Talk the way you think.
Murmur types what you meant.
Free, private dictation for Mac. Hold Control, ramble, release. A clean, concise version appears wherever your cursor is.
Download Murmur for MacTwo shortcuts. That's the whole app.
Hold to talk
Hold Control, speak, let go. Your words are transcribed, tidied and pasted in a second or two.
Hands-free
Tap Control + fn, or just double-tap Control, then sit back. Think out loud as long as you like; tap Control to drop it in.
Works everywhere you type
Email, Slack, docs, your code editor, an AI chat. If there's a cursor, Murmur can type there.
You don't have to speak in finished sentences.
Murmur drops the filler, keeps your corrections and tightens the rambling, without changing what you meant.
"So um, I was thinking that, uh, we should probably move the launch of the new website to, like, next Tuesday, no wait, actually Wednesday, because the designer, uh, she still needs a couple more days to finish up the, the mobile layouts and stuff."
Let's move the new website launch to Wednesday. The designer still needs a few more days to finish the mobile layouts.
Built to stay out of your way.
Private by design
Speech recognition and rewriting both run on your Mac. Your voice never leaves it, and Murmur works offline.
Three writing styles
Concise tightens what you said. Clean up keeps your wording and drops the ums. Exact types every word.
Knows your words
Add names, brands and jargon to your vocabulary and Murmur spells them your way.
Your shortcuts
Prefer different keys? Change both shortcuts in Settings by pressing the keys you want.
Asks, doesn't answer
Dictating a question into an AI chat? Murmur types your question; it never tries to answer it for you.
Free. Really.
No account, no subscription, no trial. Share it with anyone; there's a Share button right in the app.
Up and running in a few minutes.
- Download and unzipClick Download, open the zip, and drag Murmur into your Applications folder.
- Open it once from Privacy & SecurityMurmur isn't signed by Apple yet, so the first time macOS will say it can't verify it. Click Done, then open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway next to Murmur. You only do this once.
- Let it set upOn first launch Murmur downloads its speech and writing models (about 5 GB). A progress window shows how it's going; after that it runs offline.
- Allow Microphone and AccessibilityMicrophone so it can hear you. Accessibility so it can listen for your shortcut and paste the text. Input Monitoring so it can see the fn key. Murmur's Settings window shows a green dot when each is on.
- Hold Control and talkClick into any text field, hold Control, speak, release. That's it.
Requirements
- Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer)
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later
- About 6 GB of free disk space
- 8 GB of memory; 16 GB recommended
- Internet only for the first-launch download
Prefer Terminal? After moving Murmur to Applications, this skips step 2:xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Murmur.app
Good to know
Does my voice get sent anywhere?
No. Murmur records only while you're holding the shortcut (or in hands-free mode), transcribes and rewrites on your Mac, then deletes the recording. The only time it touches the internet is the one-time model download.
Which AI models does it use?
Qwen3-ASR (1.7B) turns speech into text, and Qwen3-4B-Instruct rewrites it. Both are open models that run on your Mac's GPU through Apple's MLX framework.
Why does macOS warn me about it?
Apple verifies apps from developers who pay for its developer program. Murmur is a free project and isn't in that program yet, so macOS asks you to confirm once. Nothing about the app changes after you do.
What happens to my music while I talk?
Apple Music and Spotify pause the moment you start dictating and pick up right where they left off when you let go. The first time, macOS asks whether Murmur may control them; click OK. Anything else playing, like a video, Apple Music in a browser or a podcast, is turned down and then brought back to the exact volume it was at. You can switch this to mute, or turn it off, under While Dictating in the Murmur menu.
Can I make it type exactly what I said?
Yes. In the Murmur menu-bar menu, choose Rewrite → Exact for a word-for-word transcript, or Clean up to keep your wording without the filler.
How do I uninstall it?
Quit Murmur from its menu-bar icon, move /Applications/Murmur.app to the Trash, and delete the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Murmur to remove the models.