Does VoiceInk work offline?
Short answer: yes for dictation itself. VoiceInk transcribes locally on your device, so the transcription path needs no network at all. What does need connectivity is the optional Cloud Enhancement feature, which processes transcribed text rather than audio. The reason most answers to this question are vague is that they treat a dictation app as having one relationship with the network when it actually has three, and only one of them is transcription. The same three-way split runs through offline and private dictation on the Mac generally.
If offline has to be the default rather than a mode
Parakeety works with the network off because it has no path that needs it. Transcription runs on the Apple Neural Engine using the NVIDIA Parakeet TDT 0.6B v3, and the only download it ever needs is the 600 MB speech model, fetched once on first launch. After that there is no account to sign into and no cloud feature to lose. $25 once, on macOS 14 or later on an Apple Silicon Mac (M1 or later). It is Mac only and dictation only: it types what you say into the app in front of you and does not transcribe existing audio files.
The three moments any local dictation app touches the network
Setup is the first. Local speech models are large files, and they arrive over the internet once. An app that has not yet downloaded its model cannot transcribe offline, which is why installing on the plane rather than before it is the classic mistake.
Transcription is the second, and for VoiceInk it does not touch the network at all. VoiceInk processes all voice transcription locally on your device, using local AI models. With the model already present, dictation continues with the network off.
Optional cloud features are the third. VoiceInk's Cloud Enhancement processes transcribed text and is entirely optional. That is the piece that stops working offline, and losing it costs you a cleanup pass, not the ability to dictate.
So what actually breaks
With no connection and the model already downloaded, dictation works. You hold your shortcut, speak, and text arrives, because none of that requires a server.
Cloud Enhancement will not run, so any tidy-up it would have done to the transcript does not happen. Licensing checks, update checks and anything else that reaches out will also wait, as they do in any app.
The honest framing is that VoiceInk offline is a slightly smaller product rather than a broken one. Whether that matters depends entirely on whether you had switched the cloud feature on in the first place.
Requirements, and the pricing that goes with it
VoiceInk needs an Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14.4 or later. It is a one-time purchase: Solo at $29 for one device, Personal at $49 for two, Extended at $69 for three, with lifetime updates and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
For offline use specifically, the one-time model has a quiet advantage that is easy to overlook. A subscription app that cannot reach its licensing server has a second reason to stop working that has nothing to do with where transcription runs.
| Moment | Needs a network? | What happens without one |
|---|---|---|
| First-run model download | Yes, once | Transcription cannot start until the model is on the Mac |
| Dictation and transcription | No | Works normally, runs locally on the device |
| Cloud Enhancement | Yes | Feature unavailable; dictation itself is unaffected |
| Licence and update checks | Yes | Deferred until you are back online |
FAQ
- Does VoiceInk need an internet connection?
- Not for dictation. VoiceInk processes all voice transcription locally on your device using local AI models, so once the speech model has been downloaded, transcription continues with no connection. The optional Cloud Enhancement feature is the part that needs connectivity, and it processes transcribed text rather than your voice.
- Can I use VoiceInk on a plane?
- Yes, provided you installed it and let it download its speech model before you boarded. That first-run download is the one moment a local dictation app genuinely needs the internet. After that, dictation runs on the Mac itself. The optional Cloud Enhancement feature will not be available in the air.
- Does VoiceInk upload my audio?
- No. VoiceInk states that your voice data never leaves your Mac and that all voice transcription is processed locally on the device. Cloud Enhancement, when you enable it, processes transcribed text and not the recording, so the audio itself has no upload path in either configuration.
- What stops working in VoiceInk without internet?
- Cloud Enhancement, since it processes text in the cloud, along with the usual licence and update checks that any app defers until it reconnects. Dictation, transcription and pasting text at the cursor all continue, because those run locally. Offline VoiceInk is a slightly smaller product rather than a broken one.
Try it
Parakeety takes the same offline behaviour and removes the qualification: there is no cloud feature to lose, because there is not one in the product. One 600 MB model download on first launch, then dictation that works with the network off permanently. Hold the section key, talk, release. There is a free 7-day trial with no card required, and after that it is $25 once.