Talk, and it types.
Nothing leaves your Mac.
Hold fn, speak, and let go. LocalBolo turns your voice into clean text in any app, with speech models that run entirely on your Mac.
One-time purchase · macOS 15 or later · Apple Silicon
Works wherever you can type
- Gmail
- iMessage
- Discord
- Notion
- Google Docs
- Obsidian
- Linear
- Claude
- Cursor
- Xcode
- Google Chrome
…and every other app with a text field.
Speed
Speak over three times faster than you type.
Most people type about 40 words a minute and speak about 150. With LocalBolo you write at the speed you talk, in every app, without sending a word to the cloud.
Words per minute
Typical rates
- Typing
- 40wpm
- Speaking
- 150wpm
How it works
Three steps. No typing.
Dictation that feels like a keyboard shortcut, not an app you have to open.
- 001
Hold fn
Press and hold the fn key wherever your cursor is. The pill appears with the icon of the app your words will land in.
- 002
Speak naturally
Talk the way you would to a colleague. The waveform shows LocalBolo is listening, and it only listens while you hold the key.
- 003
Let go
Sounds good, see you at three.
Release fn. Your speech is transcribed on your Mac and pasted right at your cursor, usually in about a second.
Cleanup
Say it messy. Get it clean.
Turn on cleanup and a small language model on your Mac applies your self-corrections and drops the ums and uhs. If an edit would change what you meant, your words are kept as spoken.
Optional · Qwen 2.5 1.5B · 880 MB · On-device
- 001
You said
Let's meet today at
9 p.m., sorry,10 p.m.It typed
Let's meet today at 10 p.m.
- 002
You said
So, um,I think we should, uh,ship it on Friday.It typed
I think we should ship it on Friday.
- 003
You said
Send the deck to
Priya, no wait, toSam.It typed
Send the deck to Sam.
What's inside
Built to disappear into your day.
On-device, always
Speech models run on the Neural Engine in your Mac. There is no server to send audio to.
Works in every app
Mail, Slack, your code editor, a browser tab. Anywhere there's a cursor, your words land there.
Knows where it's typing
The pill shows the icon of the app that will receive your text, so you never paste into the wrong window.
Fast on Apple Silicon
Parakeet transcribes a sentence in a fraction of a second, even on the first M1 Macs.
Built for English
English-first models handle punctuation, capitalization, and everyday names without extra setup.
Leaves your clipboard alone
Whatever you had copied is put back right after pasting, and clipboard managers are told to skip the transcript.
Privacy
Your voice stays on your Mac. Full stop.
- Servers
- 0
- Accounts
- 0
- Recordings kept
- 0
No servers
There is no LocalBolo cloud. Audio is transcribed by a model running on your Mac.
No account
Enter your license key, allow microphone and accessibility access, and start talking.
Nothing is kept
Recordings live in memory only while they're transcribed, then they're gone.
Only listens on fn
The microphone turns on when you hold fn and turns off the moment you let go.
Models
Pick the model that fits.
Every model runs on the Neural Engine in Apple Silicon. Download one once, and switch any time in Settings.
- 001
Parakeet v2Recommended
NVIDIA Parakeet
Best for English. Very fast and highly accurate.
470MB
- 002
Whisper Base
OpenAI Whisper
Smallest download. Good for quick notes.
150MB
- 003
Whisper Small
OpenAI Whisper
A balance of speed and accuracy.
220MB
- 004
Whisper Large v3 Turbo
OpenAI Whisper
Most accurate Whisper. Slower on older Macs.
630MB
Optional transcript cleanup uses Qwen 2.5 1.5B (880 MB), a small language model that also runs on your Mac. Models are downloaded from Hugging Face the first time you pick them. After that, everything works offline.
Pricing
Pay once. Talk as much as you like.
No subscription and no word limits. Your Mac does the work, so there's nothing to meter.
LocalBolo for Mac
$49
One-time purchase · USD
Secure checkout by Dodo Payments · macOS 15 or later · Apple Silicon
- Use it on up to 2 of your Macs
- Unlimited dictation in every app
- Every speech model: Parakeet and Whisper
- On-device transcript cleanup
- Works offline after setup
- No account, no subscription
Not for you? Ask within 7 days for a full refund. Refund policy
FAQ
Questions, answered.
Something else? Visit support or email abhishek@ThinkingSoundLab.com.
How much does LocalBolo cost?
$49, once. There's no subscription, and because dictation runs on your Mac, there are no word limits or minutes to count.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. If LocalBolo isn't right for you, email us within 7 days of buying it for a full refund, no questions asked.
How do I install it after buying?
Download LocalBolo from the link after checkout, or any time at localbolo.app/download. Open it and enter the license key from the email Dodo Payments sends you. You only do that once per Mac.
Can I use it on more than one Mac?
Yes. One license works on up to 2 of your Macs at a time. To move it to a new Mac, deactivate the old one in LocalBolo's Settings › License. If that Mac is lost or broken, email us and we'll free it up.
I lost my license key. How do I find it?
Go to localbolo.app/license and enter the email you bought LocalBolo with. You'll get a sign-in link to a page that shows your key.
Does it update itself?
Yes. LocalBolo checks for updates once a day and installs a new version with one click. You can turn automatic checks off in Settings.
Which Macs does LocalBolo run on?
Any Mac with Apple Silicon (M1 or newer) running macOS 15 Sequoia or later. The speech models run on the Neural Engine, which Intel Macs don't have.
Does it need an internet connection?
Only to activate your license key and download the speech model you choose. After that, dictation works offline. LocalBolo re-checks your license every two weeks when you're online, and needs to reach the internet at least once a month to keep working.
Why does it need Accessibility access?
macOS requires it for two things: noticing when you hold fn while another app is in front, and pasting text at your cursor. LocalBolo only reacts to the fn key and never records what you type.
The emoji picker opens when I press fn. How do I stop that?
Open System Settings › Keyboard and set “Press 🌐 key to” to “Do Nothing”. LocalBolo's setup guide links straight there.
Can it clean up what I say?
Yes. Turn on transcript cleanup and a small language model running on your Mac applies your self-corrections and removes filler words, so “9 p.m., sorry, 10 p.m.” becomes “10 p.m.”. It's optional and needs an 880 MB download.
Which speech model should I use?
Start with Parakeet v2. It is the fastest and most accurate for English. Try a Whisper model if you'd like a smaller download or prefer its style of punctuation.
What languages are supported?
LocalBolo is built for English today. Every included model is tuned for English speech.
Give your keyboard a break.
Setup takes a minute. After that, it's just you, the fn key, and your voice.
Buy for $49One-time purchase · macOS 15 or later · Apple Silicon