Plainsay

What is Plainsay?

Plainsay is a Mac dictation app that turns speech into text and inserts it at your cursor in the app you are writing in. It suits people who want to dictate emails, notes or prompts without a compulsory subscription. Local recognition uses Whisper or Parakeet on Apple-silicon Macs running macOS 14 or later; optional hosted features change the privacy and cost picture.

Where does local Mac dictation help?

Use Plainsay when the words are ready to speak but typing interrupts the task. An email reply, a project note or a first draft of a prompt can go into the application you already use. Hold the dictation shortcut while speaking, or use tap-to-start and tap-to-stop. The app attempts to insert the transcript at your cursor; when insertion cannot be completed safely, it leaves the text on the clipboard for manual pasting.

Polishing is a separate, optional step that can clean up filler words and punctuation. Local speech recognition does not automatically make the whole workflow private: hosted Polishing sends the transcript and relevant vocabulary to the selected provider. For dictation that stays on your Mac, use Local speech with Polishing disabled or a compatible local endpoint. Cloud speech sends recorded audio to the service, so choose the processing route before speaking confidential material.

Try one short email before changing your routine

Suggested workflow: install the Mac client, download a local speech model and leave Polishing off initially. Open a draft email and dictate three sentences containing a person’s name, a date and one specialist term. Check those details and the insertion location before sending anything. Add a recurring term to your vocabulary and compare another short dictation to see whether the correction helps your own writing.

Next, try the same kind of message with your chosen Polishing provider. Compare the cleaned version with what you meant: a smoother sentence is not useful if it changes a number or commitment. Keep manual pasting available for fields that do not cooperate. Broader Voice Edit requests, such as shortening selected text, use a separately configured compatible provider, including a supported local endpoint; review the preview before replacing the original.

Free local dictation or optional Plainsay Cloud?

The MIT-licensed client provides unlimited local dictation without a Plainsay account. After the speech-model download, recognition works offline; any cleanup must also be local or switched off. Open-source status applies to the client, while Cloud is a separate hosted service. Choose the free setup first if avoiding recurring transcription charges is the main reason you are switching.

Cloud includes 900 transcription minutes in a rolling 30-day window, hosted recognition and Polishing. An active subscription also unlocks automatic translation and email layout, which require a supported Polishing configuration. Bringing your own hosted provider instead means that provider’s charges and data handling apply. Check the current plans before subscribing, and distinguish everyday live dictation from a workflow for transcribing existing recordings.