A Mac app · Made in Seoul

The AI meeting note taker
that never uploads your audio.

Quietly records and transcribes entirely on your Mac — no bot in the call. Notes are plain Markdown your AI reads (Claude, Cursor, Codex). $49 once, yours forever.

Download for Mac See how it works
Free 7-day trial · No account, no card · macOS 13+ · On-device Whisper + LLM cleanup · One-time license
Quietly
Meeting notes that stay on your Mac.
A 42-second look at Quietly — record locally, get a clean LLM-polished transcript, ask your own AI. No bot joins the call.
Speaker labels shown are illustrative — today Quietly splits the transcript into clean speaker turns; per-speaker labels (diarization) are coming soon.
How it works

Three things, then it disappears.

01

It reads your calendar.

Connect a Google or iCloud calendar. Quietly watches what’s coming up — only events you mark recordable.

02

It asks before it records.

A small prompt appears when a meeting starts. Tap to record, or skip. At the end it asks again — extend, or stop and transcribe.

03

Your folder. Your AI tools.

A clean Markdown note lands in the folder you chose. Cursor reads it, Claude Code greps it, Raycast finds it. Your meetings become context, not another silo.

Why local matters

The only meeting tool that survives an NDA.

Cloud notetakers fail the same rooms: legal, M&A, hiring debriefs, anything under an NDA. Quietly was built to pass them — audio, transcript, and notes stay on your Mac.

No cloud upload, ever

Audio is captured to a temp file on your Mac, transcribed in the same process, and deleted unless you keep it.

Everything runs on-device

Whisper transcription, speaker turns, and LLM cleanup all run locally. No API key, no inference billed to you.

You own the file

Notes save as plain Markdown to a folder you pick — no proprietary database, nothing to export.

Nothing else leaves

Outbound traffic is limited to model downloads, update checks, license validation, and Google Calendar sync if you opt in. Never audio, never transcripts.

Works with your AI stack

Already wired into the tools you use.

Notes are plain Markdown in a folder you choose — any tool that reads files (or speaks MCP) sees them. No integrations to wait for.

Claude Desktop

Point its filesystem MCP at your notes folder and ask “what did we decide last week?” A first-class Quietly MCP server ships next.

via filesystem · MCP coming

Cursor & Codex CLI

Drop a planning meeting into Cursor’s chat while you code, or grep it from your terminal. Every note lives in your workspace.

via filesystem · MCP coming

Plain Markdown

Open notes in any editor, grep them, pipe them into your own scripts. No lock-in by design.

via folder

Raycast / Alfred

Search across every meeting from your launcher — they’re just .md files. Indexers love that.

via folder

Want summaries in the app? Quietly’s built-in Chat uses your own Anthropic or OpenAI key — each answer cited to the exact transcript line.

Who it’s for

Built for people who can’t put a meeting in the cloud.

Builders

Founders, PMs, and AI-native devs.

Pipe every standup into Claude, Cursor, or Codex as long-term context. Quietly speaks Markdown and MCP.

For builders ›
Researchers

UX, qualitative, and academic researchers.

On-device Whisper passes the IRB sentence your interviewees signed: “recordings will not leave the device.”

For researchers ›
KR students

Korean uni & grad students.

Skip Clova Note’s monthly minute cap — run Quietly on your own Mac and pay once. The student page is in Korean.

학생용 보기 ›
Features

Designed to get out of the way.

Calendar-aware capture

Reads Google or Apple calendars and prompts before meetings you marked recordable. No missed recordings.

Zoom, Meet, Teams, in-person

Captured straight from your Mac — the call’s audio plus your mic, no virtual driver, no bot in the call.

Record now, or pick a file

⌘R for an instant recording, or Transcribe a file… for any common audio or video file. Same Markdown, same folder.

Clean transcript, not raw STT

An on-device LLM removes fillers, fixes broken sentences, and normalises punctuation — cloud-clean output, computed on your Mac.

Split by speaker

The call and your mic are captured on separate tracks, so the transcript breaks into clean speaker turns — a new block each time the speaker changes. Per-speaker labels are coming soon.

Multilingual transcription

Whisper large-v3 supports 99 languages, auto-detected per recording. Korean and English are tested daily.

vs the cloud tools

Where every other meeting tool taps out.

Every other meeting tool uploads your audio, hides notes in a format your AI can’t read, or charges you forever — usually all three.

Quietly Granola Otter Fireflies
Audio + transcript stay on your Mac (local) ✓ cloud — —
Clean transcript without the cloud (on-device LLM cleanup) ✓ cloud cloud cloud
Plain Markdown for Claude / Cursor / Codex (LLM-ready) ✓ encrypted DB — —
Buy once, keep forever (one-time) $49 once $14+/user/mo $17/mo $18/user/mo
No bot joins the call ✓ ✓ — —
MCP for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex CLI shipping next ✓ — —
Works fully offline ✓ — — —
What you keep if the company disappears Your .md files An encrypted SQLite blob An export window An export window

Pricing snapshot · May 2026. Quietly vs Granola · vs Otter · vs Clova Note · best local note takers for Mac

Pricing

Buy once. Keep it forever.

Every download starts a free 7-day trial — no account, no card, pay only if it fits. Then it’s one payment: no subscription, no per-meeting fees, no AI credits to top up. One year of free updates; the version you bought is yours for life.

Personal
$49$99
one-time · 2 Macs
Launch price · save $50
  • Pay once, yours forever — no subscription
  • Unlimited on-device transcription
  • Calendar-aware capture, transcribe any audio file
  • Up to 2 personal Macs
  • 1 year of free updates, email support
Download for Mac

Free 7-day trial · No account, no card

Team
Let’s talk
Multi-seat licensing for 5+ Macs
  • One license across your whole team
  • A single invoice — no per-seat subscription
  • Priority email support
Contact us

Try free for 7 days, buy in-app · Secure checkout via Lemon Squeezy · 7-day refund · VAT/GST handled

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Does anything leave my Mac?
Audio, transcripts, and meeting metadata stay on your Mac — period. Outbound traffic is limited to: one-time model downloads, app update checks, license activation and validation (your license key and a device label go to Lemon Squeezy — never meeting content), and Google Calendar polling if you opt in.
Can I record without a calendar event, or transcribe an existing file?
Yes. Hit ⌘R (or click Record now) for a manual recording — impromptu calls, voice memos, in-person chats. To transcribe an existing file, pick Transcribe a file… — any .wav, .mp3, .m4a, .flac, .aac, .ogg, .opus, .mp4, .mov, or .webm. Same Markdown note, same folder.
Does it work with Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Codex?
Today: notes are plain Markdown in a folder you choose, so anything that reads files (Claude Desktop's filesystem MCP, Cursor, Codex CLI, Raycast, your own scripts) sees them. Coming next: a built-in MCP server that exposes your meetings as a first-class tool to any MCP-aware client.
How does it capture Zoom, Meet, or Teams audio without a bot?
Straight from your Mac — no bot joins the call, no driver to install. Works with Zoom, Meet, Teams, and any other call that makes sound. The call's audio and your mic are captured on separate tracks, so the transcript is split into clean speaker turns. Per-speaker labels (full diarization) are coming soon. In-person meetings use just the mic. How to transcribe Zoom without a bot ›
Is local transcription as accurate as cloud tools?
Yes — that's the point. Quietly runs Whisper large-v3 on-device, then an on-device LLM cleans up the raw transcript: removing fillers and false starts, fixing broken sentences, normalising punctuation. The result reads as clean as a cloud service's, but nothing leaves your Mac — no API key needed.
What languages does transcription support?
Whisper large-v3 (plus smaller turbo/medium/small variants for speed). Language is auto-detected per recording. Korean and English are tested daily; the model itself supports 99 languages.
Can Quietly summarize my meetings?
Yes — with your own key. Quietly's built-in Chat connects to your Anthropic or OpenAI key (stored in the macOS Keychain, never sent to us) and answers questions, pulls action items, and drafts summaries — each answer cited to the exact transcript segment. And because every note is plain Markdown, you can always point ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or Codex at it yourself.
What does 'one-time license' actually mean?
You pay once. Your license is valid forever for the version you own, plus all updates released within 12 months of purchase. After 12 months you keep using your version, or buy an update license at a discount. No subscription, no recurring charges.
Can I use it offline?
Mostly yes. Transcription runs on-device, notes save to your local folder, and macOS Calendar reads from the local Calendar.app database. The exceptions: one-time model downloads, update checks, occasional license re-validation, and Google Calendar polling if you connect a Google account. More on private, offline transcription ›
Is there a free trial?
Yes — every download starts a free 7-day trial. No account, no credit card. If Quietly fits how you work, buy in-app ($49 once); if not, it simply stops — nothing to cancel.
Is there a refund policy?
7 days, no questions asked. If the app doesn't fit how you work, email us within 7 days of purchase for a full refund.
Will there be a Windows version?
macOS only for now — a Windows version is planned. Stay tuned.