Yes. All audio, transcription, speaker detection, editing and export happen on your computer. There is no cloud transcription API. The only thing that ever leaves your machine is license data (see the privacy policy).

How accurate is the transcription?

Dictea runs Whisper-class models - the same family that powers many cloud services. Real-world accuracy depends on audio quality, accents and background noise, but for clear recordings it's very close to what you'd expect from a cloud tool, with the larger models doing the most accurate work.

How fast is it locally?

It depends on your computer and the model you choose. A reasonably modern machine handles on-device transcription comfortably; smaller models are faster, larger ones trade speed for accuracy. Either way there's no upload wait - processing starts the moment you hit record or drop in a file.

Which languages can it transcribe?

Dictea uses Whisper-class models, which support a wide range of languages out of the box. The app interface is available in six languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.

Does it work offline?

Completely. You can transcribe with Wi-Fi switched off. An internet connection is only needed occasionally to validate your license.

What are the system requirements?

Dictea is a native desktop app for macOS and Windows. Recording separate microphone and system-audio tracks works best on recent OS versions; importing and transcribing files works broadly.

I'm on a subscription - how do I move to another device?

A Pro subscription is active on one device at a time, and you can move it whenever you need to: deactivate it on the old computer and activate it on the new one. Lifetime covers one device, or up to three with the 3-device option.

How does the refund work?

Every paid plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If Dictea isn't right for you, request a refund within 30 days of purchase.

What exactly is "Lifetime"?

Lifetime means a one-time purchase with all updates within the current major version included - no subscription and no recurring fees.

100% local · works offline

Speak freely. Your recordings never leave your computer.

Dictea records and transcribes audio and video right on your computer - with automatic speaker detection and a built-in step-by-step documentation tool. No cloud, no account, no subscription. Unlimited and offline.

No account · No credit card · Runs locally

Recording · Microphone + system audio

TranscriptSpeaker-labeled · ready to export

Me: Shall we start with the quarterly review?

Guest: Sure - I've got the slides ready to share.

Me: Great, let's walk through the first one.

100% local
No account
Works with Wi-Fi off
Buy once

macOSWindows

What is Dictea?

Dictea is a desktop app that records and transcribes audio and video 100% locally on your own computer. Whisper-class transcription runs offline with automatic speaker detection, plus a built-in step-by-step documentation tool. There is no cloud, no account and no subscription, and it works on macOS and Windows.

Sound familiar?

Transcription should make your life easier - not put your most private conversations at risk.

Uploading private recordings to someone else's cloud

Interviews, therapy sessions, legal calls - sent to a server you don't control, kept for who knows how long.

Paying every single month

Subscriptions that never end and per-minute fees that quietly add up the more you actually use them.

Hours of manual cleanup

Raw transcripts full of filler, wrong breaks and formatting you have to fix by hand before anyone can read them.

"Wait, who said that?"

A wall of text with no idea who spoke when - so you scrub the audio back and forth just to label two voices.

Here's the shift.

Everything runs on your computer. Nothing gets uploaded.

Draft - operator to approve wording & facts

Photo optional - placeholder for now

Why Dictea exists

Built by one developer who didn't want to upload his own recordings

Hi, I'm Mathias. I build Dictea on my own, from the island of Madeira.

I started it for a simple reason: I record real conversations - interviews and personal talks - and I never felt comfortable handing them to someone else's cloud. So I built the tool I actually wanted to use: everything runs on your own computer, and your recordings simply stay yours.

There's no big company behind this - just one developer who'd rather get privacy right than cut corners.

- Mathias Kusch, maker of Dictea

Three steps from raw audio to a finished, shareable document.

Record or import
Capture microphone and system audio on separate tracks, or drop in any existing audio or video file.
Transcribe locally
Whisper-class models run on your computer and turn speech into text with automatic speaker detection - offline.
Edit & export
Rename speakers, fix segments, then export to any of 9 formats - or a ready-made step-by-step document.

Everything you need, on your machine

Record, transcribe, edit and document in one tool - and none of it leaves your computer.

Records every voice on its own track

Microphone and system audio captured separately in an OBS-style mixer with gain, mute and solo. The per-source WAVs are kept.

Knows who's speaking automatically

Per-segment speaker detection; with multiple tracks it's channel-based (Me vs. Guest). License-free and fully local.

Fix anything afterwards

An editable transcript editor: rename or merge speakers, delete and reorder blocks, inline-edit with a synced player.

Turns clicks into documentation

Every click captures a screenshot and a numbered step marker, with voice narration - a finished doc as DOCX, MD, HTML or PDF.

Exports to 9 formats

TXT, MD, SRT, VTT, JSON, segmented JSON, DOCX, CSV and PDF - ready for subtitles, docs or further processing.

Private by default

Audio and transcripts stay local. No cloud API, no tokens or per-minute fees, telemetry off by default.

No account · No credit card · Runs locally

Because it's local, you get five things at once

One architectural choice - everything runs on your computer - pays off five different ways.

Truly private
Your audio and transcripts never touch a server. Privacy isn't a setting you trust - it's how the app is built.
Unlimited, no per-minute fees
Transcribe as much as you want. There's no meter running, because there's no cloud doing the work.
Works offline, anywhere
On a plane, in a clinic, on a locked-down network - Dictea keeps working with Wi-Fi switched off.
No upload wait
Nothing to upload means nothing to wait for. Processing starts the moment you hit record or drop a file.
Buy once instead of forever
Local processing has no running cloud cost - so a one-time Lifetime purchase actually makes sense.

Your audio takes the shortest path of all: none.

From microphone to finished transcript, every step runs inside your computer. No upload, no server, no API sits in between.

RecordingMicrophone + system audio

Processed on your computerWhisper-class model, on-device

Finished transcriptSpeaker-labeled, ready to export

Everything stays on your computer

Works even with Wi-Fi switched off.

Two very different paths

Dictea

Microphone → your computer → transcript

Your audio never leaves the device.

Cloud tools

Microphone → upload → their servers → back

Your audio leaves your machine.

Typical cloud tools vs. Dictea

CapabilityDicteaCloud tools

Processing local & offline

Yes

Your data stays on your machine

Yes

One-time purchase possible

Yes

Mostly subscription

Separate-track recording built in

Yes

Rarely

Speaker detection included

Yes

Sometimes extra

Step-by-step doc tool included

Yes

No per-minute costs

Yes

Often no

Try without an account

Yes - local, 7 days

Account + cloud needed

Trust you can verify, not just believe

No invented reviews, no fake user counts - just honest signals you can check yourself.

macOSWindows

Privacy by design, not by promise

Works with Wi-Fi off

Pull the network cable and Dictea keeps transcribing. That's the proof it's local.

No account required

Download, start the trial, transcribe. There's nothing to sign up for.

No telemetry

Usage tracking is off by default. We don't watch how you work.

Buy once, no lock-in

Choose Lifetime and there's no subscription holding your files hostage.

30-day money-back

If it's not for you, get a full refund within 30 days. No hard feelings.

Built for people who handle sensitive audio

JournalistsLawyersTherapistsResearchersPodcastersConsultants

Whisper-class accuracy, fully local

Dictea runs modern Whisper-class speech models directly on your computer. You get the transcription quality you'd expect from the cloud - without anything leaving your device.

Get Dictea

Download Dictea - free to start

Install it, hit record, and transcribe locally. The 7-day Pro trial runs inside the app - no account, no credit card.

Free
No account
No risk
100% local

Also available for

macOS 12+ · Windows 10/11 (64-bit)

Simple pricing. No surprises.

Pick a subscription or buy it once. Handled by creem.io as Merchant of Record - prices in EUR incl. applicable tax.

Free

Try the basics

€0forever

Small model only
≈ 10-15 min per file
No speaker detection or recording
No doc tool, no batch
TXT export only

No account · No credit card

Pro Yearly

€89/ year

≈ €7.42/mo, billed yearly

€118.802 months free

Everything in Pro Monthly
Two months free vs. monthly
Best price for everyday use
1 active device, move it anytime

Full Pro features · No credit card · Cancel anytime

Pro Monthly

€9.90/ month

All models, full length
Speaker detection & recording
Doc tool & batch processing
All 9 export formats
1 active device, move it anytime

Full Pro features · No credit card · Cancel anytime

Buy once, keep forever

No subscription, ever. Stays on your computer.

Lifetime

1 device

€149

Full Pro feature set
No subscription, no recurring fees
All updates of the current major version
Activates on 1 device

Best value

Lifetime

Up to 3 devices

€189

Full Pro feature set
No subscription, no recurring fees
All updates of the current major version
Activates on up to 3 devices

30-day money-back guarantee·Lifetime = all updates within the current major version.

One purchase, the whole toolkit

Not a feature list for its own sake - these are the things you walk away able to do.

Turn any recording or file into clean, speaker-labeled text
Record microphone and system audio on separate tracks
Fix and rename speakers in a real editor, then export to 9 formats
Turn a screen walkthrough into a finished step-by-step document
Do all of it offline, with nothing uploaded
Keep every recording and transcript on your own computer

The math is simple

Replace a typical cloud subscription - often €15-30 a month, forever - with a single one-time purchase.

Typical cloud tool

€15-30 / month, indefinitely

Dictea Lifetime

Pay once, keep it

30-day money-back guarantee

Try Dictea risk-free. If it isn't for you, ask for a full refund within 30 days - no questions, no hard feelings.

What happens after your purchase

No friction, no surprises - and your data stays on your computer the whole time.

Get your license key

As soon as checkout is done, you receive your personal license key.

Download & activate

Download Dictea for your platform, enter your key once, and Pro unlocks instantly.

Start right away

Record or drop in a file and transcribe - fully local, with nothing uploaded.

Your audio and transcripts never leave your computer - not during setup, not after.

Operator TODO: exact key delivery (e.g. by email) is not finalized yet - confirm the flow before launch.

No account · No credit card · Runs locally

Questions, answered

Yes. All audio, transcription, speaker detection, editing and export happen on your computer. There is no cloud transcription API. The only thing that ever leaves your machine is license data (see the privacy policy).

Your recordings deserve to stay yours.

Download Dictea and transcribe your first file in minutes - fully local, nothing uploaded.

No account · No credit card · Runs locally

Speak freely. Your recordings never leave your computer.

What is Dictea?

Sound familiar?

Uploading private recordings to someone else's cloud

Paying every single month

Hours of manual cleanup

"Wait, who said that?"

Built by one developer who didn't want to upload his own recordings

Three steps from raw audio to a finished, shareable document.

Record or import

Transcribe locally

Edit & export

Everything you need, on your machine

Records every voice on its own track

Knows who's speaking automatically

Fix anything afterwards

Turns clicks into documentation

Exports to 9 formats

Private by default

Because it's local, you get five things at once

Truly private

Unlimited, no per-minute fees

Works offline, anywhere

No upload wait

Buy once instead of forever

Your audio takes the shortest path of all: none.

Typical cloud tools vs. Dictea

Trust you can verify, not just believe

Privacy by design, not by promise

Built for people who handle sensitive audio

Whisper-class accuracy, fully local

Download Dictea - free to start

Simple pricing. No surprises.

Subscribe

Free

Pro Yearly

Pro Monthly

Buy once, keep forever

Lifetime

Lifetime

One purchase, the whole toolkit

The math is simple

What happens after your purchase

Get your license key

Download & activate

Start right away

Questions, answered

Your recordings deserve to stay yours.