Petal
Fast, local audio transcription for macOS directly in the menu bar
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MIT v1.2.1 Mar 23, 2026 0
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AI Summary
Petal is a native macOS menu bar app for local audio transcription, optimized for Apple Silicon Macs. It supports multiple transcription engines including Apple Speech, Whisper, Qwen, and Voxtral. The app processes audio completely locally on the device and offers fast copy/paste workflows.
✓ Pros
- + Completely local processing protects sensitive data and works offline
- + Supports multiple AI models (Whisper, Qwen, Apple Speech, Voxtral) for different requirements
- + Native macOS integration with menu bar access and optimized for Apple Silicon
✗ Cons
- − Only available for macOS, no support for Windows or Linux
- − Requires Apple Silicon Mac for optimal performance with all models
Use Cases
- → Transcription of meetings and interviews directly on Mac without cloud upload
- → Quick conversion of voice notes to text for content creators
- → Local subtitle creation for videos with a privacy-first approach
- → Accessible text creation from audio files for documentation
Who is it for?
Developers, content creators, and Mac users who need fast, privacy-friendly audio transcription without cloud dependency.
