Offline transcription: what works without the network, and what waits for it
Offline transcription means speech is turned into text on your own computer, with no connection needed while it happens. In Dalm, a Mac app for dictation and meeting notes, dictation, recording a meeting, transcription, separating voices, editing and search keep working when the network drops. Signing in, syncing, summaries, documents, questions to a meeting and the lists of tasks and decisions need it, and so does the first download of the speech models. No audio is sent anywhere; the transcript waits on the Mac and goes to our servers by itself once you are back online, and the summary is written then. There is a Free plan.
What works offline and what needs a connection
The line runs between what happens on your Mac and what is written on our servers. Here it is, task by task, with where each answer comes from.
| What you do | With no connection | How we know |
|---|---|---|
| Dictate into any app | Works | The setup screen: after the model downloads, recognition works “without going to the network” |
| Record a meeting | Works | The app’s offline notice: “Record and write as usual.” |
| Transcribe it and split it by voice | Works | Checked against the app’s code |
| Edit a transcript | Works | The document notice: “Recording and editing work as usual.” |
| Search what you have | Works | Checked against the app’s code |
| Sign in | Needs a connection | The sign-in notice: “Signing in needs the network; everything else works as usual.” |
| Sync to our servers and your other Macs | Waits, then catches up by itself | The offline notice: “Once you are online again, everything shows up on your other devices” |
| Summaries and documents | Wait for a connection | The document notice: “It starts as soon as the internet is back.” |
| Questions to a meeting | Need a connection | The chat notice: “Answering needs the internet. Everything you recorded opens as usual.” |
| Tasks and decisions across meetings | Need a connection | The list notice: “there is no local copy of them.” |
| Inviting a colleague | Needs a connection | Checked against the app’s code |
| Google Calendar | Needs a connection | Checked against the app’s code |
| First download of the speech models | Needs a connection | The setup screen: “Downloading speech recognition.” |
What happens to work done offline
Nothing you do offline has to be redone. Changes wait in a queue on the Mac and go to our servers by themselves when the connection is back — new transcripts included, which is when they reach your other Macs and when the summary gets written. The app says so while you are offline: “Record and write as usual. Once you are online again, everything shows up on your other devices and the summaries are written for you.”
One thing is worth knowing before you sign out. Signing out sends everything first, and if something could be lost, the app asks before it goes — signing out also clears the copy on this Mac.
Before your first day offline: sign-in and downloads
A few things need a connection once, before a day without one. Signing in: Dalm does not open without an account, and signing in needs the network. The speech models: the European family is 461 MiB, and the family for more languages is between 140 MiB and 1.5 GiB. And a further 22 MiB for speech detection and voice separation arrives with the first meeting you process, so that first meeting needs a connection too: if it happens without one, the recording is kept but comes out as a single voice.
A download that breaks off picks up where it stopped. Switching to the other family of models is a download as well; the one you have keeps recognising while it arrives. Everything the app needs from your Mac is listed on system requirements.
Why recognition needs no network, and what still goes to our servers
Speech is recognised on your Mac, and no audio is sent anywhere — which is why a dropped connection does not stop dictation or a recording. The text is a different matter. Transcripts are synced to our servers automatically, and no setting turns the sync off; being offline only delays it. Summaries, documents and answers are written on the server from that text by a language model, which is why they wait for the network, and the audio is not part of what the model gets. What goes where, piece by piece, is on privacy.
If what you need is an app that never goes online and asks for no account, Dalm is not that app, and it is better to find out here than after installing it.
A recording you already have
The same line holds for a file. Bring in an audio or video recording — up to four hours long, on the Free plan — and it is read on your Mac: the original stays where it is, and the transcript made from it syncs to our servers like any other. How to get from a file to text, and what to ask before a recording leaves your computer, is in the guide to transcribing an audio file.
Free, Pro or Team, with or without a connection
Dictation, recording and transcription — the parts that keep going offline — come with the Free plan, and Free is a plan rather than a trial. Dalm needs a Mac with Apple Silicon · macOS 15.0 or later and an account, and while it is not public, the way in is the waitlist. What the paid plans add is on the pricing page. A team shares one dictionary, templates and tags; inviting a colleague is one of the things that needs a connection, and the rest is on working as a team.
Questions
- Can I use Dalm without an internet connection?
- Partly, and the line is exact. Dictation, recording a meeting, transcription, separating voices, editing and search keep working with no connection. Signing in, syncing, summaries, documents, questions to a meeting, the lists of tasks and decisions, inviting a colleague, Google Calendar and the first download of the speech models need one. What you do offline waits on the Mac and goes to our servers by itself when you are back online.
- Is there offline speech to text on a Mac?
- Yes, for dictation into any app and for transcribing meetings: the speech is recognised on your Mac, so neither needs a connection once the models are downloaded. No audio is sent anywhere. The text is synced to our servers automatically when you are online, and Dalm needs an account to open at all.
- Can I record and transcribe a meeting on a plane?
- Yes, if you signed in and the speech models were downloaded before you took off, including the one that arrives with your first meeting. The recording and the transcript are made on your Mac; the transcript waits there and goes to our servers once you land and are online, and that is when the summary is written. No audio is sent anywhere.
- Do I need an account to use it offline?
- Yes. Dalm does not open without an account, and signing in needs the network, so the first sign-in has to happen online. If you need an app with no account at all, this one is not it.
- What happens to the changes I make while offline?
- They wait in a queue on the Mac and catch up with our servers by themselves when the connection is back; then they show up on your other Macs and the summaries are written. If you sign out, the app sends everything first and asks before signing out if something could be lost.
- Can AI meeting notes be made locally, without the internet?
- The transcript, yes: it is made on your Mac, split by voice, with no connection. The summary and documents, no: a language model writes them on our servers from the text of the transcript, so they wait until you are online. The audio is not sent to the model or anywhere else.
- How much has to download before I can work offline?
- The speech models: 461 MiB for the European family, or between 140 MiB and 1.5 GiB for the family covering more languages. Another 22 MiB arrives with the first meeting you process. A download that breaks off resumes where it stopped.