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The private dictation app for Mac

The keyboardwith a voice.

Hold a key, speak, let go. Clean text in your own tone lands wherever you type. Nothing leaves your Mac.

Download for Mac
⌥

move your cursor · it listens

The problem

You talk fast.
Your keyboard doesn’t.

Dictation should save you time without costing you your privacy. Until now, you had to pick one.

  • Typing is the slow part

    You think in sentences, then wait for your fingers. Long emails and messages pile up because writing them takes too long.

  • Cloud dictation hears everything

    Popular AI dictation apps send your voice over the internet to their servers1. That is a hard no for client notes, legal drafts or anything personal.

  • Built-in dictation gives you raw text

    Apple Dictation types every “um” as you say it and stops after 30 seconds of silence2. You still have to clean it up.

Sources

  1. Wispr Flow, Data Controls
  2. Apple Mac User Guide, "Dictate messages and documents"
How it flows
  1. 01

    Hold a key and talk

    Hold Right Option and speak the way you normally do. Ums, restarts and all.

⌥
Ready

The meeting is on Wednesday at 5:30. Tell him to bring the deck.

Pasted
Your tone, everywhere

Same words.
Four places. Four tones.

Celesa notices which app you are in and writes the way you would there. Casual in chats, complete in email, structured in docs, terse in code.

“hey tell sam the deck is ready and we should meet thursday to go through it”

MessagesChat · short and casual

Deck’s ready! Meet Thursday to go through it?

MailEmail · complete and polite

Hi Sam,

The deck is ready. Could we meet on Thursday to go through it?

Best,
Alex

DocsDocs · clear and structured
  • •Deck is ready for review
  • •Walkthrough with Sam: Thursday
Code editorCode · exact and terse

// TODO: deck ready, review with Sam on Thursday

Small things, every day

Talk naturally.
It keeps up.

Self-corrections

Change your mind mid-sentence

Say “scratch that” and the last sentence disappears. “Two, actually three” keeps three.

Let’s ship on Friday. Actually maybe Monday.
“scratch that”
Dictionary

Names, spelled your way

Add the names and words you use. Celesa spells them right every time.

Sell EssaCelesa

Fix a name once and it’s learned.

Snippets

Say a shortcut, get the full text

Links, addresses, sign-offs. Say the trigger, it types the rest.

“my calendar link”
cal.com/you/30min
Command mode

Edit by voice

Select text, hold Shift with the key, and say what to change.

we need the numbers asap
⇧ ⌥“make it friendlier”
Could you send the numbers when you get a chance? Thanks!
Whisper mode

Speak softly

Quiet speech is boosted before it is transcribed.

Quiet voice, late night, open office: it still hears you.

Formatting

Lists, lines and punctuation, spoken

Say “new line”, “comma” or “number one”, and it formats as you go.

“number one call the bank number two book flights”
  1. 1. Call the bank
  2. 2. Book flights
Private by design

Your voice never
leaves your Mac.

Speech recognition and writing both run on your own computer. No cloud, no account, nothing uploaded. Turn off Wi-Fi and it works exactly the same.

  • 0

    servers your voice goes to

  • 0

    accounts to create

  • 100%

    runs on your Mac, offline

Speech: NVIDIA Parakeet · Writing: Qwen 3.5 · both on-device

Under the hood

Open models.
On your Mac. Named, not hidden.

Celesa doesn’t ask you to trust a black box. Both models are public, and you can read exactly what each one does.

Hears you

NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3

An open speech-recognition model that runs on your Mac’s Neural Engine and recognises 25 European languages.

Read the NVIDIA model card

Tidies your words

Qwen 3.5 (2B)

An open language model that removes fillers, applies your corrections and matches the tone of the app you’re in. About 1.3 GB, on your Mac.

Read the Qwen model card
Compare

How Celesa compares.
Side by side, with sources.

Celesa is the only one of these that does both steps, hearing you and tidying your words, on your Mac and for free.

Swipe the table sideways to see all four apps.

Celesa compared with Wispr Flow, Superwhisper and Apple Dictation
FeatureCelesaWispr FlowSuperwhisperApple Dictation
PriceFree$15 a month, or $12 a month billed yearly1$8.49 a month, $84.99 a year or $249.99 once3Free, built in4
Free limitsNone2,000 words a week on desktop1Local models only, no AI modes3Stops after 30 seconds of silence4
Where your voice is processedOn your MacSent over the internet to Wispr2On your Mac, or in the cloud with cloud models3On your Mac (Apple silicon, supported languages)4
Writes in your tone, removes fillersYes, on your MacYes, in the cloud6With AI modes in Pro3No
Works with Wi-Fi offYesNo, cloud only5With local modelsOn Apple silicon4

Prices and features as published, checked 31 October 2026.

  1. Wispr Flow plans, PricingSaaS (captured 26 Oct 2026)
  2. Wispr Flow, Data Controls
  3. Superwhisper plans
  4. Apple Mac User Guide, "Dictate messages and documents"
  5. Wispr Flow, Enterprise privacy & security overview
  6. Wispr Flow homepage
Pricing

Free.
No catch, no cap.

Celesa runs on your own computer, so there are no servers to pay for, and no reason to charge you a subscription.

Celesa for Mac

$0

  • Unlimited dictation, no weekly word cap
  • Speech recognition and writing on your Mac
  • Tone that adapts to chat, email, docs and code
  • Dictionary, snippets and edit by voice
  • Automatic updates from inside the app
  • No account, no tracking
Download for Mac

macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon, about 2 GB of disk space. Pricing details

FAQ

Questions people ask

What is Celesa?

Celesa is a private dictation app for Mac. You hold a key, speak, and let go, and clean text in your own tone appears wherever your cursor is. Speech recognition and writing both run on your Mac, so your voice is never uploaded.

Does Celesa work offline?

Yes. After a one-time download of its speech and writing models (about 2 GB), Celesa works with Wi-Fi turned off. It only goes online to check for app updates, and that check sends nothing you have said or written.

Is Celesa free?

Yes. The Mac app is free to download and use, with no word limits, no account and no subscription. Everything runs on your own computer, so there are no servers for us to charge you for.

Is my voice sent to the cloud?

No. Celesa records your voice, turns it into text and tidies the text on your Mac. Nothing you say or write is sent to us or to anyone else. Your last 50 dictations are kept as text, never audio, in a file on your Mac that you can delete at any time.

How is Celesa different from Apple Dictation?

Apple Dictation types the words you say and stops after 30 seconds of silence. Celesa keeps listening while you hold the key, removes filler words, applies your corrections, and writes in a tone that suits the app you are in, such as casual in chats and complete in email.

Is Celesa a good Wispr Flow alternative?

Celesa is a good Wispr Flow alternative if you want privacy and no limits. Wispr Flow sends your voice to its servers and limits the free plan to 2,000 words a week on desktop. Celesa runs on your Mac and has no limits.

Which Macs can run Celesa?

Celesa runs on Macs with Apple silicon (M1 or newer) and macOS 14 Sonoma or later. It needs about 2 GB of free disk space for its models.

Which apps does Celesa work in?

Celesa works in any app where you can type: Mail, Slack, Messages, WhatsApp, Notion, Google Docs, Word, VS Code, the terminal and the browser. It notices the app you are in and adjusts the tone to match.

Which languages does Celesa support?

Celesa is tuned for English today. Its speech model, NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, recognises 25 European languages, and support for more languages in the writing step is planned.

How do I fix a name Celesa keeps getting wrong?

Add it to your dictionary. Write the word the way you want it spelled, or write what Celesa hears followed by an arrow and the right spelling. When you correct a word after dictating, Celesa can learn it for you.

Does Celesa update itself?

Yes. Celesa checks for new versions and installs them from inside the app with one click. Your settings, dictionary, snippets and history are kept.

Is there a Windows or iPhone version?

Not yet. Celesa for Mac is available now, and Windows and iPhone versions are in development.
Why Celesa

A celesta is a keyboard that sounds like bells. It’s the twinkle in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. We took out the T, because you don’t type anymore.

Stop typing.
Start saying.

Download for Mac

The first time you open it, macOS asks you to confirm in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. After that, Celesa updates itself.

Mac

macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon

Available

Windows

Windows 10 and 11

Coming soon

iPhone

iOS 26

Coming soon