Murmurtale On-device (Free)
By default, Murmurtale runs a Whisper speech model and a rule-based cleanup pass entirely on your Mac. Nothing you dictate leaves the device. During the private beta, an approved account is required to get the app; that access requirement does not change where your dictation is processed. A free account gets you 10,000 local words every month, at no cost. Pro removes that local cap entirely.
Cloud (Pro)
Pro adds an optional cloud engine that can improve transcription and cleanup on harder audio and harder dialogue. Cloud speech and cleanup run through the Murmurtale backend, which holds the company's own model keys — you never enter an API key anywhere in the app.
If a cloud request fails for any reason — network, timeout, or a service hiccup — Murmurtale falls back to the on-device engine automatically and notes it in History as "Cloud unavailable — transcribed on-device." Your words still appear; you are never left waiting.
Beta statusApproved beta access and sign-in are live. Pro billing is being introduced separately as the beta widens. See Account and subscription.
Cleanup levels
Independent of engine, the cleanup-level slider (Preferences) sets how much editing happens. It is an editor, never a ghostwriter:
| Level | What it does |
|---|---|
| Grammar | Punctuation, capitalization, and spoken commands only. Your words, untouched. |
| Line edit (default) | Grammar plus tightening filler words and fixing tense slips. Never rewrites your voice. |
| Editor pass | Line edit plus point-of-view drift fixes and whole-sentence smoothing. Still never writes for you. |
Filler words like "um" are removed starting at Line edit — at the Grammar level your words are left exactly as spoken.