How to transcribe a voice memo on Mac (built-in and offline)

First, try Voice Memos itself

Apple's guide for macOS Sequoia says that with a Mac with Apple silicon, speech in your audio recordings can be recognised and transcribed to text in Voice Memos. The feature isn't available in all countries or regions, and the page doesn't list languages.

1. Open Voice Memos on the Mac and click the recording.
2. Click the Transcription button to show the transcript. While recording, the same button swaps the waveform for a live transcript with the current word highlighted.
3. To take the text elsewhere, select it, Control-click and choose Copy, then paste into Notes, a document or a Markdown file.

Two useful details from the same page: a recording made in macOS 14 or earlier, or on a device that doesn't support transcription, is transcribed automatically when you open it, if it contains speech. And the search field matches transcript text as well as titles; selecting a word in the transcript moves the playhead to that point.

The current version of Apple's guide adds that with Apple Intelligence, Writing Tools can summarise a transcript. Apple notes Apple Intelligence isn't available in all languages or regions.

Getting iPhone voice memos onto the Mac

You don't need to export or AirDrop anything. Apple's guide says that with iCloud, Voice Memos recordings appear automatically in Voice Memos on your Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro when you're signed in with the same Apple Account.

• On the Mac: System Settings, click your name, then iCloud. Click See All next to Saved to iCloud and make sure Voice Memos is turned on. If it isn't in the list, open Voice Memos once first.
• On the iPhone: Settings, tap your name, then iCloud. Tap See All and turn on Voice Memos.
• Then open the memo on the Mac and use the Transcription button as above. A memo recorded on a device that doesn't support transcription is transcribed by the Mac when opened.

Two caveats from Apple's page: recordings don't appear on a device signed in with a different Apple Account (share the memo instead), and on macOS 15.1 or earlier, layered recordings made on supported iPhone models don't appear on the Mac.

When the Transcription button isn't there

Apple's requirements are the usual reason: an Intel Mac, a macOS version before Sequoia, or a country or region where the feature isn't offered. The other reason people look further is that they want more than a block of copied text: timestamps, a Markdown file they can keep with their notes, or a summary without Apple Intelligence.

For those cases the memo is just an audio file, and the two routes for any audio file apply.

• A hosted service: Otter's MP3-to-text page says to log in or create a free account, then upload the file; its free plan is listed at 300 transcription minutes a month, files up to 90 minutes, and 3 pre-recorded imports per user, lifetime, per its pricing page. The memo is uploaded and the transcript lives in the account.
• On the Mac: QuietNote is a note taker for Mac (macOS 14.2 or later). Import a common audio file and it's transcribed on your Mac with the Whisper model that ships with the app, offline. You get a Markdown transcript with timestamps in a folder you choose, no account, nothing uploaded. A summary is optional: a local model through Ollama, or Claude with your own API key, which gets only the transcript text and only when you ask. The first signed Mac release isn't out yet; you can leave your email for it.

To get a memo out of Voice Memos as a file, share or drag the recording to a folder; Apple's sync guide also suggests sharing a recording for devices on another Apple Account.

What to expect from a transcribed voice memo

• Recording conditions: a memo is usually one person, close to the phone, which is the easiest case for speech recognition. A memo of a meeting from across a table is the hardest: distance and room noise cost accuracy with any tool.
• Speakers: a memo is one mixed track, so no tool can reliably say who spoke. If you dictate notes to yourself that doesn't matter; for a recorded conversation, label speakers by hand.
• Accuracy: no honest percentage exists for your memo. Apple itself says Live Captions accuracy may vary. Names and jargon are the usual errors; read the text before you act on it.
• Time: Voice Memos transcribes in place. A local tool takes a while on a long memo, depending on the Mac and the model size.

What to do with the text

• Dictated notes: paste into your notes app, or keep the Markdown file next to the project it belongs to.
• Action items: pull the things you told yourself to do into a list while the context is fresh.
• Recorded meetings and interviews: for a memo of a conversation, see the interview transcription guide, including consent; the meeting summary template gives the notes a shape.