An indie Mac app · One-time purchase

The AI meeting note taker
that never uploads your audio.

Quietly records and transcribes on your Mac, with no bot in the call. You get plain Markdown notes that Claude, Cursor, and Codex can read. $49 once, no subscription.

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 on your Mac, get a clean transcript, ask your own AI about it. No bot joins the call.
Speaker labels in the demo are illustrative. Today Quietly splits the transcript into speaker turns; per-speaker labels (diarization) are coming soon.
How it works

Connect a calendar, tap record, find the note in your folder.

01

It reads your calendar.

Connect a Google or iCloud calendar. Quietly watches for the events you mark recordable and ignores the rest.

02

It asks before it records.

A small prompt appears when a meeting starts. Tap to record, or skip it. When the meeting ends, choose to extend the recording or stop and transcribe.

03

The note lands in your folder.

A clean Markdown note saves to the folder you chose. Cursor reads it, Claude Code greps it, Raycast finds it. Your meetings turn into context your tools can use.

Why local matters

Built for meetings under NDA.

Legal calls, M&A, hiring debriefs, client work under NDA: a cloud notetaker can’t go in those rooms. Quietly can, because the audio, the transcript, and the notes all stay on your Mac.

No cloud upload, ever

Quietly captures audio to a temp file on your Mac, transcribes it in the same process, and deletes it unless you choose to keep it.

Transcription runs on-device

Whisper transcription, speaker turns, and LLM cleanup all run on your Mac. No API key, no inference bill.

You own the file

Notes save as plain Markdown to a folder you pick. There is no proprietary database and nothing to export.

Nothing else leaves

The app only goes online for model downloads, update checks, license validation, and Google Calendar sync if you turn it on. Audio and transcripts stay put.

Works with your AI stack

Already wired into the tools you use.

Notes are plain Markdown in a folder you choose, so any tool that reads files or speaks MCP can see them. You don’t wait for an integration.

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. Nothing locks you in.

via folder

Raycast / Alfred

Search every meeting from your launcher. They’re .md files, so indexers pick them up without any setup.

via folder

For summaries inside the app, Quietly’s built-in Chat uses your own Anthropic or OpenAI key and cites each answer 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.

Feed your standups and customer calls to 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 ›
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

Quietly captures the call’s audio and your mic straight from your Mac. 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.

A transcript that reads clean

An on-device LLM removes fillers, fixes broken sentences, and normalises punctuation. The result reads like a cloud service’s transcript, computed on your Mac.

Split by speaker

Quietly captures the call and your mic on separate tracks, so the transcript breaks into speaker turns with 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

How Quietly compares to the cloud tools.

Most meeting tools upload your audio, keep notes in a format your AI can’t read, or bill you every month. Many do 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

Pay once. No subscription.

Every download starts a free 7-day trial with no account and no card. If Quietly fits, you pay once. There are no per-meeting fees and no AI credits to top up. You get a year of free updates, and the version you bought keeps working after that.

Personal
$49$99
one-time · 2 Macs
Launch price · save $50
  • Pay once, 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. The app goes online for four things: one-time model downloads, 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 connect a Google account.
Can I record without a calendar event, or transcribe an existing file?
Yes. Press ⌘R or click Record now for a manual recording of an impromptu call, a voice memo, or an in-person chat. To transcribe an existing file, pick Transcribe a file… and choose any .wav, .mp3, .m4a, .flac, .aac, .ogg, .opus, .mp4, .mov, or .webm. You get the same Markdown note in the same folder.
Does it work with Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Codex?
Yes. Notes are plain Markdown in a folder you choose, so anything that reads files can use them today: Claude Desktop's filesystem MCP, Cursor, Codex CLI, Raycast, your own scripts. Next up is a built-in MCP server that exposes your meetings as a tool to any MCP-aware client.
How does it capture Zoom, Meet, or Teams audio without a bot?
Quietly records the call's audio straight from your Mac. No bot joins, and there is no driver to install. It works with Zoom, Meet, Teams, and any other call that makes sound. The call and your mic land on separate tracks, so the transcript splits into speaker turns. Per-speaker labels (full diarization) are coming soon. In-person meetings use the mic alone. How to transcribe Zoom without a bot ›
Is local transcription as accurate as cloud tools?
Yes. Quietly runs Whisper large-v3 on-device, then an on-device LLM cleans up the raw transcript: it removes fillers and false starts, fixes broken sentences, and normalises punctuation. The result reads as clean as a cloud service's, and nothing leaves your Mac. You don't need an API key for this.
What languages does transcription support?
Quietly ships Whisper large-v3, plus smaller turbo, medium, and small variants when you want speed. It detects the language per recording. We test Korean and English daily; the model 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 and never sent to us. It answers questions, pulls action items, and drafts summaries, and it cites each answer to the exact transcript segment. Since every note is plain Markdown, you can also point ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, or Codex at it yourself.
What does 'one-time license' mean?
You pay once. Your license covers the version you own for as long as you want it, 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. There is no subscription and no recurring charge.
Can I use it offline?
Mostly, yes. Transcription runs on-device, notes save to your local folder, and Apple Calendar events come from the local Calendar.app database. The app needs a connection for 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 with no account and no credit card. If Quietly fits how you work, buy it in-app for $49 once. If not, the trial ends on its own and there is nothing to cancel.
Is there a refund policy?
Yes: 7 days, no questions asked. If the app doesn't fit how you work, email us within 7 days of purchase and we refund the full amount.
Will there be a Windows version?
Quietly runs on macOS only for now. A Windows version is on the roadmap.