Built for Every Mac
Chirp ships as a universal binary that runs natively on both Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3, M4) and Intel Macs. On Apple Silicon, Chirp uses Metal acceleration to deliver faster transcription through GPU-accelerated inference. Whether you're on the latest MacBook Pro or an older Intel iMac, Chirp works seamlessly.
System Requirements
- macOS 12 (Monterey) or later
- Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) or Intel 64-bit processor
- Approximately 95MB of disk space
- A working microphone (built-in or external)
Installation
Chirp is distributed as a .dmg installer. Download, open the disk image, and drag Chirp to your Applications folder. On first launch, macOS will ask you to grant two permissions:
- Microphone access — Required so Chirp can hear your voice. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone and enable Chirp.
- Accessibility access — Required for the auto-paste feature, which simulates a paste action to insert transcribed text into any app. Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and enable Chirp.
Both permissions can be granted from the prompts that appear on first launch, or configured manually in System Settings.
The Fn Key
On Mac, Chirp uses the Fn key as the default global hotkey. Press Fn to start recording, speak your text, and press Fn again (or release it) to stop. The transcribed text is automatically pasted into whatever application has focus. The hotkey is fully customizable in Chirp's preferences.
Menu Bar Integration
Chirp lives in your Mac's menu bar (system tray). A small icon shows the current state — idle, recording, or processing. Click the icon to access your transcription history, preferences, and more. You can configure Chirp to run in tray-only mode, keeping it out of your Dock entirely.
Launch at Login
Enable “Launch at Login” in Chirp's settings to have it start automatically when you log in to your Mac. It launches quietly into the menu bar, ready whenever you need it.
Metal Acceleration
On Apple Silicon Macs, Chirp takes advantage of Metal — Apple's GPU framework — to accelerate the whisper.cpp inference engine. This means faster transcription times and lower CPU usage compared to CPU-only processing. Intel Macs use optimized CPU inference and still deliver fast results.
Features
- 100% offline — all processing happens on your Mac
- Auto-paste into any application
- Live streaming transcription
- Searchable transcription history (SQLite)
- CSV export
- 3 themes: Light, Dark, and Vampire
- 13+ customizable settings
- Sound feedback for recording state
- ~30MB AI model (ggml-tiny.en-q5_0)
Current Version
The latest macOS version is 4.7.4. See the changelog for details on recent updates.
Pricing
Chirp comes with 28 free transcriptions — no account required. Unlimited use is $9.99 per year.