Dictate
Your words as you said them, with punctuation. It needs no AI key and no internet.
Talk where you'd type
Babblekey turns your voice into text in any app on your Mac or Windows PC. Hold a key, say it, let go, and your words appear at the cursor, transcribed on your own computer. Want it as a tidy email or message instead? Bring your own AI key.
Coming soon for Mac and Windows, for $4.99 once. No subscription, no account, and your voice never leaves your computer.
Modes
Say it the way it comes out. A mode decides what lands at your cursor.
Clean up
Takes out the ums, repeats and false starts and fixes the punctuation, but keeps your words.
Turns what you said into an email, with a greeting, paragraphs and a sign-off.
Message
Short and friendly for Slack, Teams or a text, without sounding like an email.
Notes
Turns a stream of thought into short bullet points you can scan later.
Your own
Write your own instructions, such as "translate to Spanish" or "write it as a commit message".
The overlay names each mode as it works, in its colour: blue to clean up, purple for email, teal for messages and orange for notes. Give a mode its own key, so one key types what you say and another writes it as an email.
Privacy
Babblekey listens on your computer and types there too. Nothing goes anywhere unless you turn on a mode that needs it.
Speech stays on your computer. Parakeet or Whisper turns your voice into text on your Mac or PC, so no audio is uploaded and dictation works offline, on a plane or behind a strict firewall.
AI only when you ask for it. Plain dictation needs no key and no internet. When you use a mode, only the text goes, straight from your computer to the provider you picked: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq or OpenRouter.
Your own key. You pay your provider directly, at its prices, with nothing added. There's no Babblekey server in between, so we never see what you say.
Or keep AI local too. Point Babblekey at Ollama and the modes run on your own computer as well.
No account. Buy it once, enter your license key and that's it.
Setup
It takes a couple of minutes, once. After that, Babblekey is there whenever you hold the key.
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Install Babblekey
On a Mac, drag it from the disk image to Applications. On Windows, run the installer.
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Let it hear you and type for you
It asks for the microphone, and on a Mac for Accessibility, so it can paste where you're typing. Then it downloads the speech model and you try a first dictation.
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Hold the key and talk
In any app, hold Right Option on a Mac, or whichever key you choose, say what you want and let go. For something long, tap the key to start and tap again to stop.
Details
Works where you type. Babblekey pastes at your cursor in any app: mail, chat, documents, your code editor or the browser. It puts back what was on your clipboard afterwards, and types the words out instead in apps that block pasting.
The overlay. A small bar floats over whatever you're doing and shows your voice level, and whether Babblekey is listening, transcribing or running a mode.
Pauses trimmed. Babblekey cuts the silence before it transcribes, which keeps it quick and stops Whisper from inventing words in the gaps.
Your words. Add names, product names and jargon so they come out spelled right, and set replacements, such as "my address" for your full street address.
History. Your last 50 dictations are kept on your computer, so nothing is lost if a paste goes astray.
Languages. Parakeet, the fast default, understands 25 European languages. Whisper covers many more.
Mac and Windows. The same app, modes and settings on both, and one purchase covers them.
Updates. Babblekey keeps itself up to date and keeps your settings and history.
Pricing
Buy it once for $4.99, after a free trial. The best-known dictation apps charge more than that every month.
- Babblekey
- $4.99 once
- Superwhisper Pro
- $84.99 a year, or $249.99 once
- Wispr Flow Pro
- $144 a year
Babblekey for Mac and Windows
$4.99one-time
Dictation on your own computer, every AI mode with your own key, your words and replacements, history and updates.
Coming soon for macOS and Windows.
Questions
- Does my voice leave my computer?
- No. Babblekey turns speech into text on your own Mac or PC. If you use an AI mode, only the text is sent, to the provider you picked, with your key.
- Do I need an AI key?
- Only for the AI modes. Plain dictation works without one, and without an internet connection.
- What do the AI modes cost?
- Whatever your provider charges you for the text you send, with nothing added by us. A dictation is short, so with a small, fast model each one usually costs a fraction of a cent. With Ollama on your own computer, they cost nothing.
- Which apps does it work in?
- Any app where you can type. Babblekey pastes at the cursor, and types the words out in apps that don't allow pasting.
- Which languages does it understand?
- Parakeet, the fast default, handles 25 European languages, including English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. Switch to Whisper for many more.
- Is it a subscription?
- No. It's $4.99 once. There's no account to make, and you can try it free before you buy it.
- When can I get it?
- We're building it now. Join the waitlist and we'll send you one email when it's ready.