Build & lead
Developers and founders moving from thought to shipped work.
On-device dictation for macOS
Talk. It types. Nothing leaves your Mac.
Akova turns spoken thoughts into clean writing anywhere on your Mac — transcribed entirely on your device. No cloud, no account, no subscription required. Start free, then unlock everything once and own it forever.
Free to use · macOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon (M1 and later) · v1.0.0
On-device Works offline One-time purchase Notarized by Apple
Built for people who work in words
A faster way to get ideas out of your head.
Akova is for anyone whose work depends on thinking, explaining, and writing — whether that means code, client work, clinical notes, or simply keeping up with a fast-moving mind.
Write & advise
Writers, consultants, and lawyers turning ideas into clear language.
Care & communicate
Doctors and professionals capturing detail without losing focus.
Think your way
People with RSI and neurodivergent thinkers who work better by speaking.
See it in action
One hotkey. One sentence. A review-ready prompt.
Real capture: dictating a rate-limit prompt into Claude Code — transcribed entirely on-device.
Typing is the bottleneck. Cloud dictation is the compromise.
You think faster than you type. The good AI dictation apps fix that — but they stream your voice to someone else's servers, lock you into $12–$15 every month, and still make you wait after every sentence while they “process.” You shouldn't have to choose between speed, privacy, and owning your tools.
How it works
Three steps. No ceremony.
01
Press your key.
A global hotkey starts recording from anywhere: your editor, your browser, Slack.
02
Speak naturally.
A live waveform shows it’s listening. Say “new paragraph,” “comma,” “scratch that.”
03
Clean text appears.
Transcribed on-device, optionally tidied, pasted at your cursor — without touching your clipboard.
Never wait between thoughts
Built around a continuous queue: keep the mic open, fire one thought after another, each chunk transcribed in the background while you keep talking. The only Mac dictation app built this way.
Privacy
Private by architecture, not by policy
Every word is transcribed on your Mac using Apple's Neural Engine. Audio is held in memory just long enough to become text, then it's gone. No server to trust, no privacy mode to switch on. It's how Akova is built.
Clean text, not raw transcription
Tidy punctuation, remove filler, reformat into bullets or paragraphs, match your tone — on-device. Bring your own local model via Ollama. Perfect for writing in a second language: speak roughly, paste polished.
Made for the way you actually work
Any app system-wide; teach it your vocabulary — names, jargon, acronyms; your hotkey your way — hold, toggle, double-tap; a HUD that fits your Mac — panel or notch, themed, live waveform.
Beats what’s built in
Apple's dictation stops after 30 seconds, can't learn your vocabulary, and won't format anything. Akova has no time limit, learns your words, cleans your text, and pastes it anywhere — while staying just as private.
Built-in Akova
Time limit 30 seconds None
Custom vocabulary — Learns yours
Formatting & clean-up — On-device
Works in any app Limited System-wide
Privacy On-device On-device
Pricing
Free to start. Pay once, own it.
Free
Private dictation, every day
€0 forever
Download freemacOS 14 Sonoma or later · Apple Silicon (M1 and later)
- On-device dictation + paste — system-wide, any app
- Basic AI structuring: clean-up, paragraphs, bullets
- Basic vocabulary — teach it your words
- Spoken punctuation ("comma", "new paragraph")
- Live streaming preview while you speak
- Panel HUD + mono theme
- Model catalogue — pick your Whisper model
- Setup Check self-test
- Undo last paste
Full feature set
Lifetime
Pay once. Own it.
€40 once
Get Lifetime — €40
First 50 direct buyers: €32 with code EARLYBIRD
Everything in Free, plus:
- Continuous-queue dictation — never wait between thoughts
- Advanced structuring styles: grammar, rephrase, context-correct, custom
- Review-and-choose + auto-accept
- Voice-edit of selected text
- On-device history — searchable & exportable
- On-device PII redaction before paste
- Prompt-enhancer style — rough speech to clean AI-CLI prompts
- Contextual-AI vocabulary tier
- Notch HUD, color themes + custom accent, per-app profiles
Direct-only — not on the App Store:
- Voice for Agents — answer Claude Code / Codex questions by speaking, via a local MCP server
- Voice Functions — trigger your own shell commands by voice (e.g. "auth AWS 123456")
- Automatic updates — Sparkle checks and installs new versions for you
- Obsidian export — send your dictation history straight into your vault
Mac App Store — coming soon In review with Apple
Same Pro, sandboxed per Apple's rules: no auto-paste, no Voice for Agents, no Voice Functions, no Obsidian export. See the full comparison
Lifetime is €40 once — about eight months of the €4.99 plan. No subscription required, ever. 14-day money-back guarantee.
What ‘lifetime’ actually means
Plenty of apps sell a lifetime licence and quietly redefine it later. Here is ours in full, before you pay.
Included, forever
- The complete on-device app — every Pro feature listed above
- Every v1.x update: fixes, improvements and new features within this major version
- No account, no renewal, no licence check that can ever expire
Not included
- Major versions after v1 — v2 will be offered to lifetime owners as a discounted upgrade, not a free one
- Any future feature that costs us money to run per use (cloud transcription, hosted larger models, agent relay) — those are metered or subscription-gated for everyone, whichever tier you hold
We would rather write this down now than raise the lifetime price in two years and break a promise we already took your money for.
Also coming
Prefer to pay monthly?
Two subscription plans are on the way for people who'd rather not pay up front, or who want every future major version included. They aren't live yet — the app can't validate a recurring licence today, and we'd rather ship that properly than sell you something that breaks on renewal.
Monthly
Coming soon€4.99 per month
The full v1.x app, no commitment, cancel whenever. Roughly eight months in you will have paid for the lifetime licence instead — we will tell you when you get there.
Annual
Coming soon€24.99 per year
The full app plus every future major version — v2 and beyond — for as long as you stay subscribed, and a monthly allowance for any usage-based features once they exist.
Planned for v1.1 — the lifetime licence is available today.
What happens when you buy
-
Checkout, properly handled
Card, PayPal, or Apple Pay through Lemon Squeezy — our merchant of record. They issue a real VAT invoice; we never see your card details.
-
Your key, within a minute
A licence key lands in your inbox automatically. Paste it into Akova once.
-
Then nothing phones home
The key is verified on your Mac with offline signature checking. No account, no activation server, no licence check that can strand you on a plane.
One licence covers 3 Macs you own. Signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple — it opens normally, with no security warning to click through.
Two ways to buy
Direct from us, or the Mac App Store.
Same app, same on-device engine, same privacy. But Apple's sandbox rules mean the App Store build physically can't do four of the things the direct build does. Here's the whole difference, so you can pick with your eyes open.
Feature
Direct download
Available today
Mac App Store
Coming soon
Availability Download now In review with Apple
Lifetime price €40 once €40 once
Where the text lands Typed straight in at your cursor Copied to your clipboard — press ⌘V
Voice for Agents Included Not available
Voice Functions (run your own commands) Included Not available
Obsidian export Included Not available
Updates Automatic, inside the app Through the App Store
How Pro unlocks Licence key, emailed instantly In-app purchase on your Apple ID
Transcription 100% on-device 100% on-device
Works offline Yes Yes
Refunds 14 days, straight from us Handled by Apple
Buy direct — €40 Mac App Store — coming soon In review with Apple
Why the difference?
App Store apps run inside Apple's sandbox. A sandboxed app can't type into another app, run shell commands, host a local server for your coding agent, update itself, or write into a folder you chose. Those limits are exactly the four features missing above. It isn't a cut-down edition — it's the most Akova an App Store app is allowed to be.
Questions, answered.
Does my voice go to the cloud?
No. Transcription runs entirely on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded. You can use it on a plane.
Is the download safe? Is it signed by Apple?
Yes. The .dmg is code-signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, which means Apple has scanned it for malware. It opens like any normal app — no right-click-to-open workaround, no "unidentified developer" warning.
Is it a subscription?
The lifetime licence is not — pay once, own it, no renewal. Monthly and annual plans are coming for people who prefer them, but they will always be optional. You will never be moved onto a subscription against your will.
What exactly does the lifetime licence cover?
The full on-device app and every v1.x update, forever, with no renewal. It does not automatically include major versions after v1 — v2 will be a discounted upgrade for existing owners — and it does not cover future features that cost money to run per use, like cloud transcription, which are priced separately for everyone. We state this before you buy rather than after.
What happens to my licence when v2 ships?
Your v1 licence keeps working exactly as it does now, indefinitely. v2 will be a separate, discounted upgrade if you want it. Annual subscribers get major versions included while their subscription is active — that difference is the reason the annual plan exists.
What is the difference between the direct version and the Mac App Store one?
The direct version types text straight in at your cursor, includes Voice for Agents, Voice Functions and Obsidian export, and updates itself. Apple's sandbox rules make all four impossible in an App Store build, where text is copied to your clipboard for you to paste. Everything else — the on-device engine, the privacy, the models — is identical. Full comparison above.
How do I pay, and do I get an invoice?
Checkout runs through Lemon Squeezy (card, PayPal, Apple Pay) as merchant of record. They handle VAT for your country and email you a proper invoice automatically. We never see your card details.
How many Macs can I use one licence on?
Three Macs you own — a desktop, a laptop and one spare, say. Your licence key is verified offline on each of them; there is no account and no activation server to depend on.
How do updates work?
The direct version checks for updates itself and installs them with one click. Updates to this major version are included in what you paid.
Do I need an internet connection?
Only for the first model download. After that, fully offline.
What Macs does it run on?
Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and later), running macOS 14 Sonoma or newer.
Can I use my own models?
Yes. Pick your Whisper model from the built-in catalogue, and run text clean-up through your own local models via Ollama. Either way, everything stays on your Mac.
Can it handle my accent / non-native English?
Yes — built on Whisper (90+ languages), and the clean-up pass turns rough speech into polished writing.
What about refunds?
Email us within 14 days of a direct purchase and we refund in full, no explanation needed. App Store purchases are refunded by Apple under their own rules.
Your best writing is the stuff you'd say out loud.
Download Akova — freeFree to use · Lifetime €40 once · On-device · 14-day guarantee