Transcription stays on your Mac
The top of the Transcription tab says Local-only transcription and Transcription runs on this Mac and uploads nothing. KeptNote sends no audio to any service for transcription. With the Apple engine, macOS may download its own speech models the first time you need a language. That is macOS, not KeptNote, and it needs an internet connection once.
Choose an engine
The row Engine has two choices.
- Apple (built in). Apple’s speech transcription, on your Mac. Nothing to install. It needs macOS 26 or later. On older macOS, the choice is grey, with the hint Needs macOS 26. This is the starting choice on macOS 26 and later.
- Whisper (advanced). A program called whisper.cpp that you install yourself. KeptNote runs it on your Mac and gives it the meeting’s audio. This is the starting choice on macOS 15 to 25.
If you pick Whisper, two more rows appear.
- Executable. The path to the whisper-cli program. Press Choose…, or paste a path such as /opt/homebrew/bin/whisper-cli. If you leave this empty, KeptNote looks for whisper-cli in /opt/homebrew/bin and /usr/local/bin and uses the first one it finds.
- Model. The path to a Whisper model file. Press Choose…. See Whisper models.
KeptNote does not bundle Whisper, and it does not download Whisper models. Set it up once, and KeptNote runs it for you.
Set the language of your meetings
The row Language says The language spoken in your meetings. It is one setting for the whole app. KeptNote does not store a language for each meeting. The starting choice is English.
The list has English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. It also has an automatic choice. With Whisper, it reads Detect automatically. With the Apple engine, it reads Automatic (Mac’s language) and uses your Mac’s language and region.
- Naming the language helps when a meeting is short or noisy, or when people switch languages.
- If you hold meetings in another language, choose it here before you record. Change it back when you go back to English.
- Which languages the Apple engine can transcribe depends on what macOS offers on your Mac. If a language is missing, KeptNote tells you: Apple transcription does not support and the language, and suggests you pick another or choose Whisper.
Set the language of your notes
The row Note language says The language KeptNote writes notes in. Its starting choice is Same as the meeting. Pick another language and the note writer writes the whole note in it, whatever language people spoke. Quotes stay in the words that were said.
Teach it your words
The row Internal jargon is for names and terms that you want spelled right. Type a word and press Return. Each term becomes a chip. Press a chip to remove it. Whisper reads this list. The Apple engine does not read it yet, and the row says so.
Live and after the meeting
On macOS 26 or later with the Apple engine, KeptNote transcribes while you record, in small pieces, and saves them as it goes. When you stop, it transcribes only what is left. If the pieces have gaps, it makes a full pass after the meeting. With Whisper, or on older macOS, KeptNote transcribes after you stop.
Under After a meeting, the switch Automatically transcribe when capture stops starts the work as soon as a recording is saved. It is on at first. You can cancel a transcription from the note.
How long KeptNote keeps your audio and transcripts
Under Retention:
- Keep raw microphone and system audio forever. It is off at first. With it off, KeptNote moves the raw audio to the macOS Trash once the transcript is saved. You can take it back from the Trash until you empty it. With it on, the audio stays in the meeting’s folder.
- Delete transcripts. The choices are Never (the starting choice), After 7 days, After 30 days and After 90 days. It removes the transcript and its audio, and the note stays.
After a transcript is removed, a note’s time chips have nothing to open. The panel then says Transcript removed.