Generic dictation saves you typing and hands you a bill: transcript sludge you have to reshape before it is fiction. Reformatting it by hand eats the speed you just gained.
What plain dictation leaves you
One run-on block. Dialogue with no quotes and no paragraph for the new speaker. Punctuation you spoke aloud sitting there as the words “comma” and “period.” Character and place names guessed wrong. So you stop writing and start editing.
What Murmurtale does instead
It formats as you dictate: real punctuation, paragraphs where the speaker changes, quotes around what is said, and names spelled your way. The text arrives as prose, so the speed you gained stays yours.
What it does
Built for the way you actually draft
Three things fiction writers need from dictation, and the parts of Murmurtale that do them.
In Fiction mode, with the cloud engine, light AI formatting quotes speech, breaks a paragraph when the speaker changes, and italicizes thoughts you tag (“she thought”) or mark out loud with “in italics”. It never rewrites your prose.
How dialogue formatting works →Add your characters, places, and invented terms to dictionaries you can toggle per book. Murmurtale biases transcription toward your words, so the names in your world stop coming back mangled.
About dictionaries →Click into a text field in the apps you already use, hold a key, speak, release — the finished text lands where your cursor was. No copy-paste round trip, no separate window to babysit.
Where it works →Tuned to your genre
Every genre has its own rules.
Pick a genre and the formatting conventions shift with it — dialogue punctuation, paragraph rhythm, the habits your readers expect. A thriller breathes differently than a romance, and your dictation should too.
What each genre changes
He didn’t answer. He was already gone.
Lean and propulsive — em-dashes over semicolons, short paragraphs in action beats.
He didn’t answer — he was already gone.
Em-dashes for interrupted speech; your emotional beats kept intact, never rewritten.
Vael didn’t answer; the Aldermoor gate stood open.
Invented names spelled exactly as your glossary teaches them, every time.
Reyes didn’t answer; the P365 array was already gone.
Technical terms and designations preserved — numerals stay numerals.
He didn’t answer; he was already gone.
Minimal intervention — rhythm, voice, and semicolons kept as you dictated them.
Engines
Cloud by default, on-device when you want it
Pro’s cloud engine is the default: the most accurate transcription, plus light AI formatting for punctuation and dialogue in Fiction mode. It never rewrites your prose. On-device mode works offline and keeps everything on your Mac.
Everything runs on your Mac
- Transcription and formatting happen on your Mac, and your audio stays there. Works offline.
- No account: 5,000 on-device words, once. A free account: 5,000 on-device words a month. Pro: unlimited on-device dictation.
- Dictionaries and spoken punctuation are included. On-device is less accurate than cloud and formats only clearly tagged dialogue (like “Stop,” he said).
Streamed transcription, fiction formatting
- While you hold the key, audio streams through Murmurtale’s backend for AI speech recognition in our cloud; text appears moments after you release — typically well under a second for plain text.
- In Fiction mode, light AI formatting places dialogue in quotes, starts a new paragraph for a new speaker, and italicizes thoughts you tag (“she thought”) or mark out loud with “in italics” — changing only punctuation, capitalization, quotation marks, paragraph breaks and italics. It never rewrites your prose.
- Plain mode and on-device mode get no AI formatting. If the cloud is unavailable, Murmurtale transcribes on your Mac.
$14.99/month or $119/year: unlimited on-device dictation plus 60,000 cloud words a month (fair use); if those run out, dictation continues on-device until the month resets. Start with a free 14-day trial (or 20,000 cloud words, whichever comes first), no credit card. See Local vs cloud.
Where it stands
Mac first, and honest about it
Murmurtale is a menu-bar app for Apple Silicon Macs on macOS 14 or later. iOS and iPadOS share the same core and are coming after the Mac app — they are not available yet, and this page will not pretend otherwise. You will find no invented reviews, no inflated numbers, and no borrowed logos here either: it is built for fiction writers, in the open, and the Help Center tells you exactly what does and does not work today.
Questions writers ask
Straight answers
Do I need an account or the internet?
A free account and an internet connection are needed to download the app, and the on-device speech model downloads once on first launch. After that, on-device dictation works offline. The cloud engine (the default with Pro and the free trial) needs a connection while you dictate.
Does it write for me?
Never. Your words, not an AI rewrite: Murmurtale adds punctuation, dialogue and paragraph formatting to what you actually said, spells your character names your way, and stops there. You are the author; your words stay yours.
What does it need to run?
A Mac with Apple Silicon on macOS 14 or later, and two permissions: Microphone and Accessibility. That is the whole list — see Permissions.
Where does my voice go?
In on-device mode, nowhere — audio is transcribed on your Mac, with no AI formatting. With the cloud engine (the default with Pro and the free trial), audio streams through our backend for AI speech recognition in our cloud. A second cloud transcription of each finished dictation is coming in 1.1.6. Light AI formatting for punctuation and dialogue applies in Fiction mode only; Plain mode gets no AI formatting. It never rewrites your prose. More in Privacy and authorship.
Why is Murmurtale a subscription?
On-device dictation is free (5,000 words a month with a free account). Pro ($14.99/month or $119/year, with a free 14-day trial for new accounts) funds cloud processing, compatibility updates, model improvements, and support.
What happens if I cancel?
You keep Pro through the end of the period you already paid for, and on-device dictation keeps working. Cancelling never deletes your dictations, dictionaries, or settings from your Mac. See Account and subscription.
What languages does Murmurtale support?
English only for now, both cloud and on-device. Dialogue formatting follows US English manuscript conventions.
Pricing
Try Pro free for 14 days. No credit card.
Pro free trial
$0 for 14 days
No credit card
- Everything in Pro for 14 days or 20,000 cloud words, whichever comes first
- Cloud transcription that streams as you speak
- Fiction formatting: dialogue, paragraphs, and thoughts you tag (“she thought”) or mark with “in italics”
- Afterward, 5,000 free on-device words a month
Pro monthly
$14.99 /month
Cancel anytime
- Cloud transcription and fiction formatting
- Never changes your words
- Unlimited on-device, plus 60,000 cloud words a month
Pro yearly
$119 /year
Save 34% — about $9.92/month
- Everything in Pro monthly
- Pay for 8 months, write for 12
After the trial, Murmurtale keeps working free on your Mac with on-device dictation (5,000 words a month). Payments are handled by Stripe; Murmurtale never sees your card. Available in the United States. Privacy · Terms